Mortuary Practices and the Social Order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico

MORTUARY PRACrICES AND THE SOCIAL ORDER AT LA QUEMADA, ZACATECAS, MEXICO

Ben A. Nelson, J. Andrew Darling, and David A. Kice

Epiclassic occupants of the site of La Quemada left the disarticulated remains of 11-14 humans in an apparently sacred structure outside the monumental core of the site. Several lines of evidence are reviewed to generate propositions about the ritual meanings andfunctions of the bones. A comparative analysis reveals the complexity of mortuary practices in northern and western Mexico, and permits the suggestion that these particular remains were those of revered ancestors or community members. The sacred structure is seen as a charnel house, in which the more ancient tradition of ancestor worship expressed in shaft tombs was essentially perpetuated above ground. Hostile social relations are clearly suggested, however, by other categories of bone deposits. Recognition of the rich variability of mortuary displays leads to questions about their role in the maintenance of the social order.

Los grupos que ocuparon el sitio de La Quemada durante el perfodo Epiclasico dejaron tras de sf los restos desarticulados de once a catorce individuos en un templo ubicado fuera del nucleo monumental del sitio. En este trabajo se revisan varias clases de evidencia a fin de proponer una hipotesis acerca del significado y funcion rituales de los huesos. Un analisis comparativo revela la compleVidad de las costumbres funerarias del norte y el oeste de Mexico, y permite sugerir que los restos humanos en cuestion eran los de miembros venerados de la comunidad. El templo se considera como una estructura en la cual la antigua tradicion de veneracion de los antepasados, inicialmente manifestada en el Preclasico en las tumbas de tiro, fue perpetuada en una forma evolucionada. Sin embargo, otras categorfas de depositos oseos sugieren claramente la existencia de relaciones hostiles entre los habitantes del sitio. El reconocimiento de la rica variabilidad de despliegues mortuorios abre las puertas para la investigacion de su funcion en el mantenimiento del orden social.

In this paper we describe a deposit of human bone found on the floor of a large structure on Terrace 18 of La Quemada, a mainly Epiclassic (A.D.600-900) site in Zacatecas, Mexico. Integration of ethnohistorical, archaeological, and osteological evidence allows us to consider alternative in- terpretations of the bone deposit: (1) that the bones represent the processing of the corpses of slain enemies; (2) that the bones belonged to sacrificial victims, either captives or selected members of the local community; and (3) that the bones are those of revered community members, whose memory was honored by preserving their remains in a charnel structure.

The evidence here appears most consistent with charnel treatment; up to six distinct burial practices are discernible in the totality of evidence from La Quemada, its hinterland, and neighboring areas. We question the assertion (Kelley 1978: 119; Piojan and Mansilla 1990:467; Weigand 1982: 91-92) that the bones of La Quemada represent a final catastrophic episode. Patterns of regional mortuary variability permit the alternative suggestion that mortuary displays functioned continu- ously to symbolize the sociopolitical order within and among frontier polities. The variety of practices reveals the presence of a range of ongoing mortuary programs, some of which probably expressed fundamentally different relationships between the living and the dead. In view of the abundance of skeletal remains in the patio complexes that make up La Quemada and other sites, it appears that northern centers such as La Quemada may have been dedicated largely to feasts, ball games, and mortuary ritual.

Ben A. Nelson, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, 380 M.F.A.C., BuJ%alo, NY 14261 J. Andrew Darling, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079 David A. Kice, P-III Associates, Inc., 2212 South West Temple, Suite 21, Salt Lake City, UT 84115-2645

Latin American Antiquity, 3(4), 1992, pp. 298-315. Copyright t 1992 by the Society for American Archaeology

298

[Nelson et al.] MORTUARY PRACTICES AND THE SOCIAL ORDER AT LA QUEMADA 299

GULF

OF

MEXICO

PACIFIC OCEAN

Figure 1. Location of La Quemada in the state of Zacatecas, northwestern Mexico.

CONTEXT

La Quemada, located on the northern frontier or periphery of Mesoamerica, is an imposing settlement occupying a small, central mountain in the Malpaso Valley of central Zacatecas (Figure 1). The site has been characterized as a Toltec outpost (Diehl 1976, 1983; Weigand 1977; Weigand et al. 1977), although that view has recently been questioned (Hers 1989; Jimenez Betts 1989a; Nelson 1990; Prem 1990; Trombold 1990). The site is also known for its road system, which links La Quemada to many of the approximately 220 sites in the valley recorded by Trombold (1976, 1978, 1982, 1985a, 1985b). Whether one argues from settlement size or from the road system, it is clear that La Quemada was the central place in a regional system of sociopolitical integration.

Despite the long recognition of La Quemada's importance as a frontier site, little is known about its internal organization or that of the polity that it presumably integrated. Recent work has been designed to help define local organization using previously proposed models as points of departure. Conceptions of the site's role have included that of garrison (Coe 1962; Kelley 1971), castle of a feudal manor (Armillas 1964), trading outpost erected under foreign sponsorship (Weigand 1977), and densely populated administrative center (Nelson 1990). Our excavations have concentrated on

LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 3, No. 4, 1992 300

X fS a\\

Figure 2. Plan view of La Quemada. Topographic contours after Plano Sotometrico de la Ciudadela La Quemada version Armillas-Weigand (Weigand 1964). Contour interval 10 m.

the western flank of the site, which is covered by a series of patio-banquette complexes built on artificial terraces (Figure 2). Terrace 18 is the largest of those, and consists of a large sunken patio and a surrounding banquette that was partially covered by structures on the east, west, and south sides (Figure 3). Some of the structures had multiple rooms with interior patios of their own.

