Researchers analyzing DNA at ancient Mayan city of Chichén Itzá, a site for human sacrifices, found that young boys, including twins, were buried in a mass grave there.
A carved stone relief of skulls at the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá in the Yucatán, Mexico. These carved skulls are representative of real skulls of captives or sacrificial victims who would have been mounted on wooden poles. The ancient Mayan city of Chichén Itzá, long known as a site of human sacrifice, has fascinated millions of visitors from around the world.
Rodrigo Barquera, lead author of a new paper on the research, said in an interview that the findings were “a breakthrough.” It was the first example of an all-male infant burial site there, said Barquera, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany., focused on an analysis of some of the more than 100 child remains recovered from a cistern close to the cenote during the construction of a new airport runway between April and June 1967.
“But we have to bear in mind that death is a completely different concept for Mesoamerican cultures. … Death is not seen as a bad thing. Of course, under our perspective, it’s wrong. But back then, and according to their myths and their beliefs, what they were doing was considered correct, so we cannot judge what they did under our modern point of view.”
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Ancient Mayan human sacrifices involved twinsAndrew Paul is Popular Science's staff writer covering tech news. Previously, he was a regular contributor to The A.V. Club and Input, and has had recent work featured by Rolling Stone, Fangoria, GQ, Slate, NBC, as well as McSweeney's Internet Tendency. He lives outside Indianapolis.
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