Who Were the Children Selected for Sacrifice by the Maya

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
DNA has been used to solve recent cold cases, but now it's being used to expose the horrific killing of children a 1,000 years ago by the Maya at Chichen Itza.

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Chichen Itza is an ancient Maya city on the Yucatan peninsula

In 1967, an underground body of water known as a chultun or cenote was discovered at Chichen Itza. This is an ancient Mayan city located on the Yucatan peninsula that covers 4 square miles.

In the underground cistern were the remains of what was believed to be young women, but were in reality very young children. Ceramic and clay objects as well as animals bones were unearthed in the cave.

The discovery was made during the construction of a new runway close to El Castillo (a pyramid, nearly 100 feet tall) and less than 1/3 of a mile from the cenote. This structure is also known as the Temple of Kukulcan.

Prior to this, ritual killings were known to have taken place at Chichén Itzá evident from remains of both sacrificed people and art, including tzompantli or skull racks. "Trophy racks" were also found near the the site of the Templo Mayor, which is present day Mexico City.
 
The human bones were dated back to 800 AD to 1100 AD during the peak of the Mayan influence in this city, even though the city was built approximately 1,500 years ago.

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The sacred cenote, a sink hole in the limestone of the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico

Subterranean areas that are filled with rain and water are associated with child sacrifice, since they are viewed as portals to the Maya underworld.

Early investigations dating to the time of the Conquistadors and early 20th century posited the remains belonged to young women, but recent examination of the remains conclude they belong to male sacrificial victims. There are some remains that cannot be exactly identified as male or female, since they were so young (3 to 6 years of age) when they were killed.

Spanish descriptions dating back to the 16th century said the children were kidnapped, purchased or exchanged for gifts. There were some remains whose origins have been traced to Honduras or Central Mexico.

The genomes of 64 children interred near the Sacred Cenote were compared to 68 Maya inhabitants of the nearby town of Tixcacaltuyub. The results are that the chultun children were mostly male and closely related to one another, which included 2 sets of identical twins. Chances are they were sacrificed in pairs.

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Chichen Itza ball court c.late 1800s

This suggests that children were selected for their close biological kinship, and only 2/3 of the remains were examined, which indicates chances are the percentage of kinship is higher than what has been found so far.

​An examination of the diet of the sacrificed children show they are not from the elites, who had greater variability in what they ate.

The sacrifice of the boys was a public event where they were killed with axes, spears or knives and then their bodies were secreted in the underground chamber.

Twin sacrifices are sacred in the Popol Vuh, a Mayan sacred text in which the twins Hun Hunapu and Vucub Hunahpu are sacrificed by the gods after they descend into the underworld, and are defeated in a ballgame.

Hun Hunapu's head is hung in a calabash tree where it impregnates a virgin, who gives birth to a set of twins known as the Hero Twins who avenge their father and uncle.

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Sacrificed ball player in the Anthropolgy Museum of Xalapa, Mexico

The ancestors of the Maya first moved into the region around 9,000 years ago. Genetic comparisons of the remains found in the chultun showed no signs of admixture to populations from Africa, Europe, Oceania and the Americas. The comparison to current populations of Tixcacaltuyub found their mtDNA haplogroups are Indigenous American, however more than 50% of TIX-Y-Chr are non-Indigenous American, mostly European and Middle Eastern/Mediterranean in origin.

John Verano, a bioarchaeologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, who studies human sacrifice said, "The killing of captives, even in a ritual context, is a strong political statement. It's a way to demonstrate power and political influence—and, some people have said, it's a way to control your own population."

This suggests that sacrifices were masked within a religious context, but were more a form of psychological and physical control over the population and neighboring tribes.

Part of the complex at Chichen Itza is an area believed to have been used to play a ballgame. This game was played throughout Mesoamerica, with a 10 pound, hard rubber ball.

According to the Popol Vuh, lords of the underworld and human battled each other by playing this game. The ball court was a portal to Xibalba which was the underworld. In some instances the game substituted for warfare, and captives of war were forced to play. The loser would be sacrificed.

There are even depiction of ball players playing with the heads of the losers. The Spanish Conquistadors reported that players could be hurt very badly by the ball which was extremely hard.

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