Several lines of evidence initially suggested to us that the patio complex on Terrace 18 was an elite residence, possibly belonging to some category of minor nobles (Nelson 1990). As we excavate more, we are becoming increasingly impressed with the ceremonial dimensions of the architecture

MORTUARY PRACTICES AND THE SOCIAL ORDER AT LA QUEMADA 301

Nelson et al.]

a 2 <t ti$ < 0 5m

1 \ <__ Temple Structure <

Figure 3. Plan view of Terrace 18 at La Quemada.

and the remains recovered. In the present discussion we concentrate on the "temple" on the west side of the patio, but there was also a central ball court, two platforms or possible pyramids that may have supported structures, and a causeway that entered the patio complex from the west, passed along the north edge of the patio, and was connected to the monumental core of the site by means of a grand staircase. A separate article is planned to describe the architectural complex on Terrace 18 in greater detail; here the focus is on the mortuary remains and their immediate context.

The temple on Terrace 18 is firmly dated between A.D. 600 and 900 on the basis of radiocarbon dates from the temple itself as well as from surrounding deposits. In particular, a sample from the southernmost support post of the temple yielded a radiocarbon age of 1,350 + years B.P. (Beta- 44793), with a calibrated age range of cal A.D. 604-776 (p = 1.00). A second sample from the northern post-installed when the structure was remodeled-gave a radiocarbon age of 1,210 + 50 years B.P. (Beta-44792). This date calibrates to cal A.D.679-898 (p = .96); both dates were calibrated at 2a with the program CALIB 2.0 (Stuiver and Reimer 1986). These dates essentially bracket the main cluster of newly obtained dates from the structures and middens excavated on the western flank of the site, which are the subject of another article in preparation.

Even before making reference to other archaeological sites or ethnographic cases, we can cite several reasons for using the terms "ceremonial" and "temple" in reference to this structure. First, its morphology-unusually large size and broad opening onto the patio-are suggestive of a public or quasi-public orientation. Second, its placement on the west side of the patio replicates a pattern seen in patio-banquette complexes in the monumental core of the site, where even larger rooms of similar form open onto the east or (more often) west sides of several patios. The outstanding example is the Hall of Columns, which is a large ceremonial structure on the first level of the core of the site. Third, we have observed that the shape of the structure was maintained during a major renovation of the whole patio-banquette complex, in which both the patio and the temple itself were expanded. We learned this through dissection of seven successive floors of the structure in conjunction with deep testing in the patio. The ancient inhabitants were obviously committed to maintaining the placement and shape of the structure during such extensive renovation; that com-

302 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 3, No. 4, 1992

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Figure 4. Floor of temple with bone concentrations and artifacts in situ.

mitment suggests to us that the structure was symbolically important. Millon (1974) and Joyce (1991) observe the presence of such dominant or principal structures in patio complexes elsewhere in Mesoamerica and suggest that they may have been focal points for ritual enacted by domestic groups.

The fourth indication of sacred or special rites is the contents of the structure, especially the human bone. The uppermost floor, as well as those that underlay it, were largely devoid of whole artifacts. However, a cache of four manos was found in the fill above the floor at the south end of the room; a cache of five mano-like polishing stones was above the floor in the north end. A tripod vessel, incised with a zoomorphic motif, also rested in the fill. Many sherds of a crushed plainware vessel were on the floor. The rest of the room contents were unremarkable except for the human bone.

HUMAN REMAINS

Approximately 100 pieces of human bone were found in three separate concentrations representing a total of 14 individuals. This count assumes that the bones of each individual came to rest in only one of the three bone concentrations; if this assumption is not made, as few as 1 1 individuals may be inferred. Five individuals were represented in Concentration A, three in Concentration B, and six in Concentration C (Figures 4-6, Tables 1 and 2). One of the individuals was a juvenile; the remainder of those of determinable age were adults. The one whose sex was identifiable was male; there were no definite females, and most were of indeterminate sex. The bone concentrations were dominated by bones of the upper and lower limbs; also found were skull fragments, mandibles, scapulae, ribs, and hip bones (Table 1). The bones of the vertebral column, hands, and feet were

. . .

conslstently mlsslng.

These deposits were not below-ground burials made after the room was abandoned, but were intentionally placed upon or suspended above the floor while the room was in use. All of the bone was resting directly on the floor, or lying on top of other bone that was on the floor. The elements

MORTUARY PRACTICES AND THE SOCIAL ORDER AT LA QUEMADA 303 Nelson et al.]

Figure 5. Enlargements of bone concentrations on floor of temple.

were not in anatomically correct (articulated) position; many of the bones were arranged in groups of like elements-upper limb bones with upper limb bones, lower limb bones with lower limb bones-lying roughly parallel to one another on the floor. The original patterning had apparently become jumbled somewhat, either because the bones fell from above or were partially redistributed when water was trapped in the room after abandonment. No other evidence of water filling was observed, nor was there any vertical mixing with the collapsed walls, roof, or fill of the room, which would be expected if the bones had not been in uniform contact with the floor before the roof and walls collapsed.

