Mortuary representations of the noble house A cross-cultural comparison between collective tombs of the ancient Maya and dynastic Europe

• Published in: Journal of social archaeology Vol. 4; no. 3; pp. 368 - 404
• Main Author: Weiss-Krejci, Estella
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2004
• Subjects: Archaeology; Burial; Cross-cultural analysis; History; Kinship; Maya; Mortuary customs; Nobility; Social anthropology; social anthropology; cross-cultural research; Maya archaeology; mortuary behaviour; collective burial; kinship; multiple tombs; noble houses; European history; Habsburg
• ISSN: 1469-6053; 1741-2951
• DOI: 10.1177/1469605304046422

Seventy years of archaeological research in the Maya area have brought to light a series of tombs and crypts that hold more than one individual. The patterns regarding age, completeness and articulation of skeletons and sequence of deposition in some of these tombs suggest different burial traditions. These traditions include the placing of sacrificial victims with a deceased tomb principal, sequential burial of family members, or reburial of curated or exhumed ancestral remains. In medieval and post-medieval Europe, collective tomb burial was also very common. The investigation of tomb formation in the Habsburg dynasty shows that similar patterns can result from mortality, mobility and territorial shifts in a noble house. Maya multiple tombs and crypts simply may have been the final resting-places for the deceased members of noble houses who were deposited and redeposited in both simultaneous and sequential fashion.