00:00The ancient Mayans had a long-standing and dark history of ritualistic sacrifice.
00:08However, contrary to popular belief, new research has revealed that not only were the victims
00:13of these sacrifices not girls, but they also had something else in common.
00:17A new DNA analysis of remains found in what is believed to be a sacrificial chamber has
00:21found that 64 of the remains were young boys.
00:24The analysis also discovered that they were all extremely closely related, with two sets
00:28of remains belonging to identical twins.
00:31Experts believe this likely means that the sacrifices were chosen in pairs, something
00:35which could be related to an ancient Mayan text.
00:38In it, the heroes of the story are twins, avenging their father's death by being ritualistically
00:43sacrificed and resurrected repeatedly.
00:46Archaeologists believe the burial chamber was used to hold the remains of sacrificial
00:49offerings for some 500 years, housing the dead from the 7th to 12th century, with most
00:54of them being placed there between 800 and 1000 CE.
00:57What's more, the DNA analysis of isotopes within the bones revealed that their diet
01:01was extremely local to where they lived and died, with the researchers saying this means
01:06the children were all from local communities.
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