Twin boys were often slaughtered in human sacrificial rituals at a notorious Mayan temple, it has emerged.
The grim discovery was made after human remains were found in the ancient city of Chichén Itzá, where they were analysed using state-of-the-art technology by an international team of scientists.
The findings, published in the journal Nature, disprove previous theories that the majority of the victims of human sacrifice in the city’s temples were girls or young women.
Extensive evidence of ritual killing, including both the physical remains of sacrificed individuals and representations in monumental art, have previously been uncovered at Chichén Itzá.
But dredging of the site’s Sacred Cenote in the early 20th Century revealed the remains of hundreds of victims, and a full-scale stone representation of a huge tzompantli, or skull rack.
Although there was widespread belief that females were the primary focus of human sacrifices at the site, researchers say it is difficult to determine sex from juvenile skeletal remains by physical examination alone.
However, more recent anatomical analysis suggests that many of the older juveniles may have been boys.
A subterranean chamber, known as a chultún, was discovered in 1967 that contained the scattered remains of more than 100 children. The chamber had been enlarged to connect to a small cave and such subterranean features were widely viewed as connection points to the underworld.
Researchers conducted an in-depth genetic investigation of the remains of 64 children ritually interred within the underground chamber, and a genetic analysis revealed that all 64 tested individuals were boys.
Dating of the remains revealed that the chamber was used for mortuary purposes for more than 500 years, from the 7th to 12th Centuries AD, but that most of the children were interred during the 200-year period of Chichén Itzá’s political apex from 800 AD to 1000 AD.
Further genetic analysis revealed that the children had been drawn from local Maya populations, and that at least a quarter of the children were closely related to at least one other child in the chamber.
The young relatives had consumed similar diets, suggesting they were raised in the same household, the scientists said.
Co-author Dr Kathrin Nägele, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said: ‘Most surprisingly, we identified two pairs of identical twins.
‘We can say this with certainty because our sampling strategy ensured we would not duplicate individuals.’
Taken together, the research team say their findings indicate that related male children were likely being selected in pairs for ritual activities.
Co-author Oana Del Castillo-Chávez said: ‘The similar ages and diets of the male children, their close genetic relatedness, and the fact that they were interred in the same place for more than 200 years point to the chultún as a post-sacrificial burial site, with the sacrificed individuals having been selected for a specific reason.’
What is Chichén Itzá?
Chichén Itzá is one of North America’s most iconic archaeological sites and was a powerful political centre in the centuries before the arrival of the Spanish.
It is also known for its monumental architecture including the huge temple of El Castillo adorned with feathered serpents.
The name Chichén Itzá is a Mayan language term for ‘at the mouth of the well of the Itza.’ The Itza are a group of Mayans who had risen to power in the northern part of the Yucatán peninsula.
The site is now located in Yucatán State, Mexico.
The research team explained that twins hold a special place in the origin stories and spiritual life of the ancient Maya.
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Twin sacrifice is a central theme in the sacred K’iche’ Mayan Book of Council, known as the Popol Vuh, a colonial-era book whose antecedents can be traced back more than 2,000 years in the Maya region.
In the Popol Vuh, the twins Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu descend into the underworld and are sacrificed by the gods following defeat in a ballgame.
The twin sons of Hun Hunahpu, known as the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque, then go on to avenge their father and uncle by undergoing repeated cycles of sacrifice and resurrection in order to outwit the gods of the underworld.
The Hero Twins and their adventures are often represented in Classic Maya art, and because subterranean structures were viewed as entrances to the underworld, researchers say the interment of twins within the chamber at Chichén Itzá may recall rituals involving the Hero Twins.
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