The Maya cremated their rulers and used the ashes to make rubber balls that were used in games.
The Maya city of Tonin in southern Mexico was excavated by the researcher and his team.
The "ballgame" may have changed over time, as researchers refer to it as.
Two teams used a rubber ball on a capital I shaped court to play it.
Thousands of years ago, the game was popular in the Americas. There are ball courts in Tonin.
Juan Yadeun Angulo is an Archeologist at the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico.
A 1,300-year-old crypt was discovered in Tonin by Angulo's team in 2020.
In a Spanish language statement, the team said that the crypt held the remains of about 400 vessels that contained organic materials.
The team believes that the ash is from the remains of rulers.
The other materials in the vessels were used for the vulcanization process.
There are things hidden inside the ancient Maya pyramids.
The carvings on the sculptures in the ancient ball court depict a ruler named Wak Chan Khk, as well as a woman named Lady K.
The people's remains were cremated and used in rubber balls, according to the archaeologists.
The ball court in the "Popol Vuh" is where the game was played with the heads of humans or gods, according to Angulo.
There are sculptures at the nearby site of Yaxchiln depicting captives inside rubber balls being thrown by a richly dressed man, which he believes are proof that human remains were used to make rubber balls.
Live Science contacted scholars who were not involved in the research and found that they had differing opinions on the claim.
The claim that human ash was used to make rubber balls was cautiously optimistic.
According to William Duncan, a professor of biological anthropology at East Tennessee State University, it is possible that human remains were included in rubber balls. The Maya used human remains in many different ways.
Gabriel Wrobel, an anthropology professor at Michigan State University, told Live Science that such a practice is consistent with the mortuary rituals of the Maya.
James Fitzsimmons, an anthropology professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, told Live Science in an email that it is very unlikely that the remains of rulers would be rubber balls.
Some scholars doubted the findings.
There is no evidence that rubber balls were made to include the remains of Maya rulers, according to an anthropology professor.
They found rubber balls and analyzed them.
Some experts will not comment on the finds until a scientific report is released.
Carolyn Freiwald, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Mississippi, told Live Science that she would be very excited to see how they identified what was in the vessels.
There are related content.
The Maya may have sacrificed their players.
Evidence of a Maya divination calendar has been found.
The Maya civilization collapsed.
The original article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
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