ArticleBody:Although Mayan written sources clearly document human sacrificial rituals, many details about the Mesoamerican civilization’s ceremonial victims remain unknown. Thanks to new genetic analysis, however, archeologists are piecing together the intricate religious and agricultural rites—and they are as revealing as they are grim.
For starters, all 64 bodies were biologically male, providing further evidence that many sacrifices included young men and women. Additionally, a quarter of those victims were closely related to each other—included two sets of twins. “acrificed children may have been specifically selected for their close biological kinship,” the authors write.
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