Behaviors that could logically account for such patterning might include the processing of enemy

Figure 6. View of Bone Concentration A, looking south.

Concentration

Element A B C

Cranium 4 o 3 Mandible 2 0 0 Scapula 2 0 2 Clavicle 2 1 0 Rib 4+ 0 6+ Humerus 5 5 7 Radius 5 2 3 Ulna 7 1 5 Misc. arm 7 0 0 Hip bone 2 0 1 Femur 8 0 9 Tibia 2 0 8 Fibula 3 ° 3

Total 53 9 47

Note: Total minimum number of individuals is 14.

Concentration

Age Grade A B C

Adult 4 3 6 Juvenile 1 0 0

LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY 304 [Vol. 3, No. 4, 1992

Table 1. Skeletal Remains by Anatomical Element.

corpses after battle, sacrificial rites involving either enemies or community members, cannibalistic feasting, and charnel treatment, presumably of revered ancestors or community members.

The first three possibilities could involve dismemberment and defleshing at or near the time of death. The bones were examined carefully, particularly at the articular ends, for evidence of cutting during dismemberment or defleshing. The crania were also examined for evidence of perforation. No evidence of any such perimortem trauma or processing was found. The soft tissues apparently were allowed to decay naturally over a period of time following death. The bones were then disarticulated, grouped in like elements, and possibly bundled (some groups of long bones lay almost perfectly parallel and close together). Finally, the bones were placed on or suspended above the temple floor. Suspension is plausible in some cases because the bones lay in a splayed pattern, like pick-up sticks, as if a bundle had fallen from a height.

Dismemberment at the time of death under most circumstances would have left some cut marks on the bone (see Pijoan and Mansilla [ 1 990:Figure 1 ] for an example from the Hall of Columns at La Quemada). Complete disarticulation of recently killed individuals involves cutting or rending of the ligament attachments of every bone. Such cutting, like butchering, would invariably leave some cut marks at the anatomical-attachment sites of those ligaments. The most likely sites for such marks would be the greater and lesser trochanters of the femur and the greater tubercle and medial epicondyle of the humerus. These marks commonly occur in groups, commonly two or more pairs of parallel cuts (Marshall 1989). These areas were carefully scrutinized, and no such cut marks were seen on any of the bone from the Terrace 18 temple.

If the bones were those of enemies slain in battle, as opposed to sacrificial victims, we could expect some proportion of the individuals to show evidence of violent death in the form of perimortem trauma not associated with dismemberment. The ideal test of this expectation would be to compare the frequencies of trauma on bone from the temple to that of an ordinary residential burial

Table 2. Age Distribution.

Nelson et al.] MORTUARY PRACTICES AND THE SOCIAL ORDER AT LA QUEMADA 305

population. Lacking such a data set for the present, we can only note that the absence of trauma,

although not definitive, lends weight to the inference that the deceased individuals did not lose their

lives in battle. The discovery of disarticulated human remains always brings up the possibility of the presence

of cannibalism. However, the resemblance of these remains to bone assemblages that are suggested

to represent incidents of cannibalism ends with the disarticulation. They do not meet Turner's (1983; Turner and Morris 1970; see also White 1991) explicit criteria for establishing the presence

of cannibalism from skeletal remains: evidence of traumatic death; bone crushed, splintered, and

fractured while still vital; evidence of dismemberment; burning and cracking; and bones cut to

lengths appropriate for cooking. The osteological evidence is perhaps more consistent with an alternative view, which is that,

among other things, the temple served as a charnel house in which the bones of revered ancestors

or community members were preserved. The possibility that the structure also had other uses must

be considered because of the presence of manos, polishing stones, and ceramic vessels. Roughly following O'Shea (1984:37), we define charnel structures as buildings or tombs used for accumulating the remains of the dead, often in a multistaged program of disposal that may include a protracted period of primary "interment," which does not always imply below-ground deposition. The primary period is followed by the collection or exhumation of the remains, sometimes further processing, and eventually their burial or reburial. Although ethnographic descriptions of charnel behavior are

rare in Mesoamerica, Weigand and Weigand (1991:56-66) discuss the mummification and display

of dead leaders, apparently in "ancestor houses," among the Huichol, only about 150 km west of

La Quemada. Other examples from Central and North America range from Panama (Helms 1979:

9, 17), to the Northwest Coast (Drucker 1955:175-176), to Huronia (Heidenreich 1978:374-375), and the southeastern United States from Virginia to the tip of Florida (Swanton 1946:722-726).

