Playa de los Muertos (Beach of the Dead) is an archaeological site from the Middle Formative period and is located on the Honduras north coast, in the Ulua valley,Joyce, Rosemary A. and John S. Henderson 2001 Beginnings of Village life in Eastern Mesoamerica. Latin American Antiquity 12(1): 5-23. however it has "had a continuous history going back as early as any sedentary society yet documented in

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica ...

". Thought to at one time have been a village, Playa de los Muertos is primarily known through its

burials Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

and

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

. Archaeologists have identified a strong

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

and

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

influence on the early inhabitants at Playa de los Muertos, however it is considered a distinct culture. The site is most notable for its finely made ceramic figurines, famously excavated by Dorothy Popenoe. These figurines, in particular those depicting the female form, have helped archaeologists interpret gender roles at the site. Archaeologists believe that people at Playa de los Muertos likely participated in long-distance trade networks which reach from Guatemala to the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coast, coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states that have a shor ...

Olmec The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that ...

centers.

Etymology

The name "''Playa de los Muertos''" literally translated means "beach of the dead" in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Location

Located on the Caribbean coast of northwest Honduras, the archaeological cemetery site of Playas de los Muertos is located on the

Ulua River Ulua may refer to: * Ulúa River * San Juan de Ulúa, a complex located on an island of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico * USS ''Ulua'' (SS-428), a submarine of the United States Navy * ''Ulua'' (fish), a genus of fishes in the family Carangid ...

. It is also located 10 km from the archaeological site of Puertos Escondido which is located on a small tributary of the Chamelecón River, one of two tropical rivers that form the lower Ulua Valley on the Caribbean coast of Honduras.

Excavation history

George Byron Gordon first excavated the archaeological site of Playa de los Muertos from 1895 to 1897.1938 Archaeological Sequence in North-West Honduras. Nature 142(3594): 501-501. Gordon conducted these excavations while touring

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

doing various excavations at sites across the continent. The information collected from Gordon's excavations gave important insight to the

stratigraphic Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostra ...

relationships between the various culture groups in the area. Particularly the analysis of pottery sherds helped in finding these relationships. Then in 1928, Dorothy Popenoe commenced excavations at the site. Popenoe's excavations centered on the cemeteries located at Playa de los Muertos. Many of the pots and

figurine A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with clay ...

s recovered centre around

gender roles A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

and how the female form was depicted. During excavations, Popenoe drew sketches of artifacts and of the site as she excavated. The excavations were focused on the cemeteries and in particular the

grave goods Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a ...

that were stored with the bodies. These excavations unearthed many pots, clay figurines and animal bones. The high number of animal bones has led researchers to believe that Playa de los Muertos was at least partially supported through

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

. Of the many

potsherds This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

and

s that have been excavated, a large number depict females and distinct female

sexual characteristics Sexual characteristics are physical traits of an organism (typically of a sexually dimorphic organism) which are indicative of its biological sex. These can include sex organs used for reproduction and secondary sex characteristics which distingu ...

. Many of the figurines are depicted with; little clothing, sit cross-legged with one knee drawn up, and distinct sexual characteristics are visible.Joyce, Rosemary A. 1993 Women's Work: Images of Production and Reproduction in Pre-Hispanic Southern Central America. Current Anthropology 34 (3): 255-274. A more contemporary example of work done at Playa de los Muertos can be seen in the work of

Rosemary A. Joyce Rosemary A. Joyce (born 1956) is an American anthropologist and social archaeologist who has specialized in research in Honduras. They were able to archeologically confirm that chocolate was a byproduct of fermenting beer. She is also an expert in ...

. Joyce has carried out various work on the Playa de los Muertos site in the late 20th century. Her analysis of the site reveals that many of the pots date as far back as 1600 BC and that established trade networks with areas in present-day

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

date as far back as 1100 BC. Joyce's recent analysis of the site includes gendering and identity at Playa de los Muertos. Joyce identifies the importance of the individual at the site and discusses agency at Playa de los Muertos. The role of females and how they are depicted is also central to Joyce's work.

George Vaillant

George Clapp Vaillant was born 1901 in Boston, Massachusetts and attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where in 1927 he received his doctorate in

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

with a thesis that established the chronology of

ceramics. After finishing his doctorate, he joined the American Museum of Natural History in 1927 and then began working in the

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico ( es, Valle de México) is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with present-day Mexico City and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico w ...

. In terms of the excavations at Playas de los Muertos, Vaillant used the pottery found at the site in order to trace the development of the Middle Cultures of Mesoamerica. He did this by using the

Law of Superposition The law of superposition is an axiom that forms one of the bases of the sciences of geology, archaeology, and other fields pertaining to geological stratigraphy. In its plainest form, it states that in undeformed stratigraphic sequences, the ...

