El Castillo, also known as the Temple of Kukulcan, is among the largest structures at Chichén Itzá and its architecture reflects its far-flung political connections.
© Johannes Krause
When priests succeed in sowing superstition and fear into the minds of their victims, and fool them into believe they know the mind of their god and what he requires them to do, there is probably no depth of depravity they can't descend to, with the excuse of religion to fall back on, especially when it's backed up by threats of eternal pain and suffering in some assumed life after death, for non-compliance.
For example, Christians have been persuaded that their god needed a blood sacrifice so it could forgive them for something of which it had arbitrarily declared them to be guilty, and that there was a sense in which impregnating a young woman without her consent, then having her baby killed to satiate its lust for blood, was something to be admired.
Now detach those acts from religion and the belief that a god had sanctioned them and imagine them, being the subject of a court case in which the defendant explained that he had to rape the girl so she could have his baby, so he could then kill her child, because he was angry about something that someone once did hundreds of years ago, and would otherwise make people suffer in unimaginably horrible ways.
Which jury would declare him to be not guilty of any crime and free to go, assuming he was considered fit to plead? After appropriate psychiatric assessment, he would most likely be found to be a dangerous psychopath with a narcissistic personality disorder, who should probably be kept under lock and key for the sake of society.
And yet Christians sing songs in this monster's praise and tell their children to look to it for moral guidance, and pass on to their children the superstition and fear that caused them to lose their moral judgement, believing this to be the right and proper way to bring up children!
Something has caused them to lose moral judgement because priests say a god did it, so they can distance themselves from the brutality.
It's hardly surprising then that there has been so much death, destruction and human misery caused by religions, or rather caused by people who had been told a god wanted them to go out and cause it.
And it's hardly surprising that an international team of researchers from institutions including the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) and Geoanthropology (Jena), the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH, Mexico City), the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH-Yucatan, Mérida), and Harvard University (Cambridge) have found evidence of regular barbaric ritual child sacrifice, carried out by the Mayan's at Chichén Itzá.
And in another discovery, the same team provide evidence, if any were needed, of how a population's genome can be changed by intense selection pressure such as an epidemic, resulting in the evolution of the population in response to this environmental change, in a classic example of Darwinian evolution by natural selection.
In this case, an outbreak of Salmonella enterica in 1545 (the cocoliztli pandemic) has resulted in an increased frequency of HLA-DR4 alleles which provide greater resistance to Salmonella enterica infection. Clearly, those better able to resist the infection left more descendants than those who succumbed to it.
An account of their findings is given in an open access paper in Nature and in a Max Planck Institute News release:
Tell me about the Mayans and their religion, please. The Maya civilization, which thrived in what is now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador, is renowned for its rich cultural, architectural, and intellectual achievements. Their religion was a complex and integral part of their society, influencing various aspects of their daily life, governance, and understanding of the universe. Here's an overview of the key elements of Maya religion:
Deities and Cosmology
The Maya pantheon included a vast array of gods and goddesses, each associated with different aspects of life and nature. Key deities included:
- Itzamná: The supreme god, often associated with creation, wisdom, and the sky.
- K'inich Ajaw: The sun god, important for agriculture and life.
- Chaac: The rain god, crucial for the fertility of crops.
- Ix Chel: The goddess of the moon, fertility, and medicine.
Maya cosmology was highly intricate, with the universe divided into several realms, including the heavens, the earthly realm, and the underworld (Xibalba). The cosmos was often depicted as a giant tree, with its roots in the underworld and branches reaching the heavens.
Rituals and Practices
Religion permeated daily life and governance, with rituals and ceremonies conducted by priests and rulers. Key practices included:
- Bloodletting: Elite members of society, including rulers, would pierce their bodies to offer blood to the gods, a crucial aspect of maintaining cosmic order and appeasing deities.
- Human Sacrifice: While less common than bloodletting, human sacrifice was performed during significant ceremonies, often to ensure agricultural fertility, success in warfare, or during consecration of buildings.
- Offerings and Temples: Offerings of food, incense, and other goods were made to deities. Temples, often in the form of pyramids, served as religious centers where rituals and sacrifices were conducted.
Mythology and Sacred Texts
The Maya had a rich body of mythology, with stories passed down through generations. Key texts include:
- Popol Vuh: A foundational sacred text of the K'iche' Maya, detailing the creation of the world, the adventures of the Hero Twins, and the genealogy of the K'iche' rulers.
- Chilam Balam: A series of books containing mythological, historical, and prophetic texts, named after legendary Maya priests.
