One day in the year 800, the peaceful Maya city of
Cancun reaped the whirlwind. King Kan Maax known that trouble was coming, for
he had tried to build makeshift breastworks at the approaches to his 200-room
palace. He didn't finish in time. Attackers quickly came and took over. They
attacked people, places, and even unfinished construction sites. Pots and bowls
were strewn about the palace kitchen. Not only did the attackers take down
things they also took 31 people hostage. They took two pregnant ladies
captives. The killers wielded spears and
axes, impaling or decapitating their victims. No one knows who the killers were
or what they sought. They also chipped
the faces from all the carved likenesses on Cancuén's stone monuments and
pushed them over, facedown. "The site," says Demarest, "was
ritually killed."
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