2025/06/09 by Melissa Burham, Juan Manuel Palomo, Flory Pinzón +2 · 1 voice
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.15184/aqy.2025.76
The recent identification of an outlying cemetery at the Maya ceremonial centre of Ceibal, Guatemala, is providing new insights into the Preceramic to Middle Preclassic transition in the Maya lowlands, c . 1000 BC. Identified within the Amoch Group complex and dating to c . 1100–800 BC, the use of a dedicated area for the dead is not previously documented in this region for this period. Here, the authors argue that the emergence and subsequent disappearance of this practice was likely interwoven with social change, involving the adoption of ceramics, increasingly sedentary lifeways and, ultimately, the creation of monumental ceremonial centres.