More than a millennium ago, more than 100 people were sacrificed to the Maya rain god in the Midnight Terror Cave, which is still left today.
The cave was named after locals who were called to save an injured looter.
A three-year excavation project by California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) professors and students concluded that there were at least 118 people who had evidence of trauma inflicted on them around the time of death.
The latest research didn't look at bones but at their mouths to investigate the dental plaque from their teeth. The study describes blue fibers on the teeth of at least two of the victims.
When Amy Chan was a graduate student at Cal State LA, she was interested in learning more about the dental health of the victims and began her analysis of the teeth.
She was interested in determining what the victims were consuming after finding minimal instances of dental pathology.
The ancient Maya power broker passed away in obscurity.
Chan sent the gunk off six teeth to study the co-author of a book about the Paleo diet. Several of the samples were dyed bright blue.
Blue cotton is important in Maya ritual and the discovery of it in both samples was a surprise.
Chan and colleagues wrote in their research paper that a Maya blue color has been found at other sites in the Americas where it is believed to have been used in ceremonies.
Blue fibers were found in an alcoholic beverage at an archaeological site in Mexico.
Chan and her team suggested that the victims may have used cotton cloths in their mouths to prepare for their sacrifice.
If victims were in jail for a long period of time, their dental calculus could have been blue.
Gabriel Wrobel, a bioarchaeologist at Michigan State University who was not involved in the study, told Live Science that it's interesting that they found colored fiber.
The study is a good example of how much more information can be learned.
According to Live Science, an environmental archaeologist at the University of Pittsburgh who was not involved in the study, she is unconvinced that the blue fibers came from gags.
Dental studies are important because they can be used to look at other aspects of Maya life.
Ebert said that an expanded study including both elite and non-elite people would be worthwhile to see if the pattern can also be detected.
The first evidence of blue fibers in dental calculus of Maya individuals has some limitations according to Chan and her team.
The researchers can't say for certain when the fibers were trapped because the rate at which plaque forms and hardens is different.
The team's analysis was limited by the fact that only a few of the victims' teeth had dental calculus.
Future studies will give more context for interpreting the data.
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The original article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
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