The Calendar and Astronomy
The Maya developed a sophisticated understanding of time and astronomy, closely linked to their religious beliefs. They used several calendars, including:
- Tzolk'in: A 260-day ceremonial calendar.
- Haab': A 365-day solar calendar.
- Long Count: A linear calendar used to track longer periods of time.
Astronomy was deeply tied to their religious practices, with celestial bodies believed to be deities or their manifestations. Observatories and precise alignments of buildings allowed the Maya to track celestial events, which guided agricultural cycles and religious ceremonies.
Priestly Class and Governance
Priests played a vital role in Maya society, conducting rituals, maintaining knowledge of astronomy and calendars, and advising rulers. The rulers themselves were often seen as divine or semi-divine figures, intermediaries between the gods and the people.
Decline and Legacy
The classic period of Maya civilization saw the construction of monumental architecture and the flourishing of their culture. However, by the end of the first millennium CE, many Maya cities were abandoned due to factors like environmental degradation, warfare, and drought. Despite this decline, the Maya culture and religion persisted, and contemporary Maya communities continue to practice traditional beliefs and rituals.
The Maya religion, with its rich tapestry of deities, myths, and rituals, remains a testament to the civilization's complexity and their profound connection to the natural and celestial worlds.
Ritual sacrifice at Chichén Itzá
Ancient Maya genomes reveal the practice of male twin sacrifice and the enduring genetic legacy of colonial-era epidemics
Rising to power in the wake of the Classic Maya collapse, Chichén Itzá was among the largest and most influential cities of the ancient Maya, but much about its political connections and ritual life remain poorly understood. In a new study in Nature, researchers discover a practice of ritual child sacrifice focused exclusively on males. Close kin relationships, including two pairs of identical twins, suggests a connection to the Maya origin myths of the Popol Vuh. Further comparison to Maya populations today reveals the genetic impact of colonial-era epidemics.
Located in the heart of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá is one of North America’s most iconic and enigmatic archaeological sites. It rose to power in the aftermath of the Classic Maya collapse and was a populous and powerful political center in the centuries preceding the arrival of the Spanish. Chichén Itzá’s influence extended throughout the Maya region and deep into the heart of Central Mexico. Famed for its monumental architecture, including more than a dozen ballcourts and numerous temples, among them the massive temple of El Castillo adorned with feathered serpents, it has been under archaeological investigation for more than a century.
Chichén Itzá is perhaps best known for its extensive evidence of ritual killing, which includes both the physical remains of sacrificed individuals and representations in monumental art. The controversial dredging of the site’s Sacred Cenote in the early 20th century identified the remains of hundreds of individuals, and a full-scale stone representation of a massive tzompantli (skull rack) in the site’s core point to the centrality of sacrifice within the ritual life at Chichén Itzá. Despite its notoriety, however, the role and context of ritual killing at the site remain poorly understood.
A large proportion of sacrificed individuals at the site are children and adolescents. Although there is a widespread belief that females were the primary focus of sacrifice at the site, sex is difficult to determine from juvenile skeletal remains by physical examination alone, and more recent anatomical analyses suggest that many of the older juveniles may in fact be male. In 1967, a subterranean chamber was discovered near the Sacred Cenote that contained the scattered remains of more than a hundred young children. The chamber, which was likely a repurposed chultún (water cistern), had been enlarged to connect to a small cave. Among the ancient Maya, caves, cenotes (natural sinkholes), and chultúns have long been associated with child sacrifice, and such subterranean features were widely viewed as connection points to the underworld.
To better understand ritual life and the context of child sacrifice at Chichén Itzá, an international team of researchers from institutions including the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) and Geoanthropology (Jena), the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH, Mexico City), the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH-Yucatan, Mérida), and Harvard University (Cambridge) conducted an in-depth genetic investigation of the remains of 64 children ritually interred within the chutún at Chichén Itzá.
A ritual sacrifice focused on males and close kin
Dating of the remains revealed that the chultún was used for mortuary purposes for more than 500 years, from the 7th to 12th centuries AD, but that most of the children were interred during the 200-year period of Chichén Itzá’s political apex between 800 to 1,000 AD. Unexpectedly, genetic analysis revealed that all 64 tested individuals were male. Further genetic analysis revealed that the children had been drawn from local Maya populations, and that at least a quarter of the children were closely related to at least one other child in the chultún. These young relatives had consumed similar diets, suggesting they were raised in the same household. “Our findings showcase remarkably similar dietary patterns among individuals exhibiting a first- or second-degree familial connection,” says co-author Patxi Pérez-Ramallo, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, NTNU University Museum, Trondheim, Norway and the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology.Portion of reconstructed stone tzompantli, or skull rack, at Chichén Itzá.© Johannes Krause
Detail from the reconstructed stone tzompantli, or skull rack, at Chichén Itzá.© Christina Warinner
Most surprisingly, we identified two pairs of identical twins. We can say this with certainty because our sampling strategy ensured we would not duplicate individuals.
