Archaeologists in southern Mexico have uncovered stingray spines in ancient Maya burial sites, adding new evidence about the bloodletting rituals once practiced by the civilization’s elite. The discovery was made during excavation work along Mexico’s Maya Train route in the states of Chiapas and Campeche.
The find includes three stingray spine fragments and one catfish spine, recovered near the Usumacinta River close to the town of Tenosique in Tabasco. Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, known as INAH, uncovered the objects during rescue excavations ahead of construction on the 226-kilometer (140 miles) rail line linking Palenque to Escárcega.
Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Mexico’s secretary of culture, said finds made during such rescue work continue to raise new questions about the nation’s past. She said the objects, now under study by INAH, offer evidence of the ritual practices of ancient societies, and that research on preserved materials can keep producing results for years after excavation.
Ancient Maya elites practiced bloodletting rituals with stingray spines
Marisol Arce Acosta, head of the zooarchaeology laboratory for the Maya Train rescue project, is leading the research along with archaeologist Said Amiel Luna Limón. Luna Limón said self-sacrifice was practiced across the Maya region from the Late Preclassic period through the Postclassic era, roughly 500 BC to 1520 AD.
He described it as the voluntary, often painful shedding of blood, central to Maya bloodletting rituals, offered to supernatural beings and meant to purify participants before larger ceremonies.
Luna Limón said the ritual was typically carried out by elite members of society to help maintain cosmic order. Women pierced their tongues, linked to fertility, while men cut their genitals, associated with creation. Earlobes and fingertips, both considered sensitive and symbolically significant, were also common targets.
In the southern lowlands, stingray spines were the preferred tool for the practice, depicted on stone lintels and other historical records describing blood collected in containers lined with tree bark, then dried and burned as an offering to the spirit world.
Fracture marks and fish families offer clues to the ritual
The fragments were found scattered across roughly three hectares (7.4 acres). One stingray spine, just over an inch long, showed a polished surface consistent with burial in the same soil layer as human remains, though researchers said it could not be confirmed as a funerary offering.
Two other stingray spine fragments displayed similar wear and fractures caused by sediment pressure. The catfish spine, a rarer find in self-sacrifice records, fits a broader pattern of marine objects linked to the Maya underworld, known as Xibalba.
It was found with the remains of an adult man. Arce Acosta said the stingray spines came from the Dasyatidae and Myliobatidae families, both saltwater species, while the catfish belonged to the freshwater Ictaluridae family.
She said it remains unclear whether the catfish spine was actually used in rituals, though its presence in similar burial contexts suggests it may have served the same purpose. She added that the findings point to rivers as key sources of both food and materials used in Maya ritual life.
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