The Maneater Gods
Human Sacrifice in Ancient Cultures
The Aztecs
Why did the Aztecs practice human sacrifice? That is a question that those who get to know about their gruesome religion always ask themselves. It seems contradictory if put against their undoubted development in science, architecture, and arts.
For many years, the reports made by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his crew and entourage seemed an inflated version. After all, their virulent actions against the South American peoples were in dire need of an excuse.
However, recent archaeological discoveries proved this theory wrong.
In 2015 and 2018, an excavation at the Templo Mayor discovered proof of human sacrifice among the Aztecs. The archaeologists found two rounded skull towers and a wooden rack displaying thousands of skulls.
The human bones were perforated on both sides so that the skulls could slide onto the wooden poles.
A clear confirmation of consquistador Andre de Tapias’s descriptions of Templo Mayor at their arrival in Tenochtitlán in 1521.
And why did the Aztecs do it?
The answer might be more complicated than their cosmology and religious beliefs.
On the religious side, the Aztecs believed the sun god Huitzilopochtli needed human hearts and blood to get stronger to fight against darkness. If darkness won, the world would end. So, the rationale behind their sacrifices was a matter of survival.
The sacrifice dates were all over their calendar. They aimed at providing good harvest, avoiding or fighting droughts, granting protection against enemies, etc.
However, there was another aspect to their human sacrifices. Besides religion, DNA research has proved the vast majority of the victims were outsiders. As a military and aggressive society, they lived within strict hierarchic society rules. So servants, slaves, or enemy soldiers are the most accepted possibilities for their human sacrificial offerings.
It was an efficient form of intimidation that made the power and strength of the Aztec empire and its upper members evident.
Norse Culture
Among other gods who received human sacrifices, Odin was the god of the magnates in the Viking society.
It seems natural, considering the relationship between human and godly power.
The blót sacrifices were an exchange. Giving something to get something back from the gods was the rule.
The most comprehensive text on blót sacrifices comes from “Hakon the Good’s Saga” by the Icelander Snorri Sturluson in the 1200s.
He describes Sigurd Håkonsson blót sacrifice, with a detailed description of the rites in the celebration. The magnate was also the priest and performed the blessings over the food and drinks.
They sacrificed animals and consumed the meat in the events. A significant moment in the ceremony was when the priest spattered the blood from the victims on altars, walls, and cult participants.
As for human sacrifices, the Vikings had sacred groves, where they
hang their human sacrifices.
That kind of sacrifice was not a norm to all the people, yet it happened under the power of the upper society members, for example, magnates and kings.
Although, many of the accounts of sacrifices in the Viking culture continue disputed by scholars.
Most of the records come from after the Christianization of Norse society. Naturally, Christian Bishops’ writings on the matter might be biased.
However, recent findings confirm the human sacrifices.
At the Viking fortress of Trelleborg in West Zealand, archaeologists found a sacrificial site. It was older than the Viking fortress nearby erected in 980–81.
They found a well deeper than 3 meters having a total of five human sacrifices. The most appalling is the age of the victims. Four were young children aged between 4 and 7. Besides them, there were also animal skeletons amidst jewelry and tools.
The wells in Viking theology were far-reaching. It was for the right of drinking the water of a well that Odin performed a blót sacrifice to Mimir. According to the myth, Odin gave the other god one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom. He aimed at winning the war against the giants what he did.
The use of the well by the kings and magnates fits Norse cosmology. After all, if so much came out of the blót sacrifice of a single eye, much more should be available if a whole human being was the victim.
The Mesopotamian Sacrifices
The most famous archaeological site is in Ur. There are a total of six burial sites named ‘death pits’ because of how their structure. They are tombs and sunken courtyards connected to the surface by a shaft.
In the most impressive pit, the archaeological team found 74 bodies. The females were in four rows, but the few males, six in total, were dressed as soldiers and poised at the entrance of the burial chamber.
Aubrey Baadsgaard in her doctoral dissertation on fashion in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia, pointed out the differential fact involving one individual, dubbed Body 61. She had a richer headpiece than the rest of the female attendants. According to Doctor Baadsgaard, it is a sign of her superior status among the rest of the females. To the scholar, she was the tomb’s important figure as the others were her retainers. Meaning, they were her servants following her to the afterlife.
Their form of death is still under discussion. However, studies determined that the dosage of poison consumed by some of the attendants was not enough to kill them but could effectively prevent their trying to escape.
Two skulls found in 4,500-year-old royal cemetery at Ur received careful examination at the University of Pennsylvania.
CT scans on the skull fragments determined that the sacrifice consisted of a sharp pike driven into the skulls, causing a painful and long-suffering death.
China’s Shang Dynasty
Human sacrifice is often present in China’s history.
The most documented were the sacrifices during the Shang Dynasty. They would occur as part of a ritual, namely sacrifices to certain gods or at the death of a ruler.
During the Shang dynasty, there was a form of human sacrifice also common to other cultures. The retainers, be they the servants or personal slaves of the king, should commit ritual suicide. Others would volunteer to be buried alongside their master. There was no gender imposition for this form of sacrifice. Both male and female servants of the king participated in them. That form of human sacrifice continued throughout Chinese history, not limited to the Shang.
They also had the Renji sacrifices.
Usually, Renji victims would be male prisoners of war or field slaves. The main characteristic of those ceremonies was that they happened whenever there was famine.
The slaves would be decapitated and buried in a large pit or incinerated.
Carthage
Among the cruelest ritual killings, there is the infant sacrifice that happened in Carthage.
The noblest of the city sacrificed their children by burning them alive. It was always in exchange for some favor from the gods.
The archaeological studies attest that the child was alive and awake during the sacrifice.
The Celts
The accounts about the human sacrifices practiced by the Celts are not foolproof.
As they come from Greek and Roman Historians, it is believed they are damaging propaganda created by the Celts’ dominators to win support.
The strangest of those accounts come from the Greek geographer and philosopher Strabo.
In his writing, he describes the cruel sacrifice of a man by hitting him on the back of the head. Then, as the victim was in his death throes, a druid would observe the spasms and use them to predict the future.
As the human sacrifice was a religious event, the druids were present every time it happened.
Albeit gruesome, fast, or slow and torturing, human sacrifice is part of historical accounts all over the world.
Anthropologists associate the core reason for human sacrifices not to religion, but the stratification of a society as it matures.
It is a demonstration of power over life and death from the most prominent figures in the upper levels of government.
When I was writing The Knaast Saga I researched many traditions and rituals. It is dark fantasy, and the reason I opted for online publishing is that after so much piracy of my work, charging for that seemed ridiculous. Who would pay for a book that you can find anywhere?
Thinking about that, I decided to go online myself, publishing the unabridged version to the faithful readers that bought the books when they could have read them for free on a dubious site.
I hope you can visit my site and read it. The cultural knowledge is embedded in the story and I trust you will enjoy it.
Thanks for reading.