The absence of vertebrae, hands, and feet strongly suggests protracted primary treatment, i.e., a

period of time following death during which the soft tissues decomposed naturally. These bones are

frequently overlooked or intentionally set aside in the process of bundling and moving bone, owing

to their small size. Vertebrae are often missing from such burials because of the strong ligament

attachments holding them together, which do not decay as rapidly as other soft tissues, and prevent the disarticulation of these elements. The presence of whole ribs among the bundles, however, indicates that the primary period was long enough to allow for the decay of the cartilaginous

attachments of the rib cage, which can decay more rapidly than ligamentous tissue. Also consistent with charnel treatment is the complementarity of bone-element representation in

different contexts. The bones found in midden deposits offthe terraces are dominated by vertebrae, small hand and foot bones, and fibulae-elements that are either absent or occur in conspicuously low frequencies in the temple structure. Conversely, no crania have been found in the middens. This matched distribution may be the product of conscious choice; small elements were perhaps

discarded at the end of the primary interment period rather than being included in bundles kept in

the charnel structure. A protracted primary disposition is also supported by the fact that the recovered bone was quite

bleached and friable, a condition that is often the consequence of prolonged exposure (Flinn et al. 1976; Marshall 1989). However, longitudinal cracking, another consequence of extensive exposure

(Steele and Carlson 1989), was absent.

OTHER ARCHAEOLOGICAL CASES

These bones bear some resemblances to, but also exhibit important differences from, several skeletal samples from other settlements in Zacatecas and Durango, as well as from La Quemada itself. Comparing and contrasting the known bone deposits permits delineation of six categories of

burial practice: charnel structures, skull racks, bone piles, articulated but incomplete skeletons, partially disarticulated incomplete skeletons, and ordinary articulated burials.

In Epiclassic to Early Postclassic northwest Mexico, charnel behavior may be represented by an

additional example beyond that found in the Terrace 18 temple. The deposit with the most striking


similarities to the one described here was found in Alta Vista, Chalchihuites, about 150 km north- northwest of La Quemada. Kelley (1978:109) describes the bone from the Temple ofthe Skulls as an array of disarticulated skeletal material consisting of "some 21 crania, 14 mandibles, long bones (both arm and leg), follr innominate bones, and one vertebra." As in the Terrace 18 temple, hands, feet, vertebrae, and ribs were virtually absent. The bone was resting on the floor in concentrations, one along a wall and in a corner and the other, in the interior of the room, forming a semicircle. The crania and mandibles all appeared to belong to males, with one possible exception, and to be of adult or juvenile age. In contrast to Terrace 18, cut marks were abundant, and most if not all of the skulls had holes about 7-8 mm in diameter drilled at the apex.

It is not just the bone from the Temple of the Skulls, but the bone together with its architectural context that begs comparison with the recent findings in the temple on Terrace 18 at La Quemada. The buildings in which the bones were found were very similar: relatively large (although not colossal), facing onto a main sunken patio, thick walled, and apparently covered with a high-pitched roof. In both cases the roof was supported by two massive posts; a large central hearth was offset from the axis formed by the posts. No other structure of this pitched-roof construction style has been found at Alta Vista (Kelley 1978), nor at La Quemada, although the sample there is too small to permit generalization. The repetition of these unique patterns of architecture and bone deposition suggests shared customs and rituals. Yet the lack of correspondence in regard to cut marks and cranial perforations raises questions about the degree of similarity of the mortuary practices.

One possible explanation for the discrepancy in osteological patterning is that the two structures had different functions; the Temple of the Skulls may have been a trophy house for display of enemy remains rather than a charnel house as postulated for the Terrace 18 temple. However, it is also possible that both were charnel houses and that there were regional variations in the length of time considered appropriate for the body to decompose. The expression of disarticulation practices as cut marks on the bone should vary inversely with the length of the primary interment period. Bodies that had not completely decomposed would require cleaning, which would leave traces on the bone, whereas longer periods of decomposition would permit the disarticulation to occur without damaging the bone. Thus it might be possible to conclude that the Alta Vista case represents a group of individuals whose bodies were not permitted to decompose as long as those in the Terrace 18 temple.

The second major type of bone deposit is the skull rack, clear evidence of which is found at Alta Vista and Cerro del Huistle. At Alta Vista, two burned skull racks were found between the Pyramid of the Sun and the Temple of the Hearths (Kelley 1978). The racks were directly evidenced by burned vertical posts, horizontal members, and even bits of twine that apparently had been used to suspend the bones. The bones, which included humeri, femora, and perforated crania, were also burned. Another case of apparent skull racks comes from Cerro del Huistle, about 100 km northwest of La Quemada, where Marie-Areti Hers (1989:89-93) found six deposits of long bones and crania in the main patio and associated structures of a major architectural complex. The largest concentration had as many as 60 individuals. Nearly all who were identifiable were adult males; there was one adult female and one juvenile male. The bone concentrations were regularly associated with skull-rack features of posts, rock, and charcoal; some of the bones themselves also showed evidence of burning. Many of the skulls were perforated at the apex with a hole about 1 cm in diameter; about half exhibited cut marks.

A third kind of deposit is represented by the bone piles that have been found in several locations. During Cepeda's 1974 excavations (still unpublished) at La Quemada, J. Charles Kelley noted a massive deposit of broken and disarticulated human bone in the Hall of Columns (J. Charles Kelley, personal communication 1991). A few hundred individuals were probably represented. Kelley recalls seeing the floor of the Hall of Columns cleared and "a layer of such burned bones about 1.5 m in width along the inner walls," except along the wall with the doorway.

Moedano's unpublished 1947 excavations in the Hall of Columns likewise tumed up multiple secondary burials (Faulhaber 1960). It is unclear whether the bones were found above or below the floor; because there is no information on what was and was not excavated, it is difficult to tell whether this deposit is the same as the one later excavated by Cepeda. Pijoan and Mansilla (1990)


reexamined the bones themselves and report that they were principally long bones, representing adults of both sexes, and that the majority exhibit cut marks in the regions of muscle insertions or on the part of the diaphysis near the epiphysis.

