The 64 Maya Boys Buried Beneath Chichén Itzá — And The DNA Test That Found Two Pairs Of Identical Twins

Children raised together, in the same household, eating the same food from the same sources, would show similar isotope profiles.

The fact that related children in the assemblage show similar dietary isotope patterns suggests that at least some of the related pairs were raised in the same household environment — that they were genuinely members of the same family group rather than distant relatives who happened to share genetic ancestry.

This raises the possibility that entire sibling groups, or pairs of twins and their close relatives, were selected together — that the selection was at the level of family units rather than individuals.

This is a different model of how the ritual functioned than one in which individuals were chosen one at a time without reference to their family connections.