'Blood Cave' in Guatemala proves Mayans brutally killed their own people once a year

Mayan discoveries have fascinated archaeologists for decades. In the 1990s, when human remains were found in a Guatemala cave, it created a puzzle that they have been trying to solve since then. Cueva de Sangre, translated as “blood cave,” is filled with body parts of over 100 adult and young humans. They had marks that indicated traumatic injuries and were dismembered.

An analysis has revealed that these humans weren't just killed, but were sacrificed by the Mayans to appease the rain god. Mayans visited the cave at Dos Pilas in Peten between 400 BC and 250 AD.

According to a research titled “Black as Night, Dark as Death,” the remains were part of a ritual to please a Maya rain god. Michele Bleuze, bioarcheologist at California State University, Los Angeles, told Live Science that the remains presented an opportunity to "investigate ritual behaviour among ancient Mesoamericans."

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Blood Cave had body parts, and not bodies

The researchers noted that "there are body parts and not bodies." Since body parts are "just as valuable as the whole body" in Mayan ritual, scientists figured that humans were sacrificed.

Those who studied the remains also state that other indications of ritual dismemberment were that the body parts weren't buried and that the injuries on the body parts occurred around the time of death.

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“The types of skeletal elements present, trauma, arrangement of bones, and bone modifications, strongly support the sacrificial nature of the deposition,” the researchers wrote.

Similar marks on remains of different humans

Similar marks found on remains of different people also hinted at the possibility of human sacrifice. Ellen Fricano, a forensic anthropologist at Western University of Health Sciences in California, told Live Science that something like a hatchet was possibly used to kill an adult and a child, since the same mark was found on a skull’s forehead and on a child’s hip bone.

The way the bones were placed was another clue. Experts found four stacked skull caps in one spot, besides objects like red ochre and obsidian blades. This, combined with the number of bones and the traumatic injuries, led them to conclude that it wasn't just a burial site, but a place for ritualistic sacrifices.

The cave can only be accessed during the three months of the dry season. Bleuze thinks the Mayans came to the cave on the Day of the Holy Cross celebration on May 3 every year, where they prayed to the Maya rain god to have a good harvest.