A more definitive image of a bone pile is provided by Jimenez Betts (1989b), who recently excavated in a higher elevation of La Quemada outside of the Cuartel. There, a mass of skeletal material was shallowly buried at the foot of a small pyramid. The dominant elements were long bones and crania, but a cluster of smaller bones-phalanges, ribs, and vertebrae-was found at one end of the deposit (Jimenez Betts 1989b:Figure 4). Cut marks were observed on many of the long bones; some of the skulls were perforated. Christopher O'Neill (personal communication 1990) is currently preparing a detailed analysis of this skeletal collection, which represents more than 200 individuals.

There is also a mid-seventeenth-century account of bone piles being observed at E1 Teul de Gonzalez Ortega, a ridgetop center in the Tlaltenango Valley about 140 km south-southwest of La Quemada (Tello 1968:316). What appears to have been the same deposit was excavated about 100 years later by Tarayre (Amador 1943). Both references note that the bone piles were found in a large temple complex.

Pickering (1985) describes the many contexts in which "isolated bone" was found at Alta Vista, such as patio fill, banquette walkways, midden deposits at the bases of stairways, and in the fill of various structures. With one exception discussed below, these deposits were not intact bone piles, but they could have consisted of scattered materials from such piles that were redeposited by erosion or structural collapse. For example, it is possible that processed bones were cached on rooftops, in attic areas, or on shelves, awaiting use in ceremony.

Many of the isolated bones at Alta Vista exhibited cuts, the skulls frequently had perforations, and burning was widely evident. Pickering notes variation from one context to another in the dominant elements represented in this fragmentary bone. Most of the deposits appear similar to those of La Quemada, i.e., dominated by crania and long bones while one, found in excavation unit 1SE, seems to emphasize the complementary elements, i.e., scapulae, innominates, phalanges, and ribs. The pattern of anatomical-element representation in this deposit is reminiscent of that in the middens at La Quemada. The excavation unit at Alta Vista was a narrow trench inside a structure alongside the Hall of Columns. The structure, or at least the excavated part of it, may have served as a dumping location for discarded elements that were not to be used in displays.

A fourth type of deposit is the articulated but incomplete skeleton, as in Burials 2 and 10 at Alta Vista (Holien and Pickering 1978; Pickering 1985). Both ofthese burials were found in the Hall of Columns. The first was a virtually complete postcranial skeleton, fully articulated and buried with a relatively rich offering of four pseudo-cloisonne copas or goblets, a painted olla, a pseudo-cloisonne flute, and a large obsidian blade. This individual is sometimes referred to as the "Tezcatlipoca impersonator." The remains of the individual, identified as a male, were covered with a pile of skulls, apparently not including his own, and long bones. The juxtaposition of these two different patterns of mortuary treatment suggests that the bone piles and the articulated burials might represent very different practices in a single mortuary program. Burial 10 included a cranium, a few ribs, and vertebrae.

The fifth type of deposit, the partially disarticulated skeleton, is represented by Burial 12 in the Hall of Columns at Alta Vista. Here again the postcranial skeleton was virtually complete, but large parts of the body had apparently been pulled (not cut) apart, presumably after a period of decomposition. As described by Pickering ( 1 985 :298-299), "the bones of each arm and leg as well as the torso were articulated but they were not articulated with each other. The torso had been placed at the bottom of the pit and the other body parts were placed over it." These last two categones may be important in that they show how, despite all the evidence of decapitation and disarticulation, some individuals in ritual contexts were buried without their remains being cut and burned. It appears that within a mortuary milieu apparently centered on elaborate perimortem processing and ceremonial display, another special treatment was reserved for certain individuals. Binford (1971), Brown (1971), and Saxe (1971) argue that differential mortuary treatment symbolizes status differ-


ences recognized by the living. Although this position is somewhat simplistic, it is reasonable to question whether these apparently aberrant cases represented status positions different from those represented in the bone piles.

The sixth type of skeletal deposit is the ordinary articulated burial, found at sites outlying La Quemada and Alta Vista as well as at Cerro del Huistle. The general pattern seems to be flexed inhumation, apparently beneath the floors of structures or in platform fill (Faulhaber 1960; Hers 1989:92). It may be significant that among the burials from La Quemada and its satellites, ordinary inhumations have been found only in the satellite sites and secondary burials, with one exception, have been found only at La Quemada itself. This pattern would be consistent with a practice that reserved secondary burial for special categories of persons, such as elites, enemies, or both.

ETHNOHISTORIC MODELS

In considering the following accounts it is important to remember that the deposition of the Terrace 18 materials predates some of the observations by 900-1,000 years. In such a long interval, subtle or even profound transformations in mortuary symbolism and ritual might have occurred. We also must acknowledge that the Spaniards were prone to imprecision and exaggeration, and that native groups were generally wise enough to conceal practices that the Spaniards found particularly repulsive. Nonetheless, the ethnohistoric and ethnographic accounts provide an invaluable back- ground against which to frame hypotheses.

