Abstract
Health is a reflection of total physical, mental, and social well-being that can be disrupted bystressors (environmental, nutritional, social). Frailty is an accumulation of this stress and leaves
skeletal biomarkers which provides evidence of ongoing stress and survived stress event at time
of death. The thought that elite status in ancient Maya buffers individuals from physiological
stress due to better access to resources has been challenged in recent years. Skeletal age and sex
were estimated following standard techniques. Six skeletal and dental frailty biomarkers were
scored according to the Skeletal Frailty Index (SFI). Kaplan-Meier and Cox hazard analyses
were used for statistical analysis. Hazard analyses demonstrated that higher number if skeletal
biomarkers present is associated with higher survival probability. These results suggest that the
royals, despite having access to food and resources, were not completely buffered from the
accumulation of physiological stressors. However, no individual expressed a high frailty index,
suggesting that stress loads in this group did not include all six biomarkers. Overall, these results
suggest that individuals who survived longer had more time to accumulate skeletal stress
markers.