DNA Tests Reveal Stunning Insights Into Ancient Mayan Ritual Sacrifices

Sometimes, the general understanding of how an ancient civilization lived is wrong. For instance, DNA tests revealed that a skeleton isn't Cleopatra's family member after all, while unrelated DNA tests revealed that historians were wrong about the victims of Pompeii. In 2024, the analysis of ancient Maya genomes uncovered at Chichén Itzá concluded that the community was only sacrificing males, not females.

In the early 1900s, controversial digging in the ceremonial hub of Chichén Itzá — the Sacred Cenote (sinkhole) — exposed what were believed to be the remains of hundreds of female children and adolescents. However, a new DNA study (published in Nature) of genome-wide data from 64 individuals found in a chultún (water cistern) near the sinkhole in 1967, concluded that the remains are actually male. The long-held misunderstanding was the result of it being practically impossible to distinguish the biological sex of juvenile bones because the defining characteristics don't emerge until puberty.

Christina Warinner, a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said in a statement, "This study, conducted as a close international collaboration, turns that story on its head and reveals the deep connections between ritual sacrifice and the cycles of human death and rebirth described in sacred Maya texts." In a statement to CNN, she noted, "We're getting better and better at retrieving even very small amounts of DNA. And suddenly, we now have the ability to do these large-scale genomic studies and apply ancient DNA as a tool to help us understand the past in Mesoamerica."

When dating the remains, the researchers found that the chultún was used from the 600s to the 1100s, but most of them were interred between 800 and 1000. Additional analysis of the characteristics of the DNA discovered that the children were from local Maya communities and that some of them were closely related. In fact, two pairs of remains were twins, which was a common practice in the sacred K'iche' Mayan Book of Council (Popol Vuh), a colonial-era book that can be traced back to the Maya region more than 2,000 years ago.

Patxi Pérez-Ramallo, a co-author and postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, explained in a press release, "Our findings showcase remarkably similar dietary patterns among individuals exhibiting a first- or second-degree familial connection." Oana Del Castillo-Chávez, co-author and researcher in the Physical Anthropology Section at the Centro INAH Yucatán, added, "The similar ages and diets of the male children, their close genetic relatedness, and the fact that they were interred in the same place for more than 200 years point to the chultún as a post-sacrificial burial site, with the sacrificed individuals having been selected for a specific reason."

Along with gaining insight into Maya ritual practices, the team of researchers have been able to better understand the long-term impact that colonial-era epidemics have had on genetics, further highlighting the importance of studying human DNA genetics. They compared the ancient genomes to those of 68 present-day Maya in the local Tixcacaltuyub community, which revealed a close genetic relationship. Also, the testing showed genetic variations in the locals' immune systems as a result of disease epidemics from throughout history that were brought by European colonizers.

Rodrigo Barquera, lead author and postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said in a statement, "Multiple lines of evidence point to specific genetic changes in the immune genes of present-day Mexicans of Indigenous and mixed-ancestry descent that are linked to enhanced resistance to Salmonella enterica infection." Vera Tiesler, a bioarchaeologist and professor at the Autonomous University of Yucatán, told CNN, "This study is decisively new; a starting point for further, more specific inquiries about the convoluted trajectory of the Maya."