The Maya of Chichén Itzá

Chichén Itzá was the great city of the Maya world in its final flowering; the stepped pyramid of Kukulcán still counts the days of its calendar in stone. The sequenced individuals are young boys, several of them brothers and even identical twins, chosen for ritual offering near the sacred cenote: a solemn record, recovered in partnership with the local Maya community, whose descendants still live beside the ruins.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Ancient genomes reveal insights into ritual life at Chichén Itzá.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Maya of Chichén Itzá are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

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  Who were the Maya of Chichén Itzá?

  The Maya of Chichén Itzá (c. 600-1100 CE, Chichén Itzá, Mexico) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 12 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Ancient genomes reveal insights into ritual life at Chichén Itzá".

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  What does "matching" the Maya of Chichén Itzá mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

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  Are they my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

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  How do I see my own distance to the Maya of Chichén Itzá?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Kulubnarti Nubiansc. 650-1000 CE

• The Skeleton Lake of Roopkundc. 800 CE and 1800 CE

• The Avars of the Vienna Basin8th century CE

• The Early Iron Age of the Okavangoc. 700-1000 CE

• The Komani-Kruja Culturec. 800-950 CE

• The Ceramic Age Islanders of Hispaniolac. 250-1500 CE

• The Medieval Venosans8th century CE

• The Early Slavsc. 600-900 CE

• The Guanchesc. 300-1500 CE

• The Langobards of Collegnoc. 640-750 CE

• The Merovingians of Koksijdec. 620-750 CE

• The Taíno Woman of Preacher's Cavec. 950 CE