A Mayan boy cleans a dried-up scull of a deceased family member during the bone cleansing ritual at the cemetery in Pomuch, Mexico.

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A Mayan boy cleans a dried-up scull of a deceased family member during the bone cleansing ritual at the cemetery in Pomuch, Mexico, 28 October 2019. Every year on the Day of the Dead, people of Pomuch, a small Mayan community in the south of Mexico, visit the cemetery to take part in a pre-Hispanic tradition of cleaning of bones of their departed relatives (“Limpia de huesos”). People who die in Pomuch are firstly buried for three years in an above-ground tomb then the dried-up bodies are taken out, bones are separated, wrapped in a decorated cloth, put into a wooden crate, and placed on display among flowers for veneration.

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Size: 5316px × 3537px
Location: Pomuch, Campeche, Mexico
Photo credit: © Jan Sochor / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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