, comparing the ceramics found at other sites and to those found at Plays de Los Muertos and cross dating.

Dorothy Popenoe

Born Dorothy Kate Hughes, Popenoe was born June 1899, in

Ashford, Surrey Ashford is a town almost wholly in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, with a small area contained within the boundaries of the London Borough of Hounslow, approximately west-southwest of central London. Its name derives from a crossing point ...

, England. She attended the Welsh Girls' School in Ashford until the beginning of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

when she joined the English Land Army. After the war, she worked at the Kew Garden in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

as an assistant to Dr. Otto Knapf until 1923 when she was invited by Agnes Chase to join the staff of the

United States National Herbarium The United States National Herbarium is a collection of five million preserved plant specimens housed in the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It represents about 8% of the ...

in the Office of Foreign Plant Introduction. She conducted numerous studies of cultivated

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

. Once there, she met and married

Wilson Popenoe Frederick Wilson Popenoe (March 9, 1892 – June 20, 1975) was an American Department of Agriculture employee and plant explorer. From 1916 to 1924, Popenoe explored Latin America to look for new strains of avocados. He reported his adventure ...

, the agricultural explorer and later gave birth to their five children. In 1925, her husband accepted a position with the

United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...

as the director of agricultural experiments and moved the family to

Tela Tela is a town, with a population of 38,030 (2020 calculation), and a municipality in Honduras on the northern Caribbean coast. It is located in the department of Atlantida. History Colonial era Tela was founded by the Spanish conquistador ...

on the Atlantic Coast of Honduras. While in Honduras, Popenoe developed an interest in archaeology and worked on several Honduran archaeological sites including in the Mayan fortress of Tenampua in 1927. Between 1928 and 1932 she excavated in the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

cemetery at Playa de los Muertos. However she could not complete her work because in December 1932, she ate an unripe, uncooked akee fruit, which is believed to have poisoned her and as a result she died. The results of her excavations at Playas de los Muertos were published posthumously in 1934.

Gender Roles at Playa de los Muertos

Much of what is now known about the

at Playa de los Muertos is based on the analysis of unusually detailed clay

s. These figurines have few different but reoccurring hair styles; they also tend to wear ornamentations.Joyce, Rosemary A. (2003) Making Something of Herself: Embodiment in Life and Death at Playa de los Muertos, Honduras. Cambridge Archaeological Journal: 13 (2):248-261.

, Associate Professor of Anthropology at

argues in her analysis that on the basis of these figurines being a representation of individuals. The ceramics represent particularly well women. Joyce believes that on the basis of ceramic images we may be able to draw conclusions about

in the Honduran societies in the Formative period.Joyce, Rosemary A. (1993). Women's Work: Images of Production and Reproduction in Pre-Hispanic Southern Central America. Current Anthropology: 34 (3): 255-274. Joyce’s analysis draws on the descriptions of hairstyles of women in

in the 16th century. The Playa de los Muertos figurines hairstyles – as well as portrayed

jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry ( U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a w ...

, strongly resemble these descriptions.Joyce, Rosemary .A. (2000). Girling the girl and boying the boy: theproduction of adulthood in ancient Mesoamerica World Archaeology 31(3), 473–83. Therefore, the similarity would suggest that both

and Playa de los Muertos societies were very conservative in the expression of the genders and life stages. Consequently, the

ornamentation An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

and hair style worn by an individual would be dictated by their

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...

and

age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone or something has been alive or has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...

. The figurines would be seen as " bodily representation". In her analysis of

, Joyce had compared the Playa de los Muertos – Ulua Polychrome art with the Lower and Central American and Classic Lowland ceramics. In all of these cases, figurines of men and women are usually represented doing some sort of

labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

or with objects related to labour. Joyce's analysis suggests that ceramics represent dichotomy embedded in gendered labour. Playa de los Muertos figurines mainly represent females with pots, or with a child or touching their hair. Joyce interprets these images as a way of showing the importance of women's contributions to society: preparing food and bearing children. In her analysis of gender at Playa de los Muertos, Joyce suggests that the gender dynamic had been strongly influenced by the alliance with Classic Maya culture.

References

External links

George Byron Gordon Central America expedition records

Frederick Wilson and Dorothy Popenoe

- * ttp://sniteartmuseum.nd.edu/collection/aztlan/index_pages/oc_playadelos_muertos_honduras.htm Olmec culture, Playa de los Muertos, Honduras
The Honduran Ceramics Exhibit

* [https://books.google.com/books/about/The_formative_period_ceramic_sequence_fr.html?id=qohKtwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y The formative period ceramic sequence from Playa de los Muertos, Honduras by Nedenia Conant Kennedy] * Pre-Columbian era {{Maya sites Archaeological sites in Honduras