"The elders seems to me to be like the priests in the Mayan society or something similar in that they are high up in the hierarchy"
Yes this seemed to be the case when they was working on the movie, and also like other cultures like Native Indians, or even Star Wars Jedis lol.... as far as Obi Wan/Yoda in EP 3-4 and so the Elders looked older because they were vastly more Ancient Engineers than the Younger Sacrificial Engineer.
It appears after shooting and then editing of the movie they have chosen to explore the Engineers/Gods role more in a way that they seem to be choosing at least TWO Caste system now.... so the Engineers to their Creators/Elders are as we are to the Engineers we are connected but not the same.
It seems these changes had effected what Scenes they was showing and in effect the Engineers on LV-223 and indeed whole movie are being shown in a different light.
They did not create us..... they was used to create us.
And so if they are essentially Biological Davids to the Engineers Creators then maybe this is also why they cut down the Engineer and David Conversation.
The Deleted Scene was longer, and maybe this would have needed some Subtitles but as far as Original Shooting, it appears the Scene was longer and would have had a dialog between Fassbender and Whyte that would have Translated to something that would maybe have given too much away.
