“The Incas would have known what to do...”
The Mayans would cover a child with gold jewelry & trinkets and toss them into the Sacred Cenote! (Well of Sacrifice)
I visited Chichen Itza in Mexico in the mid-80’s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Cenote
Not much different than our current sacrifice of unborn children to the god of Convenience. :(
Maybe I was thinking of the Incas.
And BOY did you shoot down my air of moral superiority! :(
We are no better :(
If you look at the locations of the cenotes, you will see that they are all in the north Yucatan, and form a perfect arc.
Said arc is centered on Puerto Chicxulub.
The cenotes are a shadow of the crater rim, a discontinuity that to this day cracks the deposits of limestone that have accumulated over the past 65 million years or so, since the meteor strike that eliminated everything that didn’t bury it’s eggs or dwell in burrows.
Must have passed you in the courtyard as I was there also in the mid 80s - late spring - early summer of ‘85 I think. Did you see the panels (carved before the Spanish arrived) of the jungle animals which includes one which looks very much like a horse or a donkey?