The remains of some elite ancient Maya were buried at two different places far from each other, likely with a belief that the ritual would guide them to the underworld, a new study suggests.
Skeletons of Maya individuals buried in modern-day Belize are sometimes found buried in two different places, a practice that has left archaeologists perplexed.
At one such Maya burial site dating to the Classic period between 250 AD and 900 AD, researchers found 341 skeletal samples, relating to 107 individuals, of whom 24 had some of their teeth also buried at a cave 26km away.
It appeared that some elite Maya, whose remains were buried at a house in the Muklebal Tzul archaeological site, also had some of their teeth interred at the Bats’ub cave, miles away on the other side of the Maya mountains.
Also puzzling was a peculiar find at the Bats’ub cave.
Here, researchers found 226 teeth overall, of which 24 were from those buried at the Muklebal Tzul site.
The two dozen teeth were placed near the body of an adult female, whose head had been removed, and a vessel containing a single jade bead was placed in its stead.
Mandibles with no teeth, some loose teeth, and five cacao seeds were also found near her pelvis.
When scientists conducted genome analysis, they confirmed that the Maya woman was an ancestor of some of the elite individuals buried at the Plaza Tomb.
“This primary individual was a 4th degree ancestor to one of the lineages as well as other individuals interred in the elite tombs,” they wrote.
Researchers now suspect the burial of teeth from some of these elite Maya individuals in two separate places could be part of an “elaborate underworld funerary setting”.
Previous research has extensively documented the central role of caves and mountains as powerful religious landmarks in ancient Mesoamerica.
Over time, ancient Maya began to revere caves as places where the elite communicated with ancestral forces.
“By 1000 BC, rulers linked their legitimacy to a divine ability to mediate with deities responsible for health, fertility, and rainfall who inhabited a vast mythological watery underworld inside mountains, which were accessible through caves,” researchers wrote.
Elites of the Classical Period, in particular, claimed that they derived their supernatural authority from their ancestors, passing it down to their descendants, and forming powerful lineages.
In all these beliefs, caves became central to their claim to power as they were considered to be places where ancestors dwelled.
“Archaeologists have long inferred that people living in the Maya-speaking region buried their dead below the floors of their houses to maintain relationships with ancestors to legitimise the rights of the living to specific local resources,” researchers wrote.
“Elites further claimed descent from ancestors who dwelled in the underworld, thus additionally giving them exclusive rights to political and religious authority,” they explained.
Taking these factors into account, archaeologists suspect the choice of the elite buried in Muklebal Tzu (MKB) to have their teeth also interred at the Bats’ub cave (BS) may have been carefully made.
“There are many caves closer to MKB, and the physical journey to BS would have required a multi-day trek across 26.5km of extremely rugged terrain with jagged limestone hills and deep sinkholes,” researchers explained.
“The deliberate transfer of selected skeletal elements of lineage members to this distant cave suggests that BS held particular religious and political connotations for the MKB elites, especially as they related to their ancestors,” they wrote.
The findings reinforce the concept that a person’s burial location in the ancient Maya world reflected their status in life.
“Viewed as a portal to the underworld, BS may have offered MKB elites a place to position their ancestors, and by extension themselves, as mediators with the supernatural forces,” scientists concluded.