Kathrin Nägele, co-first author
Department of Archaeogenetics
Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA)
Leipzig, Germany.
Taken together, the findings indicate that related male children were likely being selected in pairs for ritual activities associated with the chultún.
Connections to the Popol VuhThe 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, co-corresponding author
Kathrin Nägele, Patxi Pérez-Ramallo, Diana Iraíz Hernández-Zaragoza Centro INAH Yucatán
Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH)
Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico
Twins hold a special place in the origin stories and spiritual life of the ancient Maya. Twin sacrifice is a central theme in the sacred K’iche’ Mayan Book of Council, known as the Popol Vuh, a colonial-era book whose antecedents can be traced back more than 2,000 years in the Maya region. In the Popol Vuh, the twins Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu descend into the underworld and are sacrificed by the gods following defeat in a ballgame. The twin sons of Hun Hunahpu, known as the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque, then go on to avenge their father and uncle by undergoing repeated cycles of sacrifice and resurrection in order to outwit the gods of the underworld. The Hero Twins and their adventures are amply represented in Classic Maya art, and because subterranean structures were viewed as entrances to the underworld, the interment of twins and pairs of close kin within the chultún at Chichén Itzá may recall rituals involving the Hero Twins.
The enduring genetic legacy of colonial epidemicsEarly 20th century accounts falsely popularized lurid tales of young women and girls being sacrificed at the site. 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.
Associate Professor Christina Warinner, co-author
John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
And Department of Archaeogenetics
Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA)
Leipzig, Germany.
The detailed genetic information obtained at Chichén Itzá has also allowed researchers to investigate another major outstanding question in Mesoamerica: the long-term genetic impact of colonial-era epidemics on Indigenous populations. Working closely with residents of the local Maya community of Tixcacaltuyub, researchers found evidence of genetic positive selection in immunity-related genes, and specifically selection for genetic variants that are protective against Salmonella infection. During the 16th century in Mexico, wars, famines, and epidemics caused a population decline as high as 90 percent, and among the most serious epidemics was the 1545 cocoliztli epidemic, recently identified as being caused by the pathogen Salmonella enterica Paratyphi C.
The study of ancient DNA is increasingly allowing more detailed and complex questions to be asked about the past.The present-day Maya carry the genetic scars of these colonial-era epidemics. 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.
Dr. Rodrigo Barquera, co-corresponding author
Department of Archaeogenetics
Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA)
Leipzig, Germany And Molecular Genetics Laboratory
Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH)
Mexico City, Mexico.
Such studies also empower Indigenous researchers to shape narratives of the past and set priorities for the future.The new information gained from ancient DNA has not only allowed us to dispel outdated hypotheses and assumptions and to gain new insights into the biological consequences of past events, it has given us a glimpse into the cultural lives of the ancient Maya.
Johannes Krause, Senior author
Director of the Department of Archaeogenetics Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA), Leipzig, Germany.
It is significant to me as a research professor of indigenous origin that I can contribute to the construction of knowledge. I consider the preservation of the historical memory of the Mayan people to be important.
María Ermila Moo-Mezeta, co-author
Nursing Faculty
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (UADY), Mérida, Mexico.
AbstractTwo things for creationists and followers of the Abrahamic religions to find reasons to ignore here:
The ancient city of Chichén Itzá in Yucatán, Mexico, was one of the largest and most influential Maya settlements during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (AD 600–1000) and it remains one of the most intensively studied archaeological sites in Mesoamerica1,2,3,4. However, many questions about the social and cultural use of its ceremonial spaces, as well as its population’s genetic ties to other Mesoamerican groups, remain unanswered2. Here we present genome-wide data obtained from 64 subadult individuals dating to around AD 500–900 that were found in a subterranean mass burial near the Sacred Cenote (sinkhole) in the ceremonial centre of Chichén Itzá. Genetic analyses showed that all analysed individuals were male and several individuals were closely related, including two pairs of monozygotic twins. Twins feature prominently in Mayan and broader Mesoamerican mythology, where they embody qualities of duality among deities and heroes5, but until now they had not been identified in ancient Mayan mortuary contexts. Genetic comparison to present-day people in the region shows genetic continuity with the ancient inhabitants of Chichén Itzá, except at certain genetic loci related to human immunity, including the human leukocyte antigen complex, suggesting signals of adaptation due to infectious diseases introduced to the region during the colonial period.
