Afterlife Cycles, Cosmology, and Social Integration

Burial Practices in the Lower Ulúa Valley

Bibliographic Data

ID6033859
AuthorsJeanne Lopiparo (0009-0009-1559-7149, Rhodes College), R A Joyce (0000-0001-8064-1454, University of California, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume36
Issue1
Pages30-55
Publication date2025-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAncient Mesoamerica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0956-5361 • E-ISSN: 1469-1787
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0956536125000021
OpenAlexW4408203916
LanguageEN
References cited31

We present a synthesis of treatment of the dead from before 700 b.c. to the fifteenth century a.d. in the lower Ulúa River Valley of northern Honduras. Building on evidence of burial alignments to a prominent mountain first identified for the Classic period, we argue that mortuary rituals served to integrate politically independent communities within a shared cosmological landscape. We identify alignment of burials toward the same mountain beginning in the Middle Formative period. At this time, a cycle of mortuary treatment resulted in bodies of some of the dead being commingled in shared secondary burial sites in caves, significant locations in the cosmological landscape. During the Classic period, secondary mortuary treatment continued, now performed within settlements again united by orientation to a shared cosmological landscape. The addition of solar alignments may be evidence of adoption by some families of Lowland Maya cosmological beliefs. This impression is solidified in Postclassic burial practices that align closely with those of specific Lowland Maya societies. We argue that the afterlife cycles through which the living interacted with the dead, in a tension between individualization and communal belonging, included strategies through which social relations, community histories, and ties among communities were created

Afterlife · Art · Astronomy · Cosmology · Geography · Literature · Physics · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Geology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access