A 1,000 Years Worth of Sacrifices

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
​The Mayans which lived in the area of Lake Peten Itza in Guatemala had been known to make animal and human sacrifices, but a recent discovery by Polish divers and researchers indicate that blood sacrifices were made for close to a thousand years, especially when they faced war with their Spanish conquerors in 1697.

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Peten Itza 'Gateway to Hell' where Mayans made human sacrifices

​The Mayan civilization extended across modern southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. Peten Itza was the last bastion of the Maya, until it fell to the Conquistadors in the 1690s.

​Lake Peten Itza surrounds an island called Flores that was once the site of the Maya city of Nojpeten. It was linked by a causeway to the shore.

​Historians have documented that in the early 1620s, a Spanish party received permission to visit Nojpeten. They were led by friar Diego Delgado who was accompanied by 13 Spanish soldiers, and 80 Mayan guides from Tipu (Belize), who had converted to Christianity. The party was seized when they arrived at Nojpeten, and sacrificed with their hearts cut out. They were then decapitated, and their heads displayed on stakes around the city. Delgado was dismembered. ​

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Mayan cylindrical vessel with sacrificial scene dating back around A.D. 600 years (Source- Dallas Museum of Art)

It's believed that some of the sacrifices were done prior to many of the battles with their enemies, especially the Conquistadors who leveled the city with the use of cannons. Nojpeten was the last city to be conquered by the Spanish in all of Mesoamerica.

​Hundreds of artifacts have been recovered beneath the waters of the lake, including an obsidian dagger that could have been the killing instrument used to dispatch the sacrificial victims. The Maya often used these instruments to cut the heart out of living victims in a way very reminiscent of the Aztecs.

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Chac Mool a Mayan sacrificial altar which served as a cuauhxicallí, or container for the blood and hearts of the sacrificed. This figure is from Chichen Itza, excavated by Augustus Le Plongeon c.1875

According to Magdalena Krzemien, of Poland’s Jagiellonian University, “Water had very special and symbolic meaning in ancient Maya beliefs. It was thought to be the door to the underworld, the world of death – Xibalba, where their gods live". 

​Evidence of offerings including animal and human sacrifice have been found in lakes, and in flooded limestone sinkholes known as cenotes, which are common in the region. 

The researchers believe the Itza Maya group lowered the artifacts into the lake as an offering to their god, which is why they are so well preserved. The ceremonial relics from the lakebed are pre-Columbian, dating from 150 B.C. up to 800 A.D. The divers found grisly skull-shaped incense burners, shells, and ceremonial bowls. It is believed the shells that were found were imported from the Caribbean.

Another god which the Mayans made human sacrifice to was one of their most ancient ones, named Chaac, which controlled rain, lightning and storms. For a culture that was rain-dependent for their agriculture, a drought was greatly feared. 

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Chichen Itza

​Chaac is portrayed as a blend of human and animal characteristics. He has reptilian attributes and fish scales, a long curly nose, and a protruding lower lip. He holds the stone ax used to produce lightning, and wears an elaborate headdress. Ceremonies to Chaac were held in each Maya city, and rituals were held in the fields in public settings such as plazas. 

​Sacrifices of young boys and girls were carried out in especially dramatic periods, such as after a prolonged period of drought. 

In 1967, an underground body of water known as a chultun or cenote was discovered at Chichen Itza. ​ In the sacrificial cenote people were thrown and left to drown there, accompanied by precious offerings of gold and jade,  as well as animals bones, ceramic and clay objects. In 2008, archaeologists found the Mayans were likely sacrificing young boys and not virginal girls as previously believed. They were thrown alive to drown, or ritually skinned or dismembered before being offered to appease the deity Chaac.

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Chichen Itza’s El Castillo, also referred to as the Temple of Kukulcan during Le Plongeon's expedition c.1875

The exact location of the Chac Mool discovered by August Le Plongeon in 1875, has never been ascertained. Many think he found it buried in what later became known as the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars or the Venus Platform. Both of these areas are between the Ball Court and El Castillo at Chichen Itza. In 1875, the site was different; piles of rubbish dotted the landscape of the ruins. Le Plongeon said he had deciphered murals and hieroglyphics which led him to the chacmool mound, but he never gave more information than this.

Le Plongeon's discovery might have been the first, but it was by no means the last. In total 14 chacmools have been found at Chichen Itza, 12 at Ula and others scattered through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica, however none of them predate the one found by Le Plongeon.

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Le Plongeon excavating the ‘chac mool’ figure, Chichen Itza, c.1875

Archeologist Guillermo de Anda from the University of Yucatan, pieced together the bones of 127 bodies discovered at the bottom of one of Chichen Itza’s sacred caves. Over 80% were likely boys between the ages of 3 and 11. It's suspected that these children were stolen from surrounding settlements to be used as sacrifices.

According to de Anda, "It was thought that the gods preferred small things, and especially the rain god who had four helpers that were represented as tiny people, so the children were offered as a way to directly communicate with Chaac."

​Despite their prayers and in some cases blood offerings, it appears that the Mayan gods were not appeased. Eventually the culture was decimated and the cities were abandoned to be reclaimed by the jungle. 

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