Population movements and identity in Postclassic Yucatan. Bioarchaeological analysis of human remains from the East Coast of the Yucatan peninsula

Different hypotheses exist to explain population development and replacement on the East Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula after the so-called Maya collapse, a period of dynamic population movement responding to changing socio-economic and political spheres of influence in the region. Here we investigate this dynamic by combining the evidence from dental morphology, and Sr-87/Sr-86 and delta O-18 isotopic analyses of the human skeletal remains from the Late Postclassic coastal trader settlements of El Meco, El Rey, and Tulum (1200-1550 CE). Isotopic results show different scenarios by locality. The sample from El Meco does not show foreign individuals, while El Rey presents 20% of the sample as likely non-local. Tulum has the most varied isotopic values of the three, though only one individual could be non-local. The series from the core settlement of Tulum displays lower dental morphological heterogeneity, but higher diversity in artificial head shapes and a small proportion of nonlocals, probably due to the small sample size available. El Rey shows homogeneity in head shape and high morphological variability. El Meco is overall the most homogeneous sample from the East Coast of the Peninsula of Yucatan. In the broader contexts of social organization and regional population dynamics, our results indicate broad trends in population movement and cultural cohesion along the Yucatecan coast.