A Feature Used Over Centuries

One of the findings of the study that significantly complicates any simple interpretation of the chultún is the radiocarbon evidence for when the children were interred there.

Radiocarbon dating of the skeletal remains from the chultún shows that the feature was not used in a single mass event.

The children were not all buried at one time, in one ceremony, in one episode of ritual activity.

Instead, the radiocarbon dates span centuries, indicating that the chultún was used as a site of ritual interment repeatedly over a long period of Chichén Itzá’s occupation.