Several of the above archaeological cases have been treated as variations of the tzompantli (i.e., "skull rack") theme, as described by Duran (1971) at Tenochtitlan and Bernal Diaz del Castillo (1956) at Xocotlan (Hers 1989; Kelley 1978; Pijoan and Mansilla 1990). As is well known, the tzompantli tradition involved the ritual dismemberment of war and sacrificial victims and the display of their skulls, both in stacks and rows on the floors of plazas, and on wooden racks on which the skulls were suspended in rows. The skulls were skewered on slender poles like beads on a string; a single rack was made of many such horizontal poles supported by vertical posts.

Some of the skeletal patterning at sites on the northern periphery is congruent with the ethnoh- istorically described tzompantli practices, with some discrepancies. The differences, which seem minor in comparison to the similarity in underlying structure, are probably related to significant regional variations in symbolism and ritual practice. As discussed above, the evidence for the use of skull racks is unequivocal at Alta Vista and Cerro del Huistle. There was a difference in the means of attaching the skulls to the skull-rack poles; in central Mexico the skull was pierced in the temporal region and the pole ran directly through the cranium, while in the north the custom was to make a perforation at the apex and suspend the cranium from the pole by means of a string. Another seeming inconsistency is the presence of bone piles in the north; the central Mexican sources describe stacks of skulls but do not mention the heaps of sorted, burned, weathered, and broken bone that are found in northeIn sites.

In analyzing the Temple of the Skulls at Alta Vista, Kelley (1978) makes reference to practices that she interprets as constituting a local variant of the tzompantli tradition among some groups in the Sierra Madre Occidental in West Mexico (Alegre 1958 [1597-1639]; Beals 1932, 1933; Moser 1973). Moser (1973) summarizes much of the evidence for head taking in West Mexico as well as elsewhere in Mesoamerica. According to Beals (1933: 17), the Acaxee of Durango and Sinaloa cooked their war captives until the bones were clean, and suspended them or inserted them in the walls of "strong houses." Beals (1932) also says that heads were taken by the Tarahumara, Yaqui, Tepahue, Sinaloa, and Tepehuanes. The Xixime suspended skulls and other skeletal elements on poles in their plazas (Beals 1933:33; Perez de Ribas 1944 [1645]:93). Beals (1933:28) reports that the Acaxee used the bones and skulls of slain enemies in a planting ceremony held at the foot of a zapote tree.

Firsthand observation of the disposal of war captives among the Acaxee is provided by Fray Hemando de Santaren in his relacion of 1601. The following graphic description suggests behaviors that could have produced the patterning found in the temple on Terrace 18 of La Quemada, although once again there is a nagging inconsistency:

MORTUARY PRACTICES AND THE SOCIAL ORDER AT LA QUEMADA Nelson et al.] 309

Their manner of eating the dead is as follows. They get together four to six neighboring villages, and in some of the great pots that they make, they put the bodies, which have been cut into quarters. They let them cook for such a time that the bones come out white, clean, and without any meat. They keep the bones in a house, which is like the one of their trophies, as a perpetual reminder for their children of the accomplishments of their fathers and ancestors. And while the meat that remains in the pots is cooking for so long that it turns into soup, they are all dancing, men, women, and children, and singing the deeds and good fortune that they have had against their enemies; they usually continue this dance for two days and nights. They sit for a while and eat from those pots, and then go back to their dance [Alegre 1958 (1597-1639):499; translation by the authors].

It is clear from other contextual clues surrounding this description that the account refers to the processing of enemies' bodies, not those of community members. In another passage (Alegre 1958 [1597-1639] :499-500), Santaren describes the treatment of a live captured enemy. While his captors danced, the enemy was tied to a stake and periodically threatened with a club; eventually he was beaten to death, quartered, cooked, and eaten.

The parallels between Santaren's descriptions and the remains at Terrace 18 are provocative. The behavior involved the processing and accumulation of bone in a manner that could have generated bone deposits very similar to those found in the temple. The statement that the bones were kept inside "a house . . . like the one of their trophies," is suggestive of a special structure such as the temple on Terrace 18; moreover, it suggests that the Acaxee might have had more than one category of structure in which bones were retained and displayed. The other interesting parallel is the allusion to getting together several villages, perhaps implying that the ritual occurred at a central place like La Quemada. The bothersome detail, as already discussed, is that the bones in Terrace 18 lacked cut marks. On that basis it would seem the description matches the patteIns in the Temple of the Skulls at Alta Vista most closely of all the cases considered.

