DNA analysis shows victims in one underground chamber at Chichén Itzá included twins, perhaps representing mythological figures.
Genetic clues have unveiled a type of ritual child sacrifice at an ancient Maya site that consisted only of young boys, often chosen as closely related pairs that included twins.
While Barquera and colleagues regard the burial chamber as a repurposed underground cistern for storing water, archaeologist James Brady of California State University, Los Angeles says it was constructed as an artificial cave.Barquera’s team suspects that closely related boys were chosen for ritual sacrifices as stand-ins for powerful mythological figures known as the Hero Twins.
During modern Cha-Chaac rites, boys sit beneath or are tied to an altar adorned with vegetation. The youngsters, no longer ritually sacrificed, imitate sounds of the four winds, frogs or other noises linked to first rains, aiming to invoke the cooperation of the rain god Chaac.
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