Burials, caches

Burials, caches

Synopsis of caches and burials

Caches and human burials are described in Appendix 10. During excavation, three caches were encountered within platform construction fill. Two caches consisted of a single inverted bowl, placed within the construction fill during construction. The third cache was a covered jar placed in a pit excavated into the floor of an existing platform. All the ceramics date to the Late or Terminal Classic, and two of the caches provide dating for the construction of Temple 8.

Five human burials were encountered during excavation. Burial 1 was not fully excavated and may have been greatly disturbed by root action and by bulldozers during highway construction. A Yuhactal Black-on-red bowl was found in association, and an inverted Muna Slate bowl was found in a cache nearby.

Burial 2 is of interest primarily because of two pathological conditions of the skullcap. (No skulls were found to have been deliberately deformed or trepanned.) Burial 3 consisted of small numbers of bone fragments recovered from a probable secondary context.

Burials 4 and 5 consisted of two adults, one female, buried extended in head-to-toe fashion at the same level of test pit 63 in the upper portion of earthen mound 4. Associated ceramics date these burials to the Early Postclassic.