Implications of age and sex determinations of ancient Maya sacrificial victims at Midnight Terror Cave

AbstractThe prurient element in the popular notion of the ancient Maya sacrifice of “beautiful virgins” during the first half of the 20th century appears to have made researchers wary of studying women in human sacrifice. Interest in human sacrifice arose in the 1990s along with the formulation of the warfare hypothesis for the collapse of Maya civilization so that models of hu man sacrifice often assumed that victims were largely male war captives. The present study reports on the detailed examination of all the pelvises in the Midnight Terror Cave skeletal assemblage, using osteological and paleogenomic techniques to shed light on the age and sex composition of sacrifice d individuals. Our analysis demonstrates the presence of both males and females ranging from subadult to older adult ages. All four paleogenomic sex determinations on samples from subadults were determined female. Additionally, results indicate females fall into two age categories suggesting that sa crificed women may have served as deity impersonators in rituals dedicated to female deities.

Source: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology - April 21, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Cristina Verdugo, Kimberly Zhu, Michael Prout, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht, Alison Galloway, Lars Fehren ‐Schmitz, James E. Brady Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research