Dental Nonmetric Investigation of Population Dynamics at Mayapan

Abstract

This study investigates the internal population dynamics of the Postclassic regional Maya capital of Mayapan through biodistance analysis of dental nonmetric traits. Mayapan’s ancient population has drawn considerable scholarly interest, stoked by colonial accounts of the exploits of the site’s nobles, including migrations, wars, and uprisings. Recent discoveries of anomalous burials suggestive of acts of violence have raised hopes that physical traces of historical events may actually be recovered. Analyses of the human remains in these anomalous burials have demonstrated that some do in fact present evidence of perimortem violence and postmortem manipulation. Dental nonmetric analyses were performed to aid in the identification of elites and other groups that may have been the targets of violence, as well as to reconstruct broader aspects of the site’s population dynamics.