Maya Decapitated and Dismembered Enemies in Ancient City of Uxul

About 1,400 years ago, the ancient Maya city of Uxul thrived in Mexico. Located in a densely populated area between the larger cities of El Mirador to the south and Calakmul to the northeast, Uxul had trade connections that stretched as far south as modern day Guatemala. Now, archaeologists have uncovered something dark about this ancient city. It turns out that the Maya decapitated their enemies before shoving them into a mass grave.

For the past five years, archaeologists have been excavating the historical city of Uxul. Now, they've uncovered the skeletons of 24 people in an approximately 32 square meter artificial cave that was formerly used as a water reservoir.

"Aside from the large number of interred individuals, it already became apparent during the excavation that the skeletons were no longer in their original anatomical articulation," said Nicolaus Seefeld, one of the archaeologists, in a news release.

The bodies and skulls were scattered within the cave. In fact, the skulls were positioned so that they had no relation to the rest of the bodies. Even the majority of the lower jaws were separated from the heads. This seemed to indicate that it was unlikely that this mass grave was a so-called secondary burial, in which the bones of the deceased are moved to a new location. Instead, it's very likely that these bones are the corpses of people that were decapitated and dismembered.

A majority of the remains showed signs of violent death. Clay covered the bones, which means that the remains were very well preserved. In fact, the archaeologists were able to determined that among the bodies were 13 men and two women who were aged from 18 to 42.

"The observed hatchet marks on the cervical vertebra are a clear indication of decapitation," said Seefeld in a news release.

That's not all they found out about these bodies, though. The researchers also discovered that some of the dead had tooth inserts of jade. This seemed to indicate that at least some of them were of high social status. However, they're still unsure whether they were prisoners of war or if they were nobles from Uxul itself.

The researchers plan to continue their study of these remains. Isotope analysis could help clarify whether the people were from Uxul or were from another population in the lowlands. Nonetheless, the findings do reveal that the Maya practiced the dismemberment of prisoners.