Disease, Demography, and Diet in Early Colonial New Spain: Investigation of a Sixteenth-Century Mixtec Cemetery at Teposcolula Yucundaa

Abstract

A mid-sixteenth-century cemetery was investigated at the colonial Mixtec site of Teposcolula Yucundaa and is shown to be related to the cocoliztli pandemic of 1544–1550. This is the earliest colonial epidemic cemetery to be identified in Mexico. Through archaeogenetic and oxygen stable isotope analysis it is demonstrated that the interred individuals were local Mixtecs, and mortuary analysis sheds light on both Christian and traditional religious practices at the site. Mitochondrial haplogroup frequencies support long-term genetic continuity in the region, and carbon stable isotopes of bone collagen and enamel carbonates suggest no decrease in maize consumption during the early colonial period, despite historical evidence for a changing agricultural economy and increased wheat production at the site. The Teposcolula cemetery provides a rich and complex perspective on early colonial life in the Mixteca Alta and reaffirms the importance of archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence in investigating complex social and biological processes of the past.