MERIDA (Mexico) • Dozens of black and red handprints cover the walls of a cave in Mexico, believed to be associated with a coming-of-age ritual of the ancient Maya, according to an archaeologist who has explored and studied the subterranean cavern.

The 137 prints, mostly made by the hands of children, are more than 1,200 years old, which would date them near the end of the ancient Maya's classical zenith, when major cities across present-day southern Mexico and Central America thrived amid major human achievements in maths and art.

The cave is located near the northern tip of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, where the towering pyramids of urban centres like Uxmal and Chichen Itza still stand, and lies some 10m below a large ceiba tree, which the Maya consider sacred.

Archaeologist Sergio Grosjean argues that the handprints were likely made by children as they entered puberty, due to an analysis of their size, with the colours providing a clue to their meaning.

"They imprinted their hands on the walls in black... which symbolised death, but that didn't mean they were going to be killed, but rather death from a ritual perspective," he said.

"Afterwards, these children imprinted their hands in red, which was a reference to war or life," he added.

Other Mayan artefacts found in the cave include a carved face and six painted relief sculptures, which date from between AD800 and AD1000, a time when severe drought struck the region and may have contributed to the classical Maya's sudden abandonment of major cities.

While the first Mayan settlements date back nearly 4,000 years, there were still large centres when Spanish conquerors arrived in the early 1500s.

Several million Maya continue to live in communities scattered across south-eastern Mexican states like Chiapas and Campeche, in addition to Guatemala and Belize.

REUTERS