New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatments in Ancient Maya Society

New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatments in Ancient Maya Society, edited by Vera Tiesler and Andrea Cucina and published by the academic press Springer, is a peer reviewed collection of bioarchaeological studies examining skeletal remains from Maya sites for direct physical evidence of sacrificial and post-mortem body treatment. Its authority rests on that method: the contributors work from skeletal evidence itself, cut marks, trauma patterns and burial context, rather than from colonial era textual testimony about Maya practice, which lets their conclusions stand independently of the biases that affect the written record. Its limit is that skeletal evidence can establish what physically happened to a body but is often more limited than text in establishing the ritual meaning or full social context behind it, so its findings are best read alongside the separate textual and iconographic evidence this atlas also draws on for Maya sacrificial practice.