The study does not claim to have identified the cause of death for any of the individuals.

Ancient skeletal remains from tropical burial environments often preserve poorly enough that specific skeletal trauma that might indicate sacrifice is not identifiable, and the genetics themselves do not carry information about how someone died.

The ritual-sacrifice interpretation is contextual and interpretive, not directly established by the genomic data.

The genomic data establishes who was there, how they were related, what their sex was, and something about their diet and ancestry.

What happened to them and why is a question that must be addressed through the combination of archaeological context, comparative evidence from other Maya sites and periods, analysis of epigraphy and art, and the broader scholarly understanding of Maya religious practice.