Editing Human sacrifice (section)

==History by region==
{{Main|Timeline of human sacrifices}}

===Ancient Near East===
{{Further|Religions of the ancient Near East|Minoan religion#Possibility of human sacrifice|Binding of Isaac|Jephthah#Sacrifice controversy| Iphigenia|Moloch}}

Successful agricultural cities had already emerged in the Near East by the [[Neolithic]], some protected behind stone walls. [[Jericho]] is the best known of these cities but other similar settlements existed along the coast of the [[Levant]] extending north into [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]] and west to the [[Tigris]] and [[Euphrates]] rivers. Most of the land was arid and the religious culture of the entire region centered on fertility and rain. Many of the religious rituals, including human sacrifice, had an agricultural focus. Blood was mixed with soil to improve its fertility.<ref>{{cite book |last=Glassman |first=Ronald M. |title=The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States. |year=2017 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNgoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA419 |page=421|publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-51695-0 }}</ref>

====Ancient Egypt====
{{Further|Ancient Egyptian retainer sacrifices}}

There may be evidence of retainer sacrifice in the [[Early Dynastic Period (Egypt)|early dynastic period]] at [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]], when on the death of a King he would be accompanied by servants, and possibly high officials, who would continue to serve him in eternal life. The skeletons that were found had no obvious signs of trauma, leading to speculation that the giving up of life to serve the King may have been a voluntary act, possibly carried out in a drug-induced state. At about 2800&nbsp;BCE, any possible evidence of such practices disappeared, though echoes are perhaps to be seen in the burial of statues of servants in [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]] tombs.<ref>{{cite web |first=Jacques |last=Kinnaer |title=Human sacrifice |website=Ancient-egypt.org |url=http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html <!-- retrieved 12 May 2007 --> |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Abydos – life and death at the dawning of Egyptian civilization |magazine=National Geographic |date=April 2005 |url=http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0504/feature7/ |access-date=12 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070509215457/http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0504/feature7/ |archive-date=9 May 2007}}</ref>

Servants of both royalty and high court officials were slain to accompany their masters into the next world.<ref>Spencer, A.J. ''Death In Ancient Egypt''. 1st. Great Britain: Penguin Books Ltd, 1982. 68:139. Print.</ref> The number of retainers buried surrounding the king's tomb was much greater than those of high court officials, however, again suggesting the greater importance of the pharaoh.<ref>Trigger, B.G., B.J. Kemp, D. O'Connor, and A.B. Lloyd. ''Ancient Egypt: A Social History''. 1st. Great Britain: University Press, Cambridge, 1983. 52–56. Print.</ref> For example, [[Djer|King Djer]] had 318 retainer sacrifices buried in his tomb, and 269 retainer sacrifices buried in enclosures surrounding his tomb.<ref>Morris, Ellen F. "Sacrifice for the State: First Dynasty Royal Funerals and the Rites at Macramallah's Rectangle." 15–37. Print.</ref>

====Biblical accounts====
{{Further|Binding of Isaac|Herem (war or property)|Gehenna}}

References in the [[Bible]] point to an awareness of and disdain of human sacrifice in the history of [[ancient Near East]]ern practice. During a battle with the [[Israelites]], the King of [[Moab]] gives his firstborn son and heir as a whole [[Burnt offering (Judaism)|burnt offering]] (''olah'', as used of the Temple sacrifice) ([[2 Kings]] 3:27).<ref>{{cite book |first1=N.C. |last1=Asthana |first2=Anjali |last2=Nirmal |year=2009 |title=Urban Terrorism: Myths and realities |publisher=Pointer Publishers |isbn=978-81-7132-598-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8EqWnqdsgZMC}}</ref> The Bible then recounts that, following the King's sacrifice, "There was great indignation [or wrath] against Israel" and that the Israelites had to raise their siege of the Moabite capital and go away. This verse had perplexed many later Jewish and Christian commentators, who tried to explain what the impact of the Moabite King's sacrifice was, to make those under siege emboldened while disheartening the Israelites, make God angry at the Israelites or the Israelites fear his anger, make [[Chemosh]] (the Moabite god) angry, or otherwise.<ref>{{cite web |title=Commentaries on 2&nbsp;Kings 3:27 |url=https://biblehub.com/commentaries/2_kings/3-27.htm |website=Bible Hub |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref>{{npsn|date=July 2024}} Whatever the explanation, evidently at the time of writing, such an act of sacrificing the firstborn son and heir, while prohibited by Israelites ([[Deuteronomy]] 12:31; Deut. 18:9–12; Leviticus 18,22-23, about [[Moloch]]<ref name="Manzini">[[Vincenzo Manzini]] (1 January 1988), ''Sacrifici umani e omicidi rituali nell'antichità'', Fratelli Melita Editori, pp. 64-65. {{ISBN|978-8840391281}} (reprinted by Gherardo Casini editore, Series "Esoterismo e magia", 2022, {{ISBN|9788864101262}}).</ref>), was considered as an emergency measure in the Ancient Near East, to be performed in exceptional cases where divine favor was desperately needed.{{npsn|date=July 2024}}

