Traces of children's hands have been found in an ancient Mayan cave. What do they mean?

While exploring one of the peninsula cavesYucatan archaeologists have discovered 137 prints of children's hands. They are painted black and red, so scientists have no doubt that the traces are religious in nature and were left by the children of the Mayan people. Apart from this, scientists also found several sculptures inside that were made around 1000 AD. In those days, an arid climate remained on the peninsula, because of which the Maya people lost their drinking water, suffered from diseases and were forced to leave their large cities. In general, the prints were not made at the best times. Within the framework of this article, we will figure out why the Yucatan Peninsula is so interesting, what else unusual was found inside a mysterious cave and what difficulties the Maya people faced during a drought. And, of course, let's find out the main thing - what do the black and red marks of children's palms on the stone walls mean?

Traces of children's hands on the walls of a cave in the Yucatan Peninsula

What is interesting about the Yucatan Peninsula?

The Yucatan Peninsula is located on the territoryCentral America and separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean. This place is famous for its hot climate and vast tropical forests. It is here that the Chicxulub crater is located, which was formed about 65 million years ago as a result of the fall of a meteorite, which supposedly killed the dinosaurs. This place is very interesting for scientists, because many sensational discoveries were made in this area earlier. For example, in the Oyo Negro cave, the skeleton of a 15-year-old girl was once found who lived about 13 thousand years ago. Around this time, there was also a man whose skeleton was found inside the Chan Hol cave.

The Yucatan Peninsula is marked with a red circle on the map

Scientists have long proven that thousands of years agorepresentatives of the Mayan civilization lived on the Yucatan Peninsula. They left behind a huge number of buildings, which are currently hidden under the thickets of the tropical jungle. From time to time, archaeologists manage to excavate them, but it takes a lot of time - the length of some structures is more than 1000 meters. It is inside them that ancient artifacts are most often found. The fact that these people managed to build huge pyramids and create amazing sculptures is not surprising. Scientists are confident that the Mayan civilization knew the basics of mathematics and other sciences.

See also: Maya were more warlike than previously thought

Mayan mysterious cave

The cave on the walls of which they were foundcolorful footprints of children, located near the religious capitals of the Maya - the cities of Uxmal and Chichen Itza. About 10 meters away, there is a ceiba tree, which was considered sacred. Inside this cave, archaeologists have found six painted sculptures and a face carved directly into the rock. The researchers took all this into account and decided that the cave was definitely used for religious purposes. What tools were used by the artists of antiquity, scientists are still unknown, but, as mentioned above, the science of the Maya people was very well developed. And if there was science, then they had no problems with art either. The artifacts found are excellent proof of this.

Children's footprints inside a cave in the Yucatan Peninsula

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At the beginning of the article, I mentioned that the marks of children's handswere abandoned in times that were difficult enough for the Maya. About a thousand years ago, a severe drought began on the territory of Yucatan, due to which even their drinking water was contaminated with blue-green algae. The use of such water caused skin irritation and other unpleasant symptoms, so the Maya people decided to leave the "damned" places - big cities. I wrote about all this in more detail in this article. Enjoy reading!