PHEMOR: PostHumous Exhumation and Movement of Osteological Remains - An iso-histological approach to Prehispanic Maya mortuary practices and migration

PHEMOR项目的目的是使用一种新的等组织学方法，重建中美洲地区(公元前2500年至公元1525年)玛雅考古遗址中人类骨学遗骸的死后移动。这一结果将改变人们对殡仪馆做法的理解，并完善理解玛雅人社区的迁徙重建。PHEMOR是第一个整合考古科学中两种成熟的方法--同位素和组织分析--的项目，以解决全球考古学中人类遗骸的死后移动问题。通过对伯利兹、危地马拉、洪都拉斯和墨西哥的9个理解玛雅遗址的199名男女个体进行等组织学方法，将对死后运动在玛雅停尸房行为中所起的作用进行叙述。区分生前迁徙的非本地人和死后迁徙的人，对于准确重建过去的迁徙过程也是至关重要的，因为影响每个人的社会文化因素不同。这些结果将有助于玛雅考古学正在进行的和正在出现的研究主题，包括已故祖先在身份和社区形成中的重要性，以及非本地个人在非葬礼堆积中的含义，并为未来对玛雅殡仪馆习俗和迁徙的研究奠定基础。这项研究进一步侧重于一个未开发的考古数据集--埋藏后因成岩作用而改变的样本。PHEMOR的方法学进步还提供了一个框架，用于释放未得到充分利用的数据集的潜力，并应用尖端的等组织学方法来识别挖掘和运输的人类遗骸，以及其他考古和法医背景。因此，PHEMOR为在欧洲和世界其他地方工作的考古学家、刑事司法等相关领域的最终用户以及中美洲当地社区带来了重要的遗产利益。

The aim of the PHEMOR project is to reconstruct the posthumous movement of human osteological remains from prehispanic (250 BCE to 1525 CE) Maya archaeological sites in Central America using a novel iso-histological approach. The results will transform understandings of mortuary practices and refine reconstructions of migration in prehispanic Maya communities. PHEMOR is the first project to integrate two well established methods in archaeological science - isotopic and histological analyses - to address postmortem movement of human remains in archaeology globally. A narrative of the role of posthumous movement in Maya mortuary behaviour will be developed by applying the iso-histological method to 199 individuals of both sexes from primary and secondary contexts at nine prehispanic Maya sites in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Differentiating nonlocal individuals that moved during life from those who were moved following death is also vital for accurate reconstructions of past migratory processes, as the sociocultural factors influencing each differed. The results will contribute to ongoing and emerging research themes in Maya archaeology, including the significance of deceased ancestors in the formation of identity and community and the implications of nonlocal individuals in non-funerary deposits, framing future studies of Maya mortuary practices and migration. This study further focuses on a untapped archaeological dataset - samples that have been altered after burial by diagenesis. PHEMOR's methodological advancements also provide a framework for unleashing the potential of underutilized datasets and for applying the cutting-edge iso-histological method to identify exhumed and transported human remains other archaeological and forensic contexts. PHEMOR therefore has important legacy benefits for archaeologists working in Europe and elsewhere in the world, end users in related fields such as criminal justice, and for local Central American communities.