Understanding Taphonomy Through 3D and 2D Records: A Case Study from the Tropical Maya Area

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-024-09685-2 (2025) 32:17 RESEARCH Understanding Taphonomy Through 3D and 2D Records: A Case Study from the Tropical Maya Area Mirko De Tomassi1 · Nicola Lercari1,2 Accepted: 21 November 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 Abstract Mortuary archaeology in the Maya region is complicated by both cultural and natural factors. Distinctive funerary depositional and post-depositional secondary activities, in addition to tropical climate, contribute to the complexity of pre-Hispanic Maya funerary practices. This paper proposes to merge 2D and 3D recording data to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the taphonomic phenomena that affect heavily altered burials at the site of Palenque, Mexico. Employing an archaeothanatological approach, we argue that careful 3D imaging, integrated with earlier produced legacy data, provides additional insight into the formation processes of funerary contexts compared to previous methods. Digital photogrammetric analyses improve our capacity to reconstruct joint articulations of the body and its original funerary deposition in situ. The results of this research elucidate the intentional activities that led to the archaeological arrangement of the grave assemblage. By noticing the degree of articulation and clarifying the pace at which bodies decomposed, these results showcase the depositional sequence of one collective mixed burial from Group IV, a domestic compound in Palenque. These results suggest the viability of 3D methodologies in assessing post-depositional disturbances and movements of the body, both for illuminating funerary taphonomic practices and serving as important recording procedures for the future. Keywords 3D taphonomy · Maya · Digital photogrammetry · Palenque · Burials * Mirko De Tomassi ; 1 LMU Munich, Geschwister‑Scholl‑Platz 1, 80539 Munich, Germany 2 Professor and Chair of Digital Cultural Heritage Studies, Akademiestr. 7, 3 Floor, 80799 Munich, Germany Vol.:(0123456789) 17 Page 2 of 29 M. De Tomassi, N. Lercari Introduction Over 50 years ago, Mortimer Wheeler (1954) stressed the importance of threedimensional (3D) recording in archaeological practice. However, it took several decades before the advent of image-based 3D methods, which allow the creation of 3D models from a series of photographs and subsequently optimized the recording of the third dimension of archaeological contexts (Berggren et al., 2015; Pollefeys et al., 2001). While 3D methods are becoming more commonplace in archaeology, their use in taphonomic analysis is only just beginning. In this paper, we evaluate the advantages and limits that 3D documentation provides to the study of ancient burial taphonomy, a case study from a recently excavated domestic compound, Group IV, at the Maya site of Palenque, southern Mexico. In the Maya area, there are several taphonomic processes that could affect the preservation of bones and funerary contexts. Since Maya burials are situated in tropical contexts, it is often assumed their preservation is low to begin with (Tiesler et al., 2013). Posthumous funerary practices, such as secondary access to burials which commonly involved fire rites, add complexity to understanding pre-Hispanic Maya mortuary contexts (Pereira, 2014; Scherer, 2019; Scherer & Houston, 2018; Tiesler, 2018; Tiesler et al., 2013). Finally, looting and modern construction contribute to burial intrusions and add to the typically poor condition of bones. Consequently, Maya burials are situated in a complex nexus of differing human and environmental taphonomic factors that require innovative and detailed approaches to help elucidate their formation processes. As such, this work builds upon recent advances in 3D visualization techniques utilized by archaeologists and bioarchaeologists in the last decade (Gómez-Olivencia et al., 2018; Leigh Beebe, 2014; Romero Pellitero et al., 2018; Wilhelmson & Dell’Unto, 2015) in order to identify viable ways of addressing the challenges that still affect mortuary and osteological analysis in the Maya area. In the specific case of Palenque’s Group IV, the extensive excavations carried out by the Proyecto Regional Palenque (2016-present) unearthed 41 burials, containing about 80 individuals (Liendo Stuardo, 2016, 2019). All burials were recorded using digital photogrammetry (Campiani, 2016), a 3D image-based modeling technique that uses digital photos to generate 3D virtual geometries (Howland, 2018). This method is also known as closed-range photogrammetry, as it was developed at first for proximal sensing ground-based applications, or Structure from Motion (SfM), from one of the algorithms used to reconstruct the 3D scene. In a nutshell, the digital photogrammetric software analyses the photos of an archaeological context or feature, detecting overlapping feature points in the images, and tracking their movement to reconstruct the scene in 3D (Verhoeven, 2011). In our case study, we utilized Agisoft Metashape, a state-of the-art application to produce our 3D taphonomic record.1 In Group IV, the preservation of each burial typically depends on the elaboration of the funerary container. The more elaborate cists, consisting of enclosed stone 1 An Agisoft Metashape Professional license was made available by the HIVE Lab at the University of California, Merced. Understanding Taphonomy Through 3D and 2D Records: A Case Study… Page 3 of 29 17 boxes of worked or raw stones and stone slabs, are in relatively good condition. Conversely, rustic cists and simple pits are usually poorly preserved. Although the burials in Group IV are in better condition than funerary contexts in many other Maya sites, overall, the situation is complicated by the continuous cultural intentional reopening of most of the burials by the pre-Hispanic Maya, which results in collective contexts and incomplete and/or disarticulated skeletons. To address this complexity, 3D technology was merged with 2D records to increase the documentation’s precision and understand these complex contexts better. We argue that by integrating 3D recording into existing excavation and post-excavation methods (see Freiwald, 2019, p. 15), archaeologists can better comprehend taphonomic processes and gain deeper insights into past cultural funerary practices. 3D taphonomy as a Method Archaeothanatology The careful stratigraphic excavation of burials serves to understand the taphonomic phenomena that caused the current arrangement of the bioarcheological elements. Archeologically, “burial” refers to the set of intentional funerary acts (Duday, 2009, pp. 24–25) before during, and after the inhumation of deceased persons. These actions cover these activities (Duday, 1997, p. 92; Tiesler, 2006, pp. 80–84): 1) Pre-depositional practices (pre-burial treatment of the body) 2) Depositional practices (tomb structure, body position, and funerary material) 3) Post-depositional (reopening and re-ente (...truncated)