{{bibleref2|Leviticus|27,29|NKJV}} prohibits redeeming those destined for sacrifice (''Non redimatur, sed morte moriatur''). This concerned offenders condemned to death by penal ''[[Herem (censure) |Herem]]'', an [[anathema]] pronounced solemnly by God or authority, akin to the Roman ''[[sacratio]]''.[17] [[Canaanites]] and [[Amorites]] were punished by God without possibility of redemption (Exodus 22; Deuteronomy 13; Judges 21).<ref name ="Manzini" />

The [[binding of Isaac]] appears in the [[Book of Genesis]] (22), where God tests [[Abraham]] by asking him to present his son as a sacrifice on [[Moriah]]. Abraham agrees to this command without arguing. The story ends with an [[angel]] stopping Abraham at the last minute and providing a ram, caught in some nearby bushes, to be sacrificed instead. Many Bible scholars have suggested this story's origin was a remembrance of an era when human sacrifice was abolished in favour of animal sacrifice.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Susan |last=Ackerman |author-link=Susan Ackerman (biblical scholar) |date=June 1993 |title=Child Sacrifice: Returning God's Gift |journal=[[Biblical Archaeology Review]] |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=20–29, 56 |url=http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBR&Volume=9&Issue=3&ArticleID=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1= Lawrence E. |last1=Stager |first2=Samuel R. |last2=Wolff |date= Jan–Feb 1984 |title=Child sacrifice at Carthage – religious rite or population control? |journal=Biblical Archaeology Review |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=30–51 |url=http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=10&Issue=1&ArticleID=2}}</ref>

Another probable instance of human sacrifice mentioned in the Bible is [[Jephthah]]'s sacrifice of [[Jephthah's daughter|his daughter]] in Judges 11. Jephthah vows to sacrifice to God whatever comes to greet him at the door when he returns home if he is victorious in his war against the [[Ammon]]ites. The vow is stated in the [[Book of Judges]] 11:31: "Then whoever comes of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord's, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering ([[New Revised Standard Version|NRSV]])." When he returns from battle, his virgin daughter runs out to greet him, and Jephthah laments to her that he cannot take back his vow. She begs for, and is granted, "two months, so that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I", after which "[Jephthah] did with her according to the vow he had made."<ref>(excerpted from Judges 11:34–39, [[New Revised Standard Version|NRSV]])</ref> Jewish rabbis, [[Saint Jerome]] and Saint [[Augustine of Hippo]] state that the daughter of Jephthah was sacrificed, but not according to the will of the Judeo-Christian God, but in a cruel and arbitrary manner.<ref name ="Manzini" />

Two kings of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]], [[Ahaz]] and [[Manasseh of Judah|Manassah]], sacrificed their sons. Ahaz, in 2&nbsp;Kings 16:3, sacrificed his son. "...&nbsp;He even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel (NRSV)." King Manasseh sacrificed his sons in [[2 Chronicles]]&nbsp;33:6. "He made his son pass through fire in the [[Valley of Hinnom|valley of the son of Hinnom]]&nbsp;... He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger (NRSV)." The valley symbolized hell in later religions, such as [[Christianity]], as a result.{{npsn|date=July 2024}}

{{bibleref2|1 Corinthians|10,20}} affirms that [[Gentiles]] do sacrifices to [[demon|demons]] and not to God.

====Phoenicia====
[[File:Moloch the god.gif|thumb|upright| 18th&nbsp;century depiction of the Moloch idol (''Der Götze Moloch mit 7 Räumen oder Capellen.'' "The idol Moloch with seven chambers or chapels"), from [[Johann Lund]]'s ''Die Alten Jüdischen Heiligthümer'' (1711, 1738)]]
According to Roman and Greek sources, [[Phoenicia]]ns and [[Carthage|Carthaginians]] sacrificed infants to their gods. The bones of numerous infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites in modern times, but their cause of death remain controversial.<ref>{{cite news |first=Andrew |last=Higgins |date=26 May 2005 |title=Carthage tries to live down image as site of infanticide |publisher=[[Post Gazette]] |access-date=25 May 2010 |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05146/510878.stm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918085258/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05146/510878.stm |archive-date=18 September 2009}}</ref> In a single child cemetery called the "Tophet" by archaeologists, an estimated 20,000&nbsp;urns were deposited.<ref>{{cite news |title=Relics of Carthage show brutality amid the good life |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=1 September 1987 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/01/science/relics-of-carthage-show-brutality-amid-the-good-life.html?pagewanted=all}}</ref>

