ISSUES RELATED TO DETERMINING BURIAL CHRONOLOGY BY FLUORIDE ANALYSIS OF BONE FROM THE MAYA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF CHAU HIIX,BELIZE*

Fluoride percentage of bone is often used to determine relative dates of burials in archaeological contexts. An analysis of prehistoric Maya burials at Chau Hiix, Belize, identifies taphonomic factors, including soil composition, grave depth, soil disturbance, age at death and cortical bone thickness, that cause variations in the rate of fluoride absorption by altering the access of water to bone. This example demonstrates that fluoride dating is unlikely to be useful at most prehistoric Maya sites because of the inconsistent taphonomy due to typically diverse mortuary practices, and it also serves as a cautionary tale for applications of this methodology in other contexts.