By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): New research suggests that elite Maya families in southern Belize honoured their dead in a remarkable way, burying parts of the same relatives in two places miles apart.
The study focuses on Bats’ub Cave, high in the Maya Mountains, where a woman was laid to rest sometime between AD 250 and 402. Over the following centuries, people returned to her grave and left offerings of human teeth, more than 200 in all.
Using ancient DNA, researchers led by Esther Brielle and David Reich of Harvard University and Keith Prufer of the University of New Mexico traced many of those teeth to members of elite families whose remains were also found in tombs at Muklebal Tzul, a Classic period centre on the other side of the mountains.
The teeth came from at least 30 people. Of those, 24 also had remains in the Plaza Tomb at Muklebal Tzul, which is about 26.5 kilometres away. Crossing the rugged terrain would likely have taken more than a day.
The researchers say the practice appears to have been reserved for the powerful. A quarter of individuals from elite tombs had remains in more than one location, compared to none from non elite burials.
The findings were published as a preprint and have not yet been peer reviewed.
The post Ancient DNA reveals Maya elites were buried in two places in southern Belize appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): New research suggests that elite Maya families in southern Belize honoured their dead in a remarkable way, burying parts of the same relatives in two places miles apart. The study focuses on Bats’ub Cave, high in the Maya Mountains, where a woman was laid to rest sometime between AD
The post Ancient DNA reveals Maya elites were buried in two places in southern Belize appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