We retum here to the possibility that the bones were those of revered ancestors whose bodies had not been dismembered at death, but kept until the state of decomposition was such that the bones could be pulled apart. Charnel behavior toward ancestors is indeed documented among the Huichol of the Sierra del Nayar, about 150 km west of La Quemada in Zacatecas, Durango, and Nayarit (Weigand and Weigand 1991 :55-66). Ethnographic observation of the Huichol (Fikes 1985; Negrin 1975; Zingg 1938) makes it clear that ancestors are highly revered, indeed worshipped. Ancestor deities are believed to have established the existing order of the universe and to control all the main events and processes that influence the well-being of the living. Much of Huichol ritual is addressed to the ancestor deities in an effort to assure the continuation of favorable conditions. For parts of this ritual, they congregate in a sacred area in which there are a number of temple buildings, but no residences (Lumholtz 1902). Weigand and Weigand (1991) discuss the Huichol "ancestor house," which was associated with agricultural fields, sacred caves, and springs. Apparently the practice of displaying the mummified bodies of deceased leaders in these structures continued only until 1772; today hanks of hair or other body parts may be put in the ancestor houses, but the bodies are either buried or placed in caves (Weigand and Weigand 1991 :60).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Although the evidence leaves room for more than one interpretation, we favor the inference that the bones in the temple on Terrace 18 were the products of charnel behavior toward ancestors or other community members. This conclusion is based first and foremost on the absence of cut marks in the expected places and secondarily on a range of circumstantial cultural evidence. Some of the burials at Alta Vista, especially Burial 2 (Pickering 1985), present unequivocal signs of burial without dismemberment in a specific context where dismemberment was most typical. Burial 2 was covered with a lavish offering of artifacts and a pile of skulls and long bones. This interment pattern simultaneously signals two very different social personae who had different relationships to the living participants in the ritual. Burial 12 at Alta Vista (Pickering 1985) is another example of burial in a ceremonial context without dismemberment; in that case the skeleton had been partially disarticulated, but only after the body had been allowed to decompose so that the joints could be separated by pulling rather than cutting. These unusual burials should not be taken merely as exceptions to the rules of burial, but rather as expressions of a set of canons governing the treatment


of different categories of individuals. The different burial patterns may indicate varying rank, status, or descent-group affiliation within the local population, as well as a friendly vs. hostile relationship to the living people who conducted the burial ritual.

We have noted both strong parallels and important discrepancies between the Terrace 18 temple and the Temple of the Skulls at Alta Vista. The similarities are in construction styles of the buildings containing the bone, anatomical-element representation, and spatial patterning of the bone concentrations. The discrepancies are in the presence of cut marks and cranial perforations in the Temple of the Skulls and their absence in the Terrace 18 temple. To interpret both of these buildings as charnel structures requires an explanation, which we suggest may relate to regional variations in mortuary practice. The presence and absence of cut marks may be tied to differences in time elapsed between death and secondary treatment, and the presence and absence of perforations to differences in the way the remains were displayed, i.e., whether they were suspended or kept in bundles or bags.

The charnel inteIpretation is consistent with the perception shared by several scholars that ancestor worship has great time depth in the West Mexican region (Corona Nunez 1955; Long 1966; Oliveros 1974; Taylor 1970; Weigand 1974, 1985). Following these authors, we assume that shaft tombs were in effect below-ground chaxnel structures that were used to accumulate ancestral remains. Shaft tombs are not known in the La Quemada region but are found in the neighboring areas to the west and south. They cease to occur around A.D. 600 at the early end of the period represented by Terrace 18's ultimate construction phase. The larger shaft tombs apparently were used over many generations and periodically reopened to deposit new burials, as evidenced by the sorting and stacking of bones in some cases. Weigand (1974) suggests that the shaft-tomb tradition of Jalisco and Nayarit is an embodiment of the same tradition of ancestor worship that the Huichol practice today (Fikes 1985). The shaft-tomb tradition lasted from ca. 1500 B.C. to A.D. 600, after which time there was apparently no equivalent. At that time it may have been "brought above ground" and into temples like the one on Terrace 18, no doubt with some symbolic transformations.

Possibly the most valuable of the insights afforded by this analysis are those related to the internal organization of the polity centered upon La Quemada. Kelley (1978: 119) and Weigand (1982:91- 92) advance the notion of a possible association between the La Quemada bone deposits and the Huichol myth of destruction of a center that may have been La Quemada (Weigand 1975). Pijoan and Mansilla (1990:467) also suggest that the bone deposits in La Quemada, Alta Vista, and Cerro del Huistle are associated with fierce attacks that led to the collapse and abandonment of those centers.

Patterns in the archaeological record indicate, however, that multiple secondary burial was not an unusual practice limited to the end of the occupation, but a regular part of a complex mortuary program? or complex of programs. If these bone deposits were related exclusively to a final catastrophic episode, we would not expect to find the patteIns repeated at so many sites, nor to find structures that appear to be dedicated to the accumulation of skeletal remains.

The dynamics of bone deposition are only partially depicted in the interpretation proposed here, largely because of empirical limitations. We might suggest, for example, that the Terrace 18 case could be one in which the individuals all died at approximately the same time, as they all manifest the same amount of cutting (i.e., none). Alternatively, they could have perished at different times and been subjected to the same minimal period of primary interment. We could also suggest that the charnel house was not the final resting place of all bone, inasmuch as certain elements appear to have been systematically selected for preservation, and other parts of the site have very different patterns of deposition. As noted above, the human-bone elements represented in midden contexts seem to complement, rather than echo, those found in the temple. Whether charnel practices like those of the temple were the sole or even the principal sources of bone deposition in the middens is a question that cannot be answered with such a small sample. However, the bone-pile pattern manifested in the Hall of Columns (J. Charles Kelley, personal communication 1991) and the Cuartel area (Jimenez Betts 1989b) seems to represent a different set of practices in which individuals were treated en masse, and perhaps with less respect than those of the Terrace 18 temple. The total number of mortuary programs and the stages of each are still unclear.

