Traces of the horrific massacre of Maya

Bone storage tank of people killed in Cancuen

A millennium has passed, but the bloody massacre of Maya still left a creepy feeling: a king and queen of Cancuen dynasty, more than 30 nobles and pregnant women were attacked simultaneously. and killing with axes and spears.

Deep in the dense forest of Peten in Guatemala, the ruined area of ​​a royal palace revealed the Cancuen's human skeletons and the last horrifying mark when they were robbed.

"The king and queen and the officials were clearly gathered in a large hole and were stabbed to death by spears and axes on the head or neck, " said Arthur Demarest, archaeologist who heads the excavation group. .

" In the years before the execution, the war spread in the western world of Maya. It seemed to have come to Cancuen in 800 AD ," Demarest said.

The skeletons of the king, queen, and corpses of 32 Mayan mandarins and more than a dozen other skeletons were found in a 90-square-foot reservoir in the north of the palace. The archaeological group said the massacre marked an important turning point that began the mysterious collapse of the Mayan civilization.

The discovery of the walls has not been completed, the spears are scattered, the palace is abandoned and the skeleton of the wounds from axes and spears show the entire kingdom was attacked and killed. Harmless.

The Kingdom of Cancuen was one of Maya's richest capitals, thanks to its strategic position at the top of the Pasion River - an important trade path. The area is a gateway to the Mayan civilization (consisting of dense forests in Mexico and northern Guatemala) with volcanic plateaus and the south coast.

It was once a flourishing residential area. The palace and its surrounding areas spread over an area of ​​nearly 6 football fields and was decorated by hundreds of sculpture statues. However, the Cancuen people did not resist the invaders who did not have mercy on both children and women. " Skeletons show that men, women, children of all ages are killed ," Demarest said.

Archaeologists also found fetuses in the abdomen of two women still intact under mud.

MT