Main
The ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá, centrally located in the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula (Fig. 1a,b), ranks among the largest and most iconic archaeological sites in Mesoamerica but much about its origins and history remains poorly understood1,2. First rising to prominence during the Late Classic period (AD 600–800), Chichén Itzá became the dominant political centre of the northern Maya lowlands during the Terminal Classic (AD 800–1000), a period when most other Classic Maya sites in the southern and northern lowlands underwent a political collapse. Most of the inscribed calendar dates on carved monuments at Chichén Itzá fall between AD 850 and 875 and the northern ceremonial centre of the site, known as New Chichén, was largely constructed after AD 900 and includes the site’s largest structure, El Castillo, also known as the Temple of Kukulkán. A sacbe (limestone causeway) was constructed to connect New Chichén to the Sacred Cenote6, an enormous sinkhole containing abundant ritual offerings, including the remains of more than 200 ritually sacrificed individuals, mostly children1,3,7. Evidence of ritual killing is extensive throughout the site of Chichén Itzá and includes both the physical remains of sacrificed individuals as well as representations in monumental art8. Elite activity at Chichén Itzá declined during the eleventh century AD, with a last inscribed calendar date of AD 998 (refs. 9,10), but the site continued to be a prominent ritual and pilgrimage centre during the colonial period and beyond11,12,13.
In 1967, a repurposed chultún containing the remains of more than 100 subadults was discovered near the Sacred Cenote (Fig. 1c,d)4,14,15. As for cenotes, chultúns (underground cisterns) are associated with water storage and also ritual activity16,17 and they share symbolism with caves18. Such subterranean features have long been associated with water, rain and child sacrifice14,19,20 and they are widely viewed as access points to the Maya underworld21,22. Given the location and context of the Chichén Itzá chultún, which was also connected to a small underground cave, it has been speculated to contain children sacrificed to support maize agricultural cycles19 or given as offerings to the Maya rain deity Chaac23. Sixteenth century Spanish colonial accounts and early twentieth century investigations following the dredging of the Sacred Cenote popularized the notion that young women and girls were primarily sacrificed at the site24,25 but more recent osteological analyses indicate that the bodies of both males and females were deposited in the Sacred Cenote7,26. Systematic investigations of sacrificial assemblages across the Maya region have confirmed that both males and females were subject to ritual killing but, because most sacrificed individuals at Classic Maya sites are juveniles, precise sex distributions cannot be determined using conventional osteological approaches alone19,26. Sixteenth century Spanish sources record that such children were obtained locally by kidnapping, purchase and gift exchange19,27,28, although recent isotopic studies suggest that at least some individuals within the Sacred Cenote were non-local and may have originated as far away as Honduras or Central Mexico1. Nevertheless, despite more than a century of research, much about child sacrifice and the ceremonial use of subterranean features as ritual mass graves at Chichén Itzá remains unknown.Fig. 1: Geographical context for the groups analysed and biological relatedness in the chultún.a, Location of the Maya region in the Americas. b, Geographical locations of Chichén Itzá and Tixcacaltuyub in the Yucatan Peninsula. c, Stratigraphy for the chultún and the adjacent cave in which the burial was found (adapted from ref. 4). d, Location of the chultún within the archaeological site of Chichén Itzá and its relation to El Castillo (adapted from ref. 10). Modern roads are marked in light grey; the chultún abuts an airport runway. e, Genetic pairwise mismatch rate (PMR) for child pairs in the chultún identifies 11 close relative pairs (hollow diamonds), including two pairs of monozygotic twins (highlighted in grey). A low overall PMR for unrelated individuals (black triangles) confirms low genetic diversity in the population; only pairs with PMR < 0.20 are visualized in the plot. See Supplementary Fig. 2 for individual annotations.
