Child Sacrifices at Famed Maya Site Were All Boys, Many Closely Related

They May Have Been Sacrificed to Ensure the Growth of Maize Crops or to Appease a Rain God

Genetic clues have unveiled a type of ritual child sacrifice at an ancient Maya site that consisted only of young boys, often chosen as closely related pairs that included twins.

The discovery stems from a burial of more than 100 people in an underground chamber discovered in 1967 at Chichén Itzá, a once-dominant Maya city in what is now Mexico’s Yucatan…