In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Turey Treasure in the Caribbean / 121 At El Chorro de Maíta, over half of the 106 burials exhibit some degree of flexed lower extremities (this excludes the 14 extended examples and 33 cases in which the position of the legs could not be determined due to deterioration or alteration of the remains (Guarch 1996:18, Table 2). The lone prone burial (No. 97) does not fit the Christian norm. In two of the remaining extended burial cases all of the characteristics of Christian burials are present; 10 examples comply with two or three Christian practices. In 6 of these burials, all laid out with hands crossed over chests or abdomens, brass was present. This consistent pattern establishes a clear relationship between the extended position and European influence. The discovery of brass in almost half of the extended burials provides a cultural and chronological reference that confirms Guarch’s original interpretation and complements a picture in which, in addition to incorporating foreign materials, the local communities were abandoning established cultural traditions in favor of new funerary practices. Spatially, the extended position burials marked by the presence of brass artifacts are concentrated in the central part of the cemetery, where the tentatively identified European skull also was found. This spatial link suggests some degree of temporal proximity among the burials and indicates, above all, an interconnection among these individuals that expresses, without excluding other motivations, the genesis of a shared process: changes in local culture determined by interaction with Europeans.3 The confirmation of the relationship between extended burial position and European influences increases the number of inhumations that clearly post-date the arrival of the Spaniards. If we consider all of the extended burials without brass, but with two or more elements of the Christian burial pattern (there are 6 of these), and add them to those with brass (17), we have a total of 23 post-Columbian burials . This does not exclude the possiblilty that many of the nonextended burials lacking brass are also post-Columbian. Although we lack a full chronology for the cemetery, the large number of deceased could be related as much to a long period of use after European arrival as to a post-Columbian increase in use in the location , or an increase in mortality during this period. The presumed pre-Columbian origin of the cemetery was based on the dates from burial No. 25 and the carbon from Excavation Unit 5 (Valcárcel and Rodríguez 2005). The presence of brass with skeleton No. 25 highlights the problem with this assumption and forces us to evaluate with caution the relationship between the rest of the human remains in Unit 5 and the skeletons found in the central zone of the cemetery (Unit 3; see Figure 8.2). Moreover, if we consider the absence of cemeteries at known pre-Columbian indigenous agriculturalist sites in Cuba, and the ample number of burials post-dating the arrival of the Europeans, the notion of pre-Columbian origins for this cemetery requires further scrutiny. We are looking at either an indigenous burial ground transformed into a cemetery at the 122 / Valcárcel Rojas, Martinón-Torres, Cooper, and Rehren start of European contact, or even a cemetery that originated during the contact period. In this context of strong post-Columbian use with clear evidence of modifications to local funerary practices, the lack of cranial deformation may also be related to European influence. In a preliminary consideration of the burials containing undeformed skulls, we noted one individual (skeleton No. 45) with brass also buried in extended position. Cranial deformation functioned as an ethnic identi- fier associated with the beliefs, rituals, and aesthetics (Crespo 2000:227–230) of agricultural, ceramic-producing groups. At least in Cuba, the absence of cranial deformation in burials recovered at agriculturalist-ceramicist sites is rare. The high degree of change we see in these groups resulting from European pressures undoubtedly influenced this particular situation. Since the deformation process began in childhood, the practice may have been ended by indigenous peoples protecting children born after European arrival. However, sixteenthcentury documentary references to the prohibition of cranial deformation in Peru (Dingwall 1931:215) illustrate the conquistadors’ eagerness to modify the aspects of indigenous culture they saw as opposed to the canons of civilization and religion , including those related to the body. The adult with an undeformed skull— skeleton No. 45—was approximately 25–30 years old at time of...

Share