New study shows ear piercing was key childhood rite in Maya society

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Interesting Engineering
New study shows ear piercing was key childhood rite in Maya society
Maria Mocerino
Sat, December 13, 2025 at 6:21 PM EST
3 min read





Age is a rite of passage marked in many cultures through ritual and rite. As one of the most intriguing societies in history, it comes as no surprise that the Maya might shine here: children were adorned with a little sparkle on their ears from four months to one year old, marking the first bright signs of their existence.

As the Maya held a complex and fascinating belief system around the concepts of self and soul, Yasmine Flynn Arajdal, a PhD candidate, focused on the ears as the Maya famously practiced modifications, such as ear stretching, as markers of development in a person’s life.

Archaeologists knew that ear ornaments held special significance to the Maya, relating to the Classic god of wind, a symbol of breath. However, the question driving the latest study surrounded when the Maya got their ears pierced. Was there a definitive moment, an age, when the Maya went through this rite of passage?

Araidal turned to the iconography left behind by the Maya to analyze images of Maya children across two millennia, identifying when earrings first appeared in their lifeline and what that revealed about their understanding of self and what it means to exist, as they received their piercings even before their gendered clothing.


Ears pierced, you exist

As stated in the study published in Childhood of the Past, when stripped of their status, when sacrificed, or placed in captivity, the Maya would lose their ear adornments, suggesting the profound meaning that that piece of jewelry held about their sense of identity and place in society.

The ritual of ear piercing was conducted by so-called specialists in Aztec society. That, archaeologists, understood. But did the Maya partake in a similar ritual? The study suggests they might have given their unparalleled significance. However, that remains unknown. Along with when the Maya first got their ears pierced, because images of children are exceedingly rare.

Despite the lack of evidence, Araidal localized 83 images on ceramic figurines, painted scenes, and stone carvings from the Classic and Postclassic periods, or 800 BCE and 1500 BCE, Phys reports. She then cross-examined these works of art with descriptions of their beliefs surrounding the human soul written by the Ch’ol and Tzotzil communities.

According to her analysis, the practice of piercing the ears was one of the earliest rites of passage in Maya society that occurred before they started wearing their genders. Poetically, perhaps, an individual in Mayan society first exists as a living, breathing human being before they assume that societal construct.


Ear piercing became a societal marker

Some Maya appeared to receive these signs of the existence of their life, as the ears were associated with breath, around three to four months old. By what the depictions reveal, however, this rite of passage most likely occurred between one and four years old. And it would only be the beginning. Over time, their small holes would be stretched, becoming a status symbol, demonstrating that the act carried an individual through society.

All Mayas went through the same initial stage of coming into existence as a society, which would then become a marker of their place within it.

Archaeology Mag notes that the elite showed their peacock feathers with larger and more elaborate displays with materials as precious as jade. Whereas, the populous fashioned their earrings out of ceramics, wood, or cord, which don’t tend to survive the test of time. Far more than a status marker, however, ear ornaments shaped “the individual during a fragile stage of spiritual formation."

The findings were published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/study-shows-ear-piercing-key-232133228.html