Message #159674

[Bianca]

Populist Power Symbol?



There are signs that the circa-A.D. 500 pit had been opened and then resealed about 25 to 100 years after the initial burial. Since the house appears to have been occupied continuously during this time, whoever reopened the pit was probably a relative, the researchers suggest.

"I believe removal of the femur from a male was one way the ancient Zapotec asserted dynastic continuity," said archaeologist Joyce Marcus at the University of Michigan, who did not participate in this study.

"It seems likely that each firstborn son was expected to brandish the femur of his father. The removal and curation of a femur signified that an unbroken line of descent extended from the founder to his descendants."

The newfound burial was simple and modest, suggesting the buried man was not an elite, although he might have been the head of a household, Feinman suggested.

"It raises the question as to whether femurs were used as a broader symbol of legitimacy that anyone with even a little bit of power held onto."



National Geographic