Town & Gown - The Hidden Dead: Bioarchaeology of Ancient Mayan Cave Ritual

Name: Town & Gown - The Hidden Dead: Bioarchaeology of Ancient Mayan Cave Ritual
Start: 2025-12-19T12:00:00-05:00
Location: The Peoples Church of East Lansing

Schedule

Fri, 19 Dec, 2025 at 12:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

The Peoples Church of East Lansing | East Lansing, MI

The Town & Gown Series continues Friday, Dec. 19. We will welcome Gabriel Wrobel, Ph.D., professor of Anthropology and director of the Bioarchaeology Laboratory at Michigan State University who will lead a discussion on “The Hidden Dead: Bioarchaeology of Ancient Maya Cave Ritual.”
Use of caves by the ancient Maya appears to be ubiquitous. Archaeological explanations of Maya mortuary contexts in caves – in academic journals, television programs, and the popular press – have focused almost exclusively on sacrificial ritual. However, this rather sensationalist interpretation is not so clear-cut. This talk will cover some of the extensive pan-Mesoamerican corpus of ethnographic, ethnohistoric, epigraphic, iconographic, and linguistic sources to demonstrate how the Maya incorporated caves into their worldview and ritual. This talk then demonstrates the ways in which skeletal data can inform competing models of Maya mortuary cave use by highlighting recent bioarchaeological research in central Belize by the Central Belize Archaeological Survey (CBAS) Project.
Dr. Wrobel has carried out research on the ancient Maya in Belize for over 30 years and directed several archaeological field projects, most recently at the site of Sarteneja on Belize's north coast. As a Fulbright Specialist, he has presented workshops on digital heritage with students in Belize and is currently expanding that work in collaboration with the Belize Institute of Archaeology, Ministry of Education, and educators from local Maya and creole communities.
The upcoming Town & Gown series will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the Robertson Room at The Peoples Church in East Lansing. The series is open to all.
Registration for the Dec. 19th Town & Gown session is available below. If you are having trouble registering, please email [email protected] and we will add you to the registration list.
Register now:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe--WHc_0E4pfB8_KnqYU1JgJra8pCGI5N0og-2ZhiEMjULpg/viewform?usp=header
This collaborative effort is made possible through the partnership of MSU AgeAlive, MSU Social Science Scholars Program, Generations Connect, Friends of the East Lansing Seniors Program, East Lansing Prime Time Seniors Program, The Great Decisions Program of the Foreign Policy Association, and The Peoples Church of East Lansing. These events bring together MSU faculty and community members for conversations on topics ranging from public policy to personal well-being and strengthen academic-community connections reflecting AgeAlive’s commitment in translating university expertise into meaningful public dialogue.