April
23
/ 2015
About 1,600 years ago in the Maya site of Tikal, a boy and a man were sacrificed in an elaborate ritual. A new study suggests they were sacrificed and burned to re-enact the legend of the twin heroes who immolated themselves to be reborn as the sun and moon. Variations of the myth are still told in Mexico and Central America. The researchers, who published a paper in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, say human sacrifice in Mesoamerica was often tied to myth and ritual but it has been hard to associate specific myths with the remains of sacrificed people. The current study relates to an archaeological finding at Tikal known as Burial PP7TT-01, which contained the remains of a boy
