[Aztlan] More information on the ancient Baja burials

[Justin Kerr]

This is a quote from Incidents of Travel in Yucatan by John Lloyd Stephens.
Chapter 6 page 80 in the edition I am using.
"At three o'clock we left the hamlet (Timucui), and at a little after four
we saw the towers of the church of Tecoh. In the suburbs of the village we
passed the campo santo, a large enclosure with high stone walls, over the
gateway of which and in niches along the top of the wall was a row of human
skulls. Inside the enclosure at the farthest extremity, was a pile of skulls
and bones which according to a custom of the Indians observed from time
immemorial, had been dug up from graves and thrown into this shallow pit, a
grim and ghastly charnel-house."

I doubt that it was a grim and ghastly charnel-house to the locals as he
(Stevens)reports elsewhere that the names of the some of the skulls were
known.

Justin



-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
On Behalf Of Johanne Tournier
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 7:56 AM
To: 'michael ruggeri'; aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] More information on the ancient Baja burials

Hi, Michael -

I know you are passing on news about the INAH report, so perhaps you cannot
answer my question. If so, just say so.

When I read your email, I wondered how INAH knows that the Baja natives
believed that they were relieving the dead of suffering? Perhaps they
believed in the dead "walking" or "reappearing," and the disarticulation of
the bones was designed to prevent that. (As in Europe, where I believe one
of the customs in the case of a suspected vampire was to bury the body face
down in the coffin.)

Can you elaborate?

Thanks!

Johanne

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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                          Johanne L. Tournier 
          Email - jltournier at ns.sympatico.ca
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-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
On Behalf Of michael ruggeri
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 2:24 AM
To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Subject: [Aztlan] More information on the ancient Baja burials


Listeros,

INAH has posted their complete report on the ancient Baja groups double
inhumation burials. The dead were placed in a pit in a funeral bundle, and
once decomposition was advanced, they exhumed the body and sectioned it for
re-burial. They believed they were relieving the dead of suffering by
sectioning the body in this way. INAH has been carrying out the study of
these burials since 1991 at different Baja sites including El Conchalito.
Some of the burials go back to 300 CE. They placed a bed of shell over the
original funeral bundle with charcoal and soil and sand. They believed the
interred were not really dead, so they were still in pain. Once the remains
were dug up and sectioned and placed back into the burial pits, they acted
as guardians. These groups were known as the Californio people and they
moved about from one burial site to the next because they believed the dead
could not be abandoned.
Many stone tools were also found in the pits.

INAH has the report here;
http://dti.inah.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=39&I
temid=150

A tiny URL;
http://tinyurl.com/5hnjp5

Mike Ruggeri

Mike Ruggeri's The Ancient America's Breaking News
http://web.mac.com/michaelruggeri
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