The Carnegie Maya III: Carnegie Institution of Washington Notes on Middle American Archaeology and Ethnology, 1940-1957

41. Notes on Vertebrate Animal Remains from Mayap

539 The collections of animal bones discussed in this paper come from four seasons (1952–1955) or archaeo­ logical excavations at the ancient Maya city of Maya­ pán in Yucatán, Mexico. Short accounts of this work have appeared in Carnegie Institution Year Books nos. 51–54 (1952–1955), under the sections dealing with the Department of Archaeology, and in previ­ ous Current Reports. Final results of this program of archaeological researches will be brought out in monograph form over the next few years. The pre­Columbian ruins of Mayapán are located in northern Yucatán, approximately 75 km from the north coast and 100 km from the west coast of the peninsula. For the most part the ruins presum­ ably date from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries of the Christian era, and the skeletal remains may consequently be expected to represent the present­ day fauna of the region. It should be noted that remains of man are excluded from consideration in this paper. Although several people have contributed to the identification of the skeletal remains, final responsi­ bility rests with C. E. Ray. Not only has Ray made the original identification of by far the greater part of the material, but also he has re­examined all previ­ ously identified specimens, making a few changes. These changes, which are not important to the pres­ ent paper, will be noted in a check list to be pub­ lished by him. More than 2,600 identifications were made on mammals, more than 1,100 on birds, over 2,200 on reptiles, 28 on amphibians, and 155 on fish; a total well above 6,000. A detailed listing of these identi­ fications will remain in the files of this Department and in the archives of the library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University. A con­ siderable portion of the collections, moreover, will be preserved in that museum. The disposition of the material, museum numbers, and further comments will appear in the forthcoming check list. C u r r e n t R e p o r t s Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Archaeology No. 41 August 1957 Notes on Vertebrate Animal Remains from Ma yapán H.E.D. Pollock anD clayton E. Ray H.E.D. Pollock anD clayton E. Ray 540 Identifiable bones, excluding artifacts, come from 145 lots of material, well distributed over Mayapán. The inclusion of artifacts of identifiable bone raises the total to 172. Remains from civic and religious buildings, from elaborate and simple dwellings, and from natural sinks are present. The bones are chiefly from maddens, construction fill of buildings, tombs, casts, simple burials, and depos­ its of mixed origin; a few, we assume, accumulated from natural causes. Whereas the great majority of the specimens presumably date from the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, there is undoubt­ edly some admixture of earlier and later remains. In spite of the seemingly widespread and repre­ sentative nature of our sample, analysis shows that 90 percent of our specimens come from in or around the ceremonial center of the city. This concentration is due to the intensive excavation in that area and to the fact that our 4 largest lots or groups of lots from single locations, which account for nearly 84 percent of all material, come from there. Conversely, it is due to the paucity of material from our widely scattered excavations in dwelling­type structures throughout the rest of the city. All this simply means, we think, that our sample is heavily weighted on the side of animals used or consumed by the aristocracy and priesthood as against those consumed by the plebe­ ian population. As was just noted, four lots or groups of lots from single locations together yielded by far the mayor part of our sample. Constituting the most informative collections we have, as far as the food habits of the ancient inhabitants of Mayapán are concerned, they are tabulated below as to the total number of bones and minimum number of individ­ uals. Incidentally, the check list to be published by Ray will include minimum numbers of individuals as determined from our entire body of material from Mayapán. In the present paper minimum numbers, where given, are determined on the basis of single lots or groups of lots from a single location. The minimum number of individuals of any animal rep­ resented in a collection is determined by the count of some recognizably distinctive...