The Ancient City of Chichén Itzá, a Maya city located in the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), has long been associated with sacrificial rituals, with hundreds of bone fragments excavated from temples, a sacred cenote, and other underground caves.
A stone sculpture at Chichén Itzá (Mexico), an ancient Maya city. (Source: CNN).
For a long time, there has been a prevailing notion that the victims of these sacrificial rites were often young and female. This impression has deeply entrenched itself in contemporary imagination and is difficult to dispel, even though recent research indicates that both men and women, as well as children, were among the sacrificed victims. A study published on June 13 in the journal Nature has added surprising details about Maya sacrificial practices.
Based on ancient DNA collected from the remains of 64 individuals believed by archaeologists to have been ritually sacrificed and later stored in an underground chamber, new analysis shows that the victims were all boys, many of whom were closely related.
The lead author of the study, Rodrigo Barquera, a researcher from the Department of Archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, noted that there were unexpected findings. “We discovered a burial site that did not show gender distinction, with many individuals related to each other and two sets of twins,” he stated.
The El Castillo pyramid located on the ruins of Chichén Itzá in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. (Source: Getty Image).
Illuminating Insights Through DNA
Rubén Mendoza, an archaeologist and professor of Social Sciences and Global Studies at California State University, stated that the horrific view that the Maya only sacrificed women or young girls is largely a myth that originates from stories about the sacred cenote of Chichén Itzá or cenotes in Monterey Bay.
“The characteristics of Maya sacrificial practices have been depicted in media as involving young women (also referred to as maidens) being thrown to their deaths at the Sacred Well,” Mendoza explained.
However, the mystery surrounding Maya sacrifices is challenging to unravel, as it is difficult to determine the sex of a child’s skeleton through bone analysis alone. Although the pelvis and certain other bones can reveal whether an adult skeleton is male or female, clear differences only emerge at puberty, and even in adults, natural variations can complicate accurate identification.
This difficulty makes genetic analysis particularly valuable, according to co-author Christina Warinner, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Anthropology at Harvard University and a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The impact of ancient DNA, which has revolutionized archaeology in Europe and other higher latitude areas, has been more limited in tropical regions where DNA tends to degrade in warm conditions. Nonetheless, recent advancements in ancient DNA technology are expanding its applicability.
The cenote or sacred sinkhole at Chichén Itzá was found to contain human remains and valuable offerings. (Source: Getty Image).
“We are increasingly improving our ability to collect even very small amounts of DNA. We now have the capability to conduct large-scale genetic studies and apply ancient DNA as a tool to help us understand the past in Central America,” Warinner noted.
The new research team was able to extract and sequence ancient DNA from 64 of approximately 100 individuals, whose remains were found scattered in an underground storage chamber discovered in 1967, about 400 meters away from the sacred cenote at Chichén Itzá.
Using radiocarbon dating methods, the research team found that the underground cave had been in use for 500 years, although most of the children identified by the team were buried there between 800 and 1000 AD—during the peak of Chichén Itzá’s political power in the region.
According to DNA analysis, all the children were boys, selected from the Maya population at that time, with at least 1/4 of them closely related to at least one other child in the storage chamber. The group included two sets of twins, as well as siblings and cousins. Most of the boys were between 3 to 6 years old at the time of death.
Restored sculptures at Chichén Itzá (Mexico). (Source: CNN).
Connecting to Modern Communities
Warinner stated that through this research, for the first time, genetic material has been recovered from ancient Maya remains in enough detail to sequence genes, providing a richer picture of who the victims were and their familial relationships.
By comparing ancient DNA with that of 68 current residents of the Tixcacaltuyub Maya community, researchers found that both groups share a close genetic marker.
The research team also demonstrated how the immune systems of the residents have been shaped by the biological consequences of diseases brought by European colonizers. Researchers found that present-day indigenous people have genetic variants that may protect them against salmonella infections, which are believed to be the pathogens responsible for the devastating cocoliztli epidemic of 1545.
María Ermila Moo-Mezeta, a co-author of the study and a professor of Maya studies at the Autonomous University of Yucatán, expressed that this new research is very significant for her in preserving the “historical memory of the Maya.”
