Deep in an underground collapse Guatemala, archaeologists came across numerous fragmented human bones revealing indications of injury. The discovery paints a chilling photo: The individuals here were compromised throughout the dry season to calm the Maya rain god– or parts of them were.

“The emerging pattern that we’re seeing is that there are body parts and not bodies,” Michele Bleuzea bioarchaeologist at California State University, Los Angeles, informed Live Science. “In Maya ritual, body parts are just as valuable as the whole body,” she stated.

In the early 1990s, a study beneath the historical site of Dos Pilas in Petén, Guatemala, exposed more than a lots caverns that were utilized by the Maya in between 400 B.C. and A.D. 250. Among them– called the Cueva de Sangre, or “Blood Cave” — had a big collection of human bones spread on the flooring, a lot of which revealed proof of distressing injuries around the time of death.

In a discussion at the yearly Society for American Archaeology conference on April 24, Bleuze detailed the group’s analysis of the Cueva de Sangre bones and discussed why they think the cavern was the website of an ancient Maya sacrifice 2 centuries back.

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“There are a few lines of evidence that we used to determine that this was more likely a ritual site than not,” Ellen Fricanoa forensic anthropologist at Western University of Health Sciences in California who took a look at the injuries to the bones, informed Live Science. The bones were on the surface area, rather than buried, and the injuries to the bones recommend routine dismemberment, rather than instant burial.

A piece of the left side of the forehead, for example, had a mark recommending that somebody utilized a tool with a diagonal edge– like a hatchet– on the skull, Fricano stated. A kid’s hip bone had a comparable cut. Both appear to have actually been made around the time of death.

Some human remains were likewise set up in a nonanatomic method, indicating a ceremonial nature to their collection. On the ground in one part of the cavern, excavators discovered a series of 4 stacked skull caps.

The mix of injuries found on the bones; the high density of human remains in the cavern; and the existence of routine products, such as red ocher and obsidian blades, highly recommends that Cueva de Sangre was the website of an ancient Maya routine sacrifice instead of a basic burial practice, Fricano stated.

Sacrifices for a rainy season

Cueva de Sangre is accessed by means of a little opening and a descent into a low passage that opens onto a swimming pool of water. Both today and in the past, the cavern would have been flooded for the majority of the year.

The cavern was most likely available just throughout the dry season, in between March and May, and the scientists believe this timing is an idea to the significance of the sacrifice. One crucial modern Maya routine event is called the Day of the Holy CrossTaking place on May 3, the event takes place prior to the start of the rains, and individuals check out caverns to wish rain and a great harvest.

A clear response to the secret of the bones in the cavern will require to wait a bit longer, Bleuze stated. Analysis of the bones from Cueva de Sangre has actually only simply started. More work, consisting of ancient DNA and steady isotope analyses, is prepared, followed by peer-reviewed publications.

“Right now, our focus is who are these people deposited here, because they’re treated completely differently than the majority of the population,” Bleuze stated.

Kristina Killgrove is a personnel author at Live Science with a concentrate on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her posts have actually likewise appeared in locations such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Killgrove holds postgraduate degrees in sociology and classical archaeology and was previously a university teacher and scientist. She has actually gotten awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science composing.