Empowered by the Dead: The Bioarchaeology of Los Guachimontones (Jalisco, Mexico)

Abstract

This project examines mortuary contexts of the Late Formative and Classic period (c. 300 BCE to 500 CE) Los Guachimontones site in central Jalisco, Mexico. Los Guachimontones was the largest site of the Teuchitlán culture of West Mexico, a culture characterized by circular pyramid complexes, shaft tombs, and expressive burial figurines, but sharing cultural and cosmological traits with greater Mesoamerica. The Late Formative and Classic periods brought increased social complexity for Teuchitlán, including a centralized site hierarchy and construction of monumental architecture. Using a bioarchaeological approach, the osteological remains of Los Guachimontones were inventoried and analyzed for skeletal markers indicative of age, sex, pathologies, and post-mortem treatment. These were contextualized using burial descriptions from excavation reports. Monumental and residential contexts were compared to determine whether monumental burials were most consistent with ancestor veneration, ceremonial offerings, or attritional burial. Spiritually significant identities (e.g. congenital disabilities and the earliest identified Xoloitzucuintle dog), healed injuries, nutritional deficiency, and destructive post-mortem treatment indicated that the monumental burials were ceremonial offerings, likely of war captives sacrificed during monumental construction and seasonal ritual. Site leaders would have legitimized their power during these events through spiritual propitiation, displays of wealth and power, and necropolitics - command over death itself.