From their remarkable astronomical calendars and stunning stepped pyramids, the ancient Mayan civilisations of Central America captivated scholars for centuries.
Yet alongside their brilliance, they are also associated with another, darker cultural phenomenon: human sacrifice. And according to a recent study, it was very dark indeed.
New findings from an analysis of ancient DNA in the ancient Mayan city of Chichén Itzá have suggested that many of the sacrifices were children – including a high proportion of identical twins.
Published in the journal Nature, the study examined human remains found in a chultun – an underground cistern – close to a large sinkhole known as the Sacred Cenote.
Radiocarbon dating – where scientists use decaying radioactive carbon to estimate the age of organic remains – places the use of this chultun between the early seventh century AD and the mid-twelfth century AD.
“The individuals in the chultun were only kids, somewhere between three and six years old,” Dr Rodrigo Barquera, lead author of the study, told BBC Science Focus. “Until now, we never had the opportunity to report on the sex of these individuals because you can’t assess the biological sex based on bones alone when they are that young.”
Moving swiftly on from how dark a pit filled with 100 children is, the DNA evidence revealed all 64 individuals examined were male, with around 25 per cent closely related, including two sets of identical twins.
The likelihood of having identical twins is about 1 in 250 – having two sets of male twins in such a small sample size is, therefore, unusual.
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Barquera explained that twins held special significance to the Mayans as one of their most important myths surrounds a pair of heroic twins who defeat the lord of the underworld.
Unlike other sacrificial rituals which may have served offertory purposes, the team thinks that the sacrifice of identical male twins may have been done to honour the existence of the hero twins.
Not great news if you’re an identical twin in Mayan culture, then, but as Barquera put it, for the families it would have been a great honour: “It was more like, ‘Wow, the deities or the forces picked us as the guardians of these kids that will someday be part of these magical rituals.'
“We know that because the remains span more than 500 years. This was not just something that happened once or twice, it was a prevalent idea for at least five centuries,” he said.
Next, Barquera and the team want to confirm their findings by comparing them to other similar archaeological sites.
About our expert
Rodrigo Barquera is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig. To date, he has contributed to nearly 200 academic research papers, appearing in esteemed journals such as Nature and Nature Communications Biology.
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