Isotopic insights into mortuary treatment and origin at Xunantunich, Belize

Burial practices can provide insight into the complex and multilayered identities of both individuals and communities. We explore one aspect of identity-an individual's origin-and the way that it was expressed in funerary treatment at Xunantunich in the Belize Valley. Strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope values in the tooth enamel of 19 individuals show that some individuals with nonlocal origins were buried in the same households, or even the same graves, as locally born individuals. In contrast, most individuals with Central Peten-like isotope values were placed in atypical burial positions and graves, including termination ritual contexts. We discuss the relationship between their origins and burial treatment in relation to major political changes that were occurring during Late and Terminal Classic periods in the Maya lowlands, and show that origin also was important in burial treatment in contemporaneous cultures elsewhere in the Americas.