This macabre discovery was made inside an artificial cave with an area of ​​32m2 , probably used to store water, possibly with a particularly clean ground. After the victim died, the Mayans turned this cave into a real tomb. “The Pre-Hispanic Maya covered the remaining bones with a thick layer of gravel and sealed it with a layer of clay,” explained Nicolaus Seefeld, who participated in the excavations. Thanks to this, the bones were found in an extremely good state of preservation.”

Prisoners of war or nobles

According to a report by the German University, the skeletons belong to 24 people, all of whom were prisoners. In total, scientists were able to determine the age and gender of 15 of them, which were 13 men and 2 women aged between 18 and 42 years old. They also asserted that the condemned had their heads and limbs cut off at the same time before being thrown into a common grave. “The ax marks observed on the cervical vertebrae are a clear indication of decapitation.”

According to the researcher, the victims were probably prisoners of war from a carved city or nobles from Uxul who foretold a violent end at the hands of the Mayan group. Indeed, some of the teeth were encrusted with jade, indicating that these were people of high social status. Many ceramics were also found near the bones, indicating that the tomb dates to the 7th century.

An investigation with unclear motives

The Maya civilization, all as impressive as its mysterious culture, developed in Mesoamerica from 1800 BC until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1502. Many works Maya art depicts scenes of violence, beheading or sacrificing captives. But little archaeological evidence has been found to prove the existence of such scenes. In addition, researchers currently do not know what could have prompted such a massacre in the city of Uxul.

However, experts have made certain assumptions. Mr. Nikolai Grube, one of the leaders of the research team, explained: “The killing and mutilation of victims could be a ritual (possibly a type of sacrifice in extremely tragic situations for the community). ), or a grisly public extermination. “It could be that the Maya wanted to exterminate a particular family, or a group of prisoners, but this massacre took place on such a scale, in a central neighborhood of the city as a kind of statement. politics”.

But further research is needed before more can be said. Experts are considering using isotopic analysis of the remaining limbs to better understand the identities of the victims.