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DNA reveals ritual of sacrificing boys, including twins, in ancient Mayan city, scientists say
In-depth research focusing on genetic material found at an ancient Mayan temple points to a pattern of sacrificing twin boys and other close relatives, according to a new study conducted by an international team of experts.
The city of Chichén Itzá, built on what is now Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, has been investigated by archaeologists for over 100 years, according to a news release from the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, an independent association of German research institutes. Multiple researchers associated with the Max Planck Institutes were part of the multi-part analysis backing the new study. The city is “perhaps best known for its extensive evidence of ritual killing,” a news release announcing the findings noted.
Previous archaeologists have found physical remains of people who were sacrificed, the news release said, and dredging of the city’s Sacred Cenote, a large sinkhole in the city, revealed the remains of hundreds of human sacrifices.
Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
While many of those found in the cenote were determined to be children and teenagers, little was known about the “role and context of ritual killing at the site,” the news release said. In 1967, an underground chamber near the cenote filled with the remains of more than 100 young children was found.
Previous researchers believed that girls and young women were the “primary focus” of sacrifices conducted at and around the cenote, but when the team behind the new study conducted an “in-depth genetic investigation” of 64 sets of remains, they found that all the remains were those of male children, according to the news release and study.
The boys had all been selected from local populations, and at least a quarter of the children were closely related to another child found in the cavern. Many of those who were related had eaten similar diets, testing showed, suggesting the boys had lived in the same household. These factors indicate that related male children were likely “being selected in pairs for ritual activities,” the news release said.
Johannes Krause
The remains found were dated between the 7th and 12th century, showing that the ritual sacrifices took place over 500 years, the news release said, though most of the children were buried there during a 200-year period.
“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,” Oana Del Castillo-Chávez, a study co-author and researcher in the Physical Anthropology Section at the Centro INAH Yucatán who was part of the team studying the remains, said in the news release.
Researchers were able to identify two pairs of identical twins among the remains. Twins “hold a special place in the origin stories and spiritual life of the ancient Maya,” according to the news release, with twin sacrifice featuring in a sacred text known as the Popol Vuh. In that text, a pair of twin boys descend into the underworld and are sacrificed by the gods. They are later avenged by another pair of twins, known as the “Hero Twins,” whose deeds are “amply represented in Classic Maya art.”
Christina Warinner, an associate professor of social sciences and anthropology at Harvard University and a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, said in the news release that she hopes the new research will shine a new light on what ritual sacrifice in the Mayan civilization looked like and meant.
“Early 20th century accounts falsely popularized lurid tales of young women and girls being sacrificed at the site,” Warinner said in the news release. “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.”
The U.S. received written assurance from Iran before the presidential election that its leadership was not actively trying to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, CBS News confirmed, according to a source with direct knowledge of the correspondence. The message arrived after the White House in September affirmed that killing a former U.S. president or former U.S. official would be seen by the Biden administration as an act of war.
“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement in September.
Iran said in its message, which was conveyed by a third party, that it understood this premise. The Wall Street Journal first reported Iran’s message to the U.S.
The Justice Department is currently prosecuting at least two individuals alleged to have been part of murder-for-hire plots to kill Trump while he was still a candidate. One operative working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told federal investigators that he was tasked in September with “surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating” Trump, according to court records unsealed last week.
Prosecutors said Farhad Shakeri, who is believed to be residing in Iran, told investigators in a phone interview that unnamed IRGC officials pushed him to plan an attack against Trump to take place in October. If the plan could not come together in time, the Iranian officials directed Shakeri to delay the plot until after the election because the official “assessed that [Trump] would lose the election,” the charging documents said.
In early August, a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran was arrested and charged with plotting a murder-for-hire scheme targeting U.S. government officials and politicians, according to charging documents unsealed Tuesday.
A U.S. official pointed out that Iran did not task its most effective proxy force, Hezbollah, with carrying out these plots. This official described Iran’s approach to date as “nice if it works. If it doesn’t, then it’s not a problem.”
In response to inquiries suggesting that “Iran told U.S. it wouldn’t try to kill Trump”, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran said it would not comment on official messages between two countries.
The mission said in a statement, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has long declared its commitment to pursuing Martyr Soleimani’s assassination through legal and judicial avenues, while adhering fully to the recognized principles of international law.”
Trump has raised the ire of Iranians for a few reasons. He exited the international Iran nuclear agreement, which had lifted some sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. He also directed the 2020 airstrike that killed top Iranian commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Since then, some Trump administration officials and military officials received threats from the regime, among them, Robert O’Brien, who was national security adviser during the strike. His predecessor in the job, John Bolton, who was part of the maximum pressure campaign that exerted sanctions pressure on Tehran, has also received threats.
In 2022, the U.S. intelligence community assessed that Iran would threaten Americans — both directly and via proxy attacks — and was committed to developing networks inside the U.S. Two persistent threat assessments submitted to Congress by the State Department in January 2022 cited a “serious and credible threat” to the lives of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Trump administration Iran envoy Brian Hook. The non-public assessments showed that throughout 2021 and again in 2022, the State Department determined that round-the-clock, U.S.-taxpayer-funded diplomatic security details were needed to protect both men. That continues today.
Multiple former officials have spoken to CBS about duty-to-warn notices that they have recently received from the FBI and other agencies regarding the ongoing threat from Iran and Iranian-hired actors, implying the U.S. is taking the threat seriously and not taking the Iranian regime’s assurances at face value.
contributed to this report.
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