Archaeologists make chilling discovery inside of ‘Blood Cave’ used for historic Mayan rituals

Hundreds of human bones present in an underground collapse Guatemala counsel a chilling human sacrifice came about there.

Cueva de Sangre, or the ‘Blood Cave’, is positioned beneath the archaeological website of Dos Pilas in Petén, Guatemala. It’s one in all greater than a dozen caves on this area that had been utilized by the Maya between 400 BC and AD 250. 

In the early 1990s, a survey exposed a big number of human bones from the Blood Cave, a lot of which confirmed proof of irritating accidents across the time of loss of life.  

Now, a brand new research of the stays made up our minds that the wounds resulted from ritual dismemberment that came about all the way through a sacrifice some 2,000 years in the past. 

For instance, a cranium fragment that got here from the left aspect of the brow bore proof that any person struck it with a hatchet-like instrument, and kid’s hip bone was once discovered with a an identical mark.

What’s extra, researchers discovered the bones had been scattered around the cave ground and organized in ordinary, in all probability ritualistic techniques.  

During the unique survey, excavators exposed a chain of 4 stacked cranium caps in a single a part of the cave. 

Ritual artifacts recovered along the bones — corresponding to obsidian blades and pink ochre, a naturally-occurring rust-colored pigment — supply additional proof that some type of rite came about within the Blood Cave. 

Hundreds of human bones discovered within the ‘Blood Cave’ in Guatemala counsel a chilling human sacrifice came about there. This symbol displays a lesion on some of the recovered skulls

Co-researcher and forensic anthropologist Ellen Frianco informed Live Science that the quantity of human stays discovered within the cave, the wounds they bore and the presence of formality gadgets level to the truth that this was once in all probability a sacrificial website.

She and her colleague, bioarchaeologist Michele Bleuze, introduced the result of their research at the yearly Society for American Archaeology assembly in April.

The Blood Cave was once first came upon within the 1990s all the way through the Petexbatun Regional Cave Survey, which sought to discover the subterranean buildings underneath the traditional Maya town of Dos Pilas. 

This specific cave stuck excavators’ consideration as it contained a strikingly massive number of human bones with indicators of dismemberment and irritating accidents. 

Interestingly, the Blood Cave can simplest be accessed via a small opening that descends right into a low passageway that results in a pool of water. 

Because of its construction, the cave is flooded for many of the 12 months, and is simplest obtainable all the way through the dry season between March and May.

This would were true all the way through the time of the Maya too, main Frianco and Bleuze to imagine that the sacrificial stays within the cave had been an providing to the rain god, Chaac.

The Maya recurrently carried out human sacrifices with the intention to appease the gods all the way through occasions of disaster, corresponding to a drought. 

Mayan tradition in Guatemala has a protracted historical past, stretching again greater than 4,000 years within the Mesoamerican area. Pictured are ruins left through the traditional civilization in Tikal National Park

What’s extra, researchers discovered the bones had been scattered around the cave ground and organized in ordinary, in all probability ritualistic techniques. Pictured is the interior of a cranium with an obvious wound

Cueva de Sangre, or the ‘Blood Cave’, is positioned beneath the archaeological website of Dos Pilas in Petén, Guatemala. It’s one in all greater than a dozen caves on this area that had been utilized by the Maya between 400 BC and AD 250

The researchers word that descendants of the Maya nonetheless follow a an identical ritual lately.

On May 3, or the Day of the Holy Cross, folks talk over with caves to wish for rain and a excellent harvest on the finish of the dry season. 

But there’s no sacrifice concerned on this recent birthday celebration. 

Though their research pointed sturdy proof to signify that the Blood Cave was once used for ritualistic human sacrifice, Frianco and Bleuze say there’s nonetheless extra paintings to be accomplished. 

The researchers plan to check the traditional DNA inside of those bones to be told extra about who the deceased had been.

They may also carry out solid isotope analyses, which is able to yield details about the diets and migration patterns of the deceased in addition to the environmental stipulations all the way through the time they had been alive. 

‘Right now, our center of attention is who’re those folks deposited right here, as a result of they are handled totally in a different way than the vast majority of the inhabitants,’ Bleuze informed Live Science.