and sacrificing twins is described in sacred writings, including a book called the Popol Vuh. The Mayan Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, underwent cycles of sacrifice and resurrection as they ...

PFEIFFER: When you say hero twins, what do you mean by that? BARQUERA: There is this story from the Maya cosmogony in which two hero twins went to the underworld and defeated the underworld lord ...

Barquera’s team suspects that closely related boys were chosen for ritual sacrifices as stand-ins for powerful mythological figures known as the Hero Twins. A Maya document written in the 1550s ...

Twins are particularly lucky in Mayan mythology, which is likely the ... boys were sacrificed in pairs to mimic the story of the hero twins. “I think we have to remember that death, and ...

They are later avenged by another pair of twins, known as the "Hero Twins," whose deeds are "amply represented in Classic Maya art." Christina Warinner, an associate professor of social sciences ...

The Hero Twins and their adventures are often represented in Classic Maya art, and because subterranean structures were viewed as entrances to the underworld, researchers say the interment of ...