Posted on 10/11/2022 7:55:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Belize's Midnight Terror Cave is still leaving clues about more than 100 people who were sacrificed to the Maya rain god there more than a millennium ago.
Used for burial during the Maya Classic period (A.D. 250 to 925), the cave was named by locals who were called to rescue an injured looter in 2006. A three-year excavation project by California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) professors and students concluded that the more than 10,000 bones uncovered in the cave represented at least 118 people, many of whom had evidence of trauma inflicted on them around the time of death.
To dive deeper into the victims' final moments...nvestigating the calcified plaque from their teeth, known as dental calculus. The study, published Sept. 20 in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology(opens in new tab), describes curious blue fibers clinging to the teeth of at least two of the victims.
Dental calculus can preserve microscopic pieces of food that someone ate — such as pollen grains, starches and phytoliths, which are mineralized parts of plants — so Chan scraped the gunk off six teeth and sent it to study co-author Linda Scott Cummings(opens in new tab), president and CEO of the PaleoResearch Institute in Golden, Colorado. Scott Cummings found that the samples contained primarily cotton fibers and that several of those were dyed bright blue.
"The discovery of blue cotton fibers in both samples was a surprise," Chan said, because "blue is important in Maya ritual.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Or they were given some stick with woven fibers to bite on for the pain.
Human sacrifice 1,000 years ago? But....I thought the Natives were all happy little pixies frolicking in the surf before those big bad Europeans arrived and brought so much violence to the “peaceful” natives.
Yeah pulling still beating hearts out of live men, beheading them and rolling the heads down the temple stairs is not something I really wanna watch again
The local welcoming committee is happy to see newcomers…
I was thinking that or maybe cloth soaked with some kind of narcotic to help dull the pain of being sacrificed?
Do you remember name of movie?
Yes, the Mayans of old were whackos. And they really did sacrifice their fellow human beings to their bloodthirsty gods.
But the modern Christianized Mayans are incredibly hospitable, generous, kind, and disarmingly innocent and trusting. At least that was my experience while living on the Yucatán in Mexico a few decades ago.
Apocalypto
Th also, I’ll check, that out. Those dudes in the photo look like thye belong in a thriller movie lol.
All those “great” MesoAmerican civilizations that people can’t praise enough were heart-cutting horrors.
Christianity put an end to this and for this we’re supposed to feel guilty
Peaceful indigenous folk, they were.
Mayan’s are so screwed.
A movie I own and watch quite frequently.
Such scientific reporting. They “ scraped the gunk off six teeth”. I am so impressed with the highly technical insight of the author.
Apocalypto
They were at a floss for words.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.