They Thought the Skulls Were Murder Victims. They Were Off by Centuries.

In 2012, the authorities within the southern Mexican state of Chiapas entered a darkish cave and confronted a ghastly website: about 150 skulls sprawled throughout the bottom, all with lacking enamel and shattered bits of bone.

The police began an investigation, believing it was against the law scene of migrants killed close to the border with Guatemala, the place gang violence is commonplace.

Certainly, it was against the law scene. Simply not one which occurred not too long ago.

Final week, 10 years after the invention, the authorities stated in a statement that they’d decided the skulls have been from sacrificial killings between AD 900 and 1200.

“Now we have already realized plenty of data,” Javier Montes de Paz, an archaeologist who analyzed the bones, stated in a information convention on April 11. “But it surely’s additionally necessary to notice: What have been these craniums doing in that cave?”

Researchers on the Nationwide Institute of Anthropology and Historical past analyzed marks on the bones and decided that the deaths had occurred centuries in the past. Such marks would seem solely after “loads, plenty of time” had handed, Mr. Montes de Paz stated.

The researchers discovered that the victims had been beheaded, that a lot of the bones have been from feminine victims, and that each one have been lacking enamel, although it was unclear if they’d been extracted earlier than or after dying, Mr. Montes de Paz stated.

The researchers additionally discovered the skeletal stays of three infants.

The pre-Hispanic bone pile within the Comalapa cave was possible a tzompantli — an altar for worshiping gods that may seem like a modern-day trophy rack, with skulls positioned on aligned wood sticks, Mr. Montes de Paz stated. Comparable practices have been frequent in Maya, Aztec and different Mesoamerican civilizations, in response to Smithsonian Magazine,

The wood materials “disappeared over time and will have collapsed the skulls,” Mr. Montes de Paz added.

Investigators within the cave additionally discovered aligned wood sticks, one other signal of a tzompantli, in response to a statement from the Nationwide Institute of Anthropology and Historical past.

Whereas the researchers have but to conclude their research, Mr. Montes de Paz stated it was almost certainly that a number of Mesoamerican communities used the cave. Its two entrances have been so steep that researchers had to make use of a ladder to enter.

It was unclear how the skulls have been discovered a decade in the past, or by whom. The authorities stated in an announcement {that a} “criticism” had alerted them to the invention within the city of Carrizal, within the municipality of Frontera Comalapa. The Nationwide Institute of Anthropology and Historical past didn’t reply to emailed questions on Wednesday.

Anthropologists finding out the skulls discovered different bone fragments on the website, together with a femur and items from arms. Intact our bodies, nonetheless, had not been discovered, Mr. Montes de Paz stated.

The Spanish invasion occurred within the 1500s. In response to Smithsonian Journal, when the Spanish arrived, they have been fearful of the rituals.

However the sacrifices appeared to have been frequent in Chiapas. The National Institute of Anthropology and History stated that within the Nineteen Eighties, anthropologists explored Cueva de las Banquetas, a cave, and located 124 skulls that didn’t have enamel. In 1993, Mexican and French explorers in Ocozocoautla traveled to Cueva Tapesco del Diablo, one other cave with 5 skulls inside.

Mr. Montes de Paz stated his staff was desirous to additional discover the Comalapa cave quickly.

If folks go to such websites sooner or later and see skulls, he stated, they need to not “contact or decide up something.” In any other case, they may have an effect on the archaeological integrity of the location. The individuals who discovered the skulls in Chiapas in 2012 by accident touched among the bones, he stated. “You have an effect on the historical past,” he stated. “And plenty of data is misplaced.”

Nonetheless, he believed that after extra evaluation, the story of the skulls might quickly be absolutely informed.