Adobe architecture at PaquiméSedig et al. 2024, © Antiquity Publications Ltd.
Posted on 08/16/2024 10:59:50 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
DNA analysis of human remains unearthed in the twentieth century in northwestern Mexico at the Mogollon culture site of Paquimé, or Casas Grandes, suggests that the individual's parents had been closely related, according to a Newsweek report. The study of the bones, led by Jakob Sedig of Harvard University, determined that the boy had lived locally, and was between the ages of two and five at the time of death, which occurred between A.D. 1301 and 1397. Discovered beneath a roof support beam, the child was thought to have been a member of an elite family who was sacrificed to consecrate the construction of a ceremonial structure known as the House of the Well. But the close relationship between his parents was a surprise, Sedig explained. "The data suggests his parents weren't as closely related as siblings but were more closely related than first cousins," he said. An elite family is now thought to have used the sacrifice to consolidate and legitimize their social standing. "There were other sacrificial victims at the site (in a building called the House of the Dead) who were not treated nearly as well as the child in our study," Sedig added. "So it seems to us that there was something special, unique, and/or important about [this] child sacrifice," he concluded.
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
Adobe architecture at PaquiméSedig et al. 2024, © Antiquity Publications Ltd.
There are a couple more Mayan articles coming.
I gotta ask. What's the in between here?!
Or to keep the gods from visiting destruction on the area because of their incest?
Oh no, they killed their healthy child in a ritual sacrifice to show off for the neighbors. That makes SO much more sense.
Think three grandparents rather then four. Uncle/niece perhaps.
Did they shower with their daughters?
One of my cousins was married to an archaeologist-in the early 1980’s, he was in charge of one of the digs at Casas Grandes, so my husband and got hired on his crew on our vaca-to dig/sift/bag and document literally every bit of trash, etc. It was a wonderful experience to hold a part of the far past-and maybe my native ancestry literally in your hands.
Casas Grandes was sacked in a tribal war in the early 1300’s and the survivors took off to the Sierra Madre area-the burn marks on the buildings and livestock pens, scattered bones, etc were easy to see-it was obviously brutal.
The whole place is spooky as hell-especially the House of the Well (which is what it is-a building with a big well inside)-there is no amount of money that would keep me there after dark-there are shadows, rustling noises, and that feeling of being watched. But if I had the chance to go on a dig there again, I probably would...
Human sacrifice was going on everywhere centuries ago for all sorts of reasons-none good-people were ignorant-and if they envied or feared you, they might leave you alone-or they might sacrifice or kill you one way or another. The druids burned people in cages-and the Spanish Inquisition tortured all non-Catholics-most to death, people in Europe and the New World burned people they called witches and heretics, etc, etc...
Sounds like a great vacation!
Just keepin’ it in the family.
Uncle-niece?
half-siblings. Uncle/Aunt.
It was-we had visited the cousin’s husband on digs before, and got to work for a few hours, but those were well-known sites in NM, not in another country, and we didn’t get to work there for 2 weeks. I did get to keep something from Casas Grandes-a perfect little arrowhead less than 2 inches long-the kind some call a bird point-it was in some dirt and ashed sifted by a big firepit. I would not have kept it if it had been near any human bones-that would be bad luck...
I don’t take hints. I’m a dude.
Impossible.
They were nice people who collected flowers and played drums and did drugs.
Kind of early hippies.
You probably don’t stop to ask for directions, and wound up driving right by this place in Mexico.
Bad ‘shrooms.
Me in Mehico? Hilarious.
They’ll get you every time.
Guadalajara won’t do, or that’s what I heard anyway.
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