April 20, 2016

Large Scale Maya Sacrifice of Children Found in Belize Cave

Researchers have studied 9,566 bones, bone fragments and teeth found in the “Midnight Terror Cave” in Belize from 2008-2010. They have found that most of bones were of children ages 4-10. It is suspected that the children were sacrificed to the rain god. The bones were deposited over a 1,500 year period beginning at 1000 BCE. 114 bodies were dropped near an underground stream, which would have been seen as a path to the underworld. There is no evidence of disease or regular burial present. An underground cave at Chichen Itza, in the Yucatan, was found years ago where the bones found were largely children’s bones.
The findings were presented at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists conference this month.

Science News has the report here;
http://bit.ly/1MJzwOY

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