REGIONAL BIOARCHAEOLOGY ON THE SOUTHEASTERN BORDERLAND OF THE MAYA AREA:

MIGRATION AND WARFARE

 

Shintaro Suzuki (Okayama University)

 

Today, the Ancient Maya is not a mysterious concept. Archaeological research has revealed much of their mystic mask. There is now a rich corpus of scientific knowledge, including their political histories, writing systems, among others. However, some topics naturally still need more interventions. The Preclassic Southern Coast of Guatemala is one of them. Recent explorations in the region have been scarce, despite many important problems asked by prior works from the late 20th century. Modern intense cultivations have obstructed archaeologists. Our research was designed under this general perspective and consists of a systematic re-evaluation of human remains previously excavated during the 1970s – 1990s from several sites in the Preclassic Southern Coast. There is a surprisingly preserved but barely considered skeletal corpus. We have applied modern bioarchaeological approaches, like isotopic proveniencing, and are to offer a new perspective on the Preclassic period of the Guatemala Southern Coast. In this talk, we focus on especially migratory dynamics and warfare.

 

(Talk in Japanese)