The puppets, unearthed in El Salvador, have movable heads, strange facial expressions and may have been dressed for ritual roles.

This suggests the bones were exhumed from a previous burial and then burned ... of what is known as the “fire-entering rite”, a Maya ritual that dramatically marked the destruction and ...

Three figurines were laid face up and the other two face down, with all except the smallest facing west, a direction associated with death in Maya culture. This, researchers suggest, raises the ...