To better understand the origin and biological relationships of the sacrificed children to each other and to present-day inhabitants of the region, here we used a combined bioarchaeological and genomics approach to investigate 64 subadults interred within a chultún near the Sacred Cenote (Fig. 1c) and compare them to 68 present-day Maya inhabitants of the nearby town of Tixcacaltuyub, as well as to other available ancient and contemporary genetic data from the region. The community of Tixcacaltuyub has been collaborating with our research team for many years and their perspectives informed the development of this manuscript (Supplementary Methods: ‘Community engagement activities’). Our analyses, comprising of ancient human genetic data analysis, bone collagen stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen and radiocarbon dating (Supplementary Table 1) show that all chultún subadults were male and that close relatives were present in the mass burial, including two sets of monozygotic twins. Stable isotope analysis indicates that related children consumed more similar diets and that overall the diet of Chichén Itzá children was comparable to that of other Classic period populations throughout the Maya Lowlands (Supplementary Table 2 and Supplementary Fig. 4). Genetic comparison to other ancient and present-day people shows long-term genetic continuity in the Maya region but indicates allele frequency shifts in immunity genes at the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II locus, specifically an increase in HLA-DR4 alleles which provide greater resistance to Salmonella enterica infection, the causative agent of an enteric fever previously identified in a colonial-era mass grave in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, which was associated with the 1545 cocoliztli pandemic29.
Barquera, R., Del Castillo-Chávez, O., Nägele, K. et al.
Ancient genomes reveal insights into ritual life at Chichén Itzá.
Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07509-7
Copyright: © 2024 The authors.
Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
Firstly, there is the record of an evolutionary change in the population genome in the form of an increased frequency of an allele that protects against Salmonella enterica in response to an epidemic in 1545, in a classic example of Darwinian evolution by natural selection.
Secondly, there is the evidence of how fear and superstition can be used by priests to manipulate people into suspending their own innate morality and elevating the most depraved moral standards to the status of a supreme act, worthy of adoration and worship (an example of which can be seen in the craven adoration of American fundamentalist Christians for the morally repugnant Donald Trump).
Having been told by the priests that the gods required tokens of worship in the form of child sacrifice, to ensure the crops grew, the people suspended their natural recoil at the brutal cruelty of these rituals, and probably even considered it an honour to have their own children brutally murdered in front of an appreciative crowd.
But of course, now the ritual murders no longer take place, the seasons continue to come and go, and the crops still grow.
And no doubt the people now believe other rituals are necessary - rituals of a religion that believes non-consensual sex with a virgin to produce a child to be used in a blood sacrifice, is something to celebrate and the perpetrator worthy of adoration and worship.
Perhaps we are fortunate that the priests of this religion don't tell us we need to give our unfortunate children to be sacrificed in ritual murders for the good of the people, because a god requires it so it can forgive us for something of which it arbitrarily declared us guilty, or so that the seasons continue to come and go, the sun to rise every morning and the crops to grow.
Ten Reasons To Lose Faith: And Why You Are Better Off Without It
This book explains why faith is a fallacy and serves no useful purpose other than providing an excuse for pretending to know things that are unknown. It also explains how losing faith liberates former sufferers from fear, delusion and the control of others, freeing them to see the world in a different light, to recognise the injustices that religions cause and to accept people for who they are, not which group they happened to be born in. A society based on atheist, Humanist principles would be a less divided, more inclusive, more peaceful society and one more appreciative of the one opportunity that life gives us to enjoy and wonder at the world we live in.
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Human sacrifices qnd animal sacrifices is insane, immoral, disgusting, and unbelievably stupid. How delusional and stupid to believe in sacrifices and even more stupid to actually conduct it. When it comes to God and religion people become stupid, delusional, and immoral. Mindless barbarism and savagery.
ReplyDeleteTwo movies from the 1970s deal with sacrifices in the name of religion. The Wickerman was made in Scotland and dealt with Druids who burned both animals and humans in wicker cages to appease their God's. What kind of God's would require bloody sacrifices? Do these people who belong to these cults ever use their brains? Do these people have a conscience? Apparently not.
The other disgusting 1970s movie showing an animal sacrifice is Apocalypse Now. A real live water buffalo was slaughtered to death with machetes at the end of the movie by the Ifugao tribe in Luzon, the Philippines as part of 5heir sick demented religion. They just use religion as an excuse to engage in violence, barbarism, and savagery. They just like killing and eating animals. They are so barbaric that they just hack the unfortunate animals to death while the animal is conscious and can feel everything that's happening to it. Cruelty, savagery, barbarism, degenerate. It makes me nauseated. It makes me want to throw up. It illustrates that humans are still semi barbaric apes. Hunting, killing, and eating animals came early in Hominid history and there's evidence in cannibalism and eating brains in hominids and prehistoric humans. See the interesting book by author Oscar Maerth, The Beginning 2as the End. The author argues that prehistoric humans engaged in cannibalism and brain eating. This increased intelligence but it also increased aggression, violence, cruelty, savagery. How true is it? It's a very pessimistic description of humans and human history. But religion has caused more harm than any other cause.