Unveiling Chichen Itza: DNA reveals mass sacrifice of young boys
17 June 2024 05:17
Scientists have conveyed alarming information. They examined the DNA of 64 out of over 100 human remains excavated in 1967 from a chultun—an underground water storage chamber in the Mayan city of Chichen Itza, Mexico. It turned out that there were over 100 boys from the Mayan tribe among them. Some were as young as three years old when they were sacrificed.
The radiocarbon dating determined that all the burials took place over 500 years, specifically between the 7th and 12th centuries AD. The DNA revealed that all the deceased were boys. Furthermore, 25% of them constituted a closely related family. Among them were two pairs of twins. As Rodrigo Barquera from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology reported, most of the boys died between the ages of three and six.
Scientists predict that for the Mayan people, such a death was an honor.
Over a hundred deceased boys. No signs of injuries were found
The deceased boys likely came from local communities. Genetic analysis of their remains shows they had the same ancestral lineage as people currently living in the region.
No injuries were detected on the boys' bones, so now scientists want to examine them for traces of poison.
It was surprising to the scientists that they found only the remains of young boys. Only women or both women and men were usually buried in such tombs created by the Mayans.