Nelson et al.] MORTUARY PRACTICES AND THE SOCIAL ORDER AT LA QUEMADA 3 1 1

One assumption that might be made in interpreting such extensive mortuary displays is that they were in some sense symbolic of the social order and functioned in the maintenance of that order. To comprehend such metaphorical statements, we need to analyze not only the internal patterning of the mortuary remains, but also their wider contextual relations. That La Quemada was a central place is clearly expressed in its apical position on the landscape and in the road system (Trombold 1976,1978,1982,1985a,1985b). In that context, it appears significant that Terrace 18 is positioned on the edge of the site and along a causeway that approaches from the west, proceeds across the terrace, and links to a large staircase that leads to the core of the site. Map data are not yet available to demonstrate these relations, and their documentation is the subject of a future paper. Yet we would be remiss to fail to point out that this terrace complex comprises a "gateway" into a ceremonial center and an apparent place of passage between the secular and the sacred (Gillespie 1991; Joyce 1991). The display of human remains at such a place was no doubt a part of the marking of that boundary and must have been linked with symbolism surrounding the ball court (Joyce 1991). We plan to explore these issues more deeply when the causeway, staircase, ball court, and other features of the terrace are better exposed.

One implication of the conspicuousness of human bone at La Quemada is that much of the site was devoted to mortuary display. Each excavated area-the Hall of Columns (Faulhaber 1960), the Cuartel area (Jimenez Betts 1989b), and Terrace 18-has yielded extensive bone deposits, none of which can be classified as ordinary inhumations. The mortuary remains confirm our suspicion that Terrace 18 in some sense replicates the grander architectural elements in the monumental core of the site. In addition to the previously recognized similarities in the arrangements of large and small rooms (Nelson 1990), we can now point to mortuary behavior as a common element as well. The ceremonial character of the terrace is further underscored by its emerging physical connection with the monumental core and apparent prevalence of ceremonial features, as discussed above. The presence of those features in a relatively peripheral part of the site, along with the absence of ordinary articulated burials, seem to suggest that various parts of the site might have been organized as "stages" on which to enact ritual, much of it involving warfare, sacrifice, or both.

The strong similarities between mortuary practices at La Quemada and Alta Vista seem to cast new light on shared symbolic patterns between the Chalchihuites and Malpaso cultures. Yet there is a significant chronological discrepancy between the appearance of the skull-and-long-bones mortuary complex at La Quemada and at Alta Vista. At issue here is the question of whether the Malpaso and Suchil areas exhibit evidence of "structural homologies" that would be expected if the polities arose simultaneously in the two areas as a result of "peer-polity interaction" (Jimenez Betts 1989a; Renfrew 1986).

As noted above, the temple on Terrace 18 at La Quemada dates between A.D. 600 and 900, whereas at Alta Vista all comparable mortuary evidence belongs to the Alta Vista phase, A.D. 750- 900. In the preceding Canutillo and Vesuvio phases, all known burials are ordinary articulated interments. On this evidence, one would have to conclude that the skull-and-long-bones mortuary complex diffused gradually northward, reaching La Quemada well before it got to the Suchil branch of the Chalchihuites. This lack of temporal correspondence would suggest that the two polities might not have been engaged in a process of coevolution, but instead were rather different traditions that adopted one another's customs only after long resistance or indifference. Clarification ofthese matters must await further work at the virtually unexcavated Chalchihuites site of Cerro Moctehuma, which probably dates to A.D. 200-700 and is sometimes regarded as a small-scale copy of La Quemada (Kelley 1971 :777, 1985).

On a broader diffusionary scale, Moser (1973: 19-22) notes that the theme of decapitation first appeared prominently in central Mexican art during the Epiclassic (which he defines as A.D. 650- 800), wh¢reas it was common in the Maya area from the Late Formative onward. The mortuary patterns discussed here may have some bearing on the competing thesis of Hers (1989), who proposes that the tzompantli, Guerra Florida, and chac mool traditions originated in the "Chichimec lands" of the northern periphery. Hers's study seems to be part of a general effort to understand the origins of the Mexica tradition. While we sympathize with the efforts to trace the roots of central Mexican cultural practices, it seems unlikely to us that the culture of a protohistoric group such as the Mexica


was delivered from anywhere as a complete, intact package. Most of the elements that ultimately comprised that culture had been in existence for several centuries, being separately adopted, recom- bined, and forsaken from time to time and place to place. Rather than try to locate the sole source of the traditions that led to the Mexica, we find it productive to examine the organizational and symbolic diversity among the distinctive regional peoples who, through much apparent turmoil and in piecemeal fashion, evolved into the groups present at European Contact.

Acknowledgments. We extend our thanks to the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia for granting permission to conduct this work, and to the Secretaria de Obras Publicas of the Gobierno del Estado de Zacatecas, especially Peter Jimenez Betts, Celso Castro Vera, and Gerala Felix Cherit, for extensive logistical and technical support. We are also grateful to J. Charles Kelley, Ellen Abbott Kelley, Heidi Lippmeier, Joyce Marcus, John O'Shea, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on previous drafts. The work reported here was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (BNS 88-06238) and the Research Development Fund of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a National Institutes of Health Biomedical Research Support Grant. Figures 1 and 2 were drawn by Thomas Fletcher and Figures 3-5 by Federico Vargas Somoza.

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Documents

Mortuary Practices and the Social Order at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico