Hundreds of Bone Fragments Linked to Ancient Mayan Blood Sacrifices
The bones were discovered within a flooded cave, which is historically known as Cueva del Sangre, or 'the Cave of Blood.' Many of the fragments showed signs of violence. The Cave of Blood is a vast underground network WHICH was first mapped in the 1990s. Dating back to somewhere between 400 B.C. and 250 B.C., it was used by the Mayans during a time when their civilization was experiencing great affluence. Scientists posit that the cave was a sacred location in which ritual blood sacrifices were held. This theory is supported by the discovery of obsidian blades within the caverns; as well as the fact that the bodies were left lying on the floor in the open, rather than properly entombed.Michele Bleuze, a bioarchaeologist who studied the bone fragments, noted a particularly grisly fact about the recovered bones. "The emerging pattern that we're seeing is that there are body parts and not bodies,' she said. 'In Maya ritual, body parts are just as valuable as the whole body.'
Bleuze and her colleague, forensic anthropologist Ellen Fricano, believe that the signs of violence on the bones are the biggest indicator that the site was used for blood rituals. All of the marks, such as those made to someone's forehead with a beveled blade and similar cuts on an adolescent hip bone, were made shortly before death.'There are a few lines of evidence that we used to determine that this was more likely a ritual site than not,' Fricano explained. She added that the bones seemed to be placed in a deliberate arrangement, indicating that they were displayed as part of the rituals. Bleuze and Franco hypothesize that the rituals were conducted to appease the Mayan rain god Chaac, a way of ushering in the warm seasons and blessing the community's crops.
The researchers stress that they will continue analyzing the skeletal remains, as many questions remain unanswered. They hope to discover the identities of those sacrificed, including their relationships, origins, and health at the time of death. 'Right now, our focus is who are these people [sic] deposited here, because they're treated completely differently than the majority of the population,' Bleuze said.
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