[Aztlan] The Chichen Cenote, and "boy sacrifice"

[Mike Geubel]

I am wondering how the researchers know that these people have been
sacrificed. I have been at the cenote of Chichen Itza myself, and it looks
like a giant well.
If you fall into the cenote it is hard to get because of the high steep
walls, so maybe these people fell into the cenote by accident.

I am also wondering if the Mayan people actually sacrificed people, so are
there other sources of evidence?

Greetings,
Mike

2008/1/23, Cameron Griffith <casgriff at indiana.edu>:
>
> > Archaeologist Guillermo Anda from the University of the Yucatan has
> > pieced together the bones of 127 bodies at the bottom of a Chichen
> > Itza cenote and found 80% were boys between 3-11 and the others were
> > mostly adult males thus disproving that the Maya sacrificed virgins
> > to the wells. The children were skinned or dismembered before being
> > thrown in.
> >
> > The Daily Telegraph of Australia has the story here;
> >
> >
> http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23095592-5001028,00.html
>
> Using the above paragraph as the teaser for this story is quite
> misleading.  It makes it sound like Anda performed a rigorous
> scientific analysis of bones from a sample of 127 MNI, then determined
> that 80% were boys.  The end of the article reveals the true nature of
> this determination:
>
> >> It was difficult to determine the sex of skeletons before they were
> >> fully matured, said Mr de Anda, but he believed cultural evidence
> >> from Mayan mythology would suggest the young victims were actually
> >> male.<<
>
> So, in other words, it is not possible to sex skeletons that have not
> reached puberty, as there is scarcely any sexual dimorphism in
> preadolescent children, and even with some adult skeletal material it
> is still difficult. In addition to this, there is no compelling
> evidence presented in the article that indicates that the skeletal
> material represents human sacrifice in the first place.
>
> This article surely is an attention-grabber, but hardly focused on
> detailing the facts.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Aztlan mailing list
> http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/aztlan
> Click here to post a message Aztlan at lists.famsi.org
> Click to view Calendar of Events
> http://research.famsi.org/events/events.php
>
>
>


-- 
Met vriendelijke groeten,

Mike Geubel

Mijn reizen: http://geubel.blogspot.com
Mijn blog:  http://mikegeubel.blogspot.com