Reconstructing Ancient Burials at Loma Don Genaro

This thesis reconstructs and analyzes a Classic period (AD 250-800) burial collection from the archaeological site of Loma Don Genaro in Oaxaca, Mexico. This research aims to address two main questions: 1.) What information about the burial collection is available through the archaeological archives? 2.) What does this information tell us about social organization during the Classic period at Loma Don Genaro? In order to address these questions, the following objectives were explored: to reconstruct ancient burials using archival material; to describe the burial demography across the site; to describe variation in grave goods; to relatively date and order the burials chronologically; to draw conclusions about social organization through patterns visible in the burial record. This project included bringing together existing archival records such as field drawings, burial record forms, lot forms, field maps, photographs, and field notes in order to reconstruct detailed burial records for 25 individuals. This recontextualization of the burial collection has made the data concerning each burial easily accessible, enabling further data to be gleaned from the remains. After creating a usable data management system for the burial collection and its associated records, the burials were analyzed. Analysis included: providing relative dates for the burials and chronologically ordering the burials using stratigraphic information; demographic analysis in order to identify the number adults, juveniles, males, and females in the collection, as well as the ages of each individual; analysis of burial position and orientation; analysis of the diversity of both the amount and type of grave goods (such as ceramic vessels, jade beads, figurines, and lithics) present in each burial. Several patterns relating to sex, age, and social status across the site were identified: there is an emphasis on adult burials with minimal children in the burial collection; the more elaborate burials reflecting a higher social status for the buried individuals were those with greater than ten ceramic vessels, had slab-lined burials, or were slab-lined and contained greater than ten vessels, and contained both male and female individuals. The data from this thesis provide an important snapshot of life during a key period of social change in ancient Mexico