It’s an apropos description of the cave former purpose, as a depository of fragments of human remains sacrificed by the Maya people to their rain god. The “blood cave,” though, stood out from the other caves discovered for its collection of human bones strewn across the cave floor, with dismemberment and traumatic injuries the norm. “In Maya ritual, body parts are just as valuable as the whole body.”Getting from traumatic injury to rain god ritual, though, was more than just conjecture. Bleuze believes the celebration each May 3 brought the ancient people to caves to plead with the Maya rain god for enough rain to supply a bountiful harvest. “It is not surprising,” Bleuze wrote, “that bioarcheologists encounter human remains that extend our understanding of the life and death of ancient Mesoamericans beyond what is provided in traditional mortuary contexts.”