Date of Award
1-1-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Anthropology
First Advisor
Carolyn Freiwald
Second Advisor
Lexi O'Donnell
Third Advisor
Kate Centellas
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
Maya of the Classic period (300-900 AD) were inhabitants of the coastal island of Ambergris Caye, Belize (Guderjan, 2007). The individuals of this island have been explored through other research, however, one sub-population on the island that has yet to be explored in depth is that of childhood. Children play an integral role in society but are often overlooked as active members based upon the modern cultural norms of childhood, as well as the perceived difficulty of identifying children´s activities in the archaeological record (Ardren, 2015; Ardren & Hutson, 2006; Danforth, 1989; Storey, 1992; Wright, 1997). My research aims to better understand the lives of Maya children by studying the age at death using dental development and diaphyseal long bone length of the 24 subadults buried at three small coastal sites on Ambergris Caye, Belize: San Juan, Chac Balam, and Ek Luum.
Age estimates were estimated from the dentition using the London atlas (AlQahtani et al., 2010) and long bone diaphyseal length for Maya subadults (Danforth et al. 2009). The new age estimates for eight infants, six children, and one adolescent from Chac Balam, San Juan, and Ek Luum on Ambergris Caye show a minimal difference when compared to initial age estimates by Glassman (1995). Overall, dental age estimates ranges stayed consistent of within two years or six months (for infants) for both Glassman’s (1995) and my own results. Using the median of results, my analysis using AlQahtani et al. (2010) and Danforth et al. (2009) altered nine age estimates by half a year or more and left ten within the same age groups.
In conclusion, this research reinforces the idea that many factors play a role into an individual’s development and also their age at death. The high number of subadult individuals represented at the site, 50% of the total sample population, is unusual. While status, nutrition, health, and environment all play a role in age at death, there may be other variables that are not yet visible.
Recommended Citation
Wicox, Nikki Anne, "Classic Maya Subadult Age Estimates from Ambergris Caye, Belize" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2732.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/2732