A 1,200-Year-Old Murder Mystery in Guatemala

NY Times ^ | November 17, 2005 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

[Pharmboy]

Andrew L. Demarest

The remains of a Maya king, Kan Maax, who was killed about A.D. 800 in Cancuén with dozens of his royal associates and
courtiers. Despite the puzzling slaughter, the bodies were treated with respect.

Archaeologists and forensic experts in Guatemala have made a grisly discovery among the ruins of an ancient Maya city, Cancuén.

In explorations during the summer, they found as many as 50 skeletons in a sacred pool and other places, victims of murder and dismemberment in a war that destroyed the city and, it seems, served as a beginning of the collapse of the classic period of the Maya civilization. snip...

As the scale of the massacre became apparent, the archaeologists called on Guatemalan forensic investigators for their experience with mass burials of modern war. The team, established in 1996 to excavate the mass graves from Guatemala's civil war, has also analyzed sites in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda.

Arthur A. Demarest, an archaeologist at Vanderbilt University who directed the excavations, described the discovery snip...

In a gruesome departure from what had been normal Maya warfare, he said, the conquerors - not yet identified - did not spare the city to rule it as a vassal state.

Around A.D. 800, they methodically destroyed the palace and monuments and rounded up the king and queen of Cancuén and members of the court, men, women and children. They killed them en masse, mostly by lance thrusts and ax blows to the neck or head. Most of their mutilated bodies were dumped into the palace pool or buried in shallow graves.

"After this tragic and violent event, unlike any yet discovered at a classic Maya site," Dr. Demarest said, "the city of Cancuén was completely abandoned, as were many other cities downstream" on the Pasión River.

[Natural Law]

The presumption that this was the result of a foreign conquest is not universally supported. Many credible archaeologists and anthropologist believe that this was the result of a popular revolt against an oppressive or ineffective ruling priest class.

There is evidence that the region underwent a severe and sustained drought that resulted in wide spread starvation. The priestly solution was to increase the human sacrifices to solve the problem. The people eventually realized that they had two problems; the drought and the tyrants. They fixed the one they could and reorganized society to survive the other.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks...makes sense.

[Ciexyz]

An example of "total warfare".

[SunkenCiv]

Welcome aboard.

[VeniVidiVici]

Someone wanted this entire city abandoned, and its rulers and their line eradicated, ina departure from usual conquest. I wonder why?

So they could get rid of the Black inner-city poor and build casinos.

[VeniVidiVici]

There is evidence that the region underwent a severe and sustained drought

Interesting. Is there a timeframe on this, give or take a 100 years or so?

[Skywalk]

If they figured out increased human sacrifices was an issue--they didn't learn long. Aztecs came in and outdid everyone else in the world on that level.

[Natural Law]

The time frame is detailed in the following link.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_mayan.html