At Newly Discovered Water Temple, Maya Offered Sacrifices to End Drought

It's not much, but to me any Mayan history is nice reading and learning, and sharing it with the members here is a must.

Enjoy the article, there is a short drone video of the temple inside, i couldn't find the Youtube version (high volume) .

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Nestled in a quiet forest in Belize, a deep aquamarine pool holds ruins from a time when the ancient Maya turned to a "drought cult," archaeologists suggest, and hurried sacrifices to a water god to try to stave off the fall of their civilization.

At the Cara Blanca site in Belize, archaeologists report the discovery of a water temple complex: a small plaza holding the collapsed remnants of a lodge and two smaller structures. The main structure rests beside a deep pool where pilgrims offered sacrifices to the Maya water god, and perhaps also to the demons of the underworld.

This is another related video

Eye candy

Very interesting!

Thanks for the share! S+F!

a reply to: Mianeye

Ever since I went to Mexico I have loved their history, the Mayan civilization has always fascinated me.
And I think I can owe that to a tour guide my girlfriend I had the first time we went, he was an archaeologist himself for the Mexican government and did tour guiding on his off time. He went into great detail about the cenotes and how important they were to the early peoples in all regions of the Yucatan area.
There is one actually near Chichen Itza that has almost the same mystique to it, they found several human bodies down inside it. he gave an honest answer and said they weren't sure if it was all accidental, or on purpose. Most likely people just falling in.

But, to get us all 'going' he did mention that there were cenotes where they found dozens of skulls and stuff at the bottom.

Very interesting. With drought having been a very real problem, I wonder what makes them suggest that the skulls found were part of emerging human sacrificial rituals. Maybe people just starved to death? The skulls shown in the picture and video do not show sign of violence, imho.

a reply to: aboutface

We know that sacrificing humans was a huge part of Mayan culture, as they find other sacrificial artifacts on the bottom of the sinkhole and have found human remains in other sinkholes all over the Yucatan peninsula, they connect it to sacrifices.

Maybe it's judge from the spread of the bones, the head is chopped off or something, and lie in a different position from the rest of the bones.

Cutting the throat would leave no or little visible damage to the bones, so that is another option.

But, we also know that archaeologist like to link everything to god's and sacrifices, when in reality it could be from accidents not related to beliefs at all.

The temple and surrounding area in this case, probably hold the clues.

a reply to: Mianeye

Interesting...

The main structure rests beside a deep pool where pilgrims offered sacrifices to the Maya water god, and perhaps also to the demons of the underworld.

Divers explore sunken trees amid clouds of particulate matter in a pool at the Cara Blanca site, where Maya pilgrims once sacrificed pots, jars, and bowls.

Note: it's a ancestor, not a demon.



The the article then goes on to say sacrifices of human are thought to have been towards the end of the civilisation or around its fall. King pacals sarcophagus shows what looks like him on a alter being sacrificed...

Sacrel kingship or sacred kings would be sacrificed.

The notion has prehistoric roots and is found worldwide, on Java as in sub-Saharan Africa, with shaman-kings credited with rainmaking and assuring fertility and good fortune. On the other hand, the king might also be designated to suffer and atone for his people, meaning that the sacral king could be the pre-ordained victim of a human sacrifice, either regularly killed at the end of his term in the position, or sacrificed in times of crisis (e.g. the Blót of Domalde).

en.m.wikipedia.org...

I'm not sure these were all sacrifices, they used to lay bodies on slabs everywhere to see if the people would wake up. That is why a wake is called a wake, to see if the people would wake up before burying or disposing of the body. Back in the old days, diseases caused a lot of misburials and people would be buried alive.

The drawing of the king or whatever on a sacrificial alter may have been a wake being recorded.

They used to sacrifice the enemy they killed with a ritual. They may have done other sacrifices later on also, maybe if food was getting short they started that and it became a common practice to keep the population down. Sounds kind of bad, but I could see people doing that sort of thing.

a reply to: aboutface

Maya were already known to hurl sacrifices into the cenotes. The suggestion comes directly from their own mythology, and the fact that the bones do actually show some signs typical of human sacrifice. There are also many valuable objects and idols down there. Also, please note, it was way more common to hurl sacrifices to Chaac into the cenote alive. So more often than not they drowned. A good look at a cenote makes it pretty obvious that once thrown in, you're not getting out without the aid of stairs, a ladder, or a helping hand.

There are some tell-tale signs of human sacrifice that forensics archeologists/anthropologists can look for that generally do show up at a lot of Mayan sacrificial sites.

Mayans did indulge in human sacrifice as did other early American cultures.

a reply to: rickymouse

Wakes aren't exactly a thing that you find in all cultures, and very, very rarely in ancient cultures. Also, wakes have nothing to do with waiting to see if the dead will wake up. Never have been. The wake has always been a prayer vigil for the deceased.

a reply to: obscurepanda

thefuneralsource.org...

www.deathreference.com...

Newer cultures, eighteen and nineteenth century, did not have the wake for the same reason. When you go back farther this was more evident.