[[Plutarch]] ({{circa|46|120&nbsp;CE}}) mentions the practice, as do [[Tertullian]], [[Orosius]], [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Philo]]. [[Livy]] and [[Polybius]] do not. The Bible asserts that children were sacrificed at a place called the [[tophet]] ("roasting place") to the god [[Moloch]]. According to Diodorus Siculus's ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]'', "There was in their city a bronze image of [[Cronus]] extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire."<ref name=Salisbury-1997-Perpetua>{{cite book |last=Salisbury |first=Joyce E. |author-link=Joyce E. Salisbury |year=1997 |title=Perpetua's Passion: The death and memory of a young Roman woman |publisher= Routledge |page=228}}</ref>

Plutarch, however, claims that the children were already dead at the time, having been killed by their parents, whose consent – as well as that of the children – was required. Tertullian explains the acquiescence of the children as a product of their youthful trustfulness.<ref name=Salisbury-1997-Perpetua/>

The accuracy of such stories is disputed by some modern historians and archaeologists.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Fantar |first=M'Hamed Hassine |title=Were living Children Sacrificed to the Gods? No |url=https://www.baslibrary.org/archaeology-odyssey/3/6/11 |magazine=Archaeology Odyssey |date=Nov–Dec 2000 |pages=28–31 |access-date=7 March 2022}}</ref>

==== Mesopotamia ====
Retainer sacrifice was practised within the royal tombs of ancient [[Mesopotamia]]. Courtiers, guards, musicians, handmaidens, and grooms were presumed to have committed ritual suicide by taking poison.<ref>
{{cite news |last=Parker-Pearson |first=Mike |date=19 August 2002 |title=The Practice of Human Sacrifice |publisher=[[British Broadcasting Corporation]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/human_sacrifice_03.shtml}}
</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Bowe |first=Bruce |date=8 July 2008 |title=Acrobats Last Tumble |url=http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/32999/title/Acrobats_last_tumble |website=Science News |volume=174 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629213949/http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/32999/title/Acrobats_last_tumble |archive-date=29 June 2011 |access-date=16 September 2021}}</ref>
A 2009 examination of skulls from the royal cemetery at [[Ur]], discovered in Iraq in the 1920s by a team led by [[Leonard Woolley|C. Leonard Woolley]], appears to support a more grisly interpretation of human sacrifices associated with elite burials in ancient Mesopotamia than had previously been recognized. Palace attendants, as part of royal mortuary ritual, were not dosed with poison to meet death serenely. Instead, they were put to death by having a sharp instrument, such as a pike, driven into their heads.<ref>
{{cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |date=26 October 2009 |title=Ritual Deaths at Ur were anything but serene |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/science/27ur.html?_r=4}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite magazine |date=27 October 2009 |title=Iraq's ancient past: Rediscovering Ur's royal cemetery |url=https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/volumes/v56/n09/ur.html |magazine=Almanac |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]] |volume=56 |access-date=17 July 2020 |via=almanac.upenn.edu |number=9 |place=Philadelphia}}
</ref>

===Europe===
====Neolithic Europe====
{{Further|Neolithic religion}}
There is archaeological evidence of human sacrifice in [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic]] to [[Eneolithic]] Europe.<ref>{{cite news |title=Human sacrifices as "crisis management" ? |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02785538/ |work=Science ouverte |date=2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='German Stonehenge' Yields Grisly Evidence of Sacrificed Women and Children |url=https://www.livescience.com/62939-german-stonehenge-human-sacrifices.html |work=Live Science |date=28 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Metcalfe |first1=Tom |title=7,000-year-old mass grave in Slovakia may hold human sacrifice victims |url=https://www.livescience.com/neolithic-mass-grave-slovakia |work=Live Science |date=3 October 2022}}</ref>

====Greco-Roman antiquity====
{{Further|Ancient Greek religion|Ancient Roman religion}}
[[File:Sacrifice Polyxena BM GR1897.7-27.2.jpg|thumb|The mythological sacrifice of [[Polyxena]] by the triumphant Greeks at the end of the [[Trojan War]]]]The ancient ritual of expelling certain slaves, cripples, or criminals from a community to ward off disaster (known as [[pharmakos]]), would at times involve publicly executing the chosen prisoner by throwing them off of a cliff.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

References to human sacrifice can be found in Greek historical accounts as well as mythology. The human sacrifice in mythology, the ''[[deus ex machina]]'' salvation in some versions of [[Iphigeneia]] (who was about to be sacrificed by her father [[Agamemnon]]) and her replacement with a deer by the goddess [[Artemis]], may be a vestigial memory of the abandonment and discrediting of the practice of human sacrifice among the Greeks in favour of animal sacrifice.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

[[Human sacrifice in ancient Rome|In ancient Rome, human sacrifice]] was infrequent but documented. Roman authors often contrast their own behavior with that of people who would commit the heinous act of human sacrifice, as human sacrifice was often looked down upon. These authors make it clear that such practices were from a much more uncivilized time in the past, far removed.<ref name="Schultz, Celia E 2010">{{cite journal |last=Schultz |first=Celia E. |year=2010 |title=The Romans and ritual murder |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=516–541|doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfq002 |pmid=20726130 }}</ref> It is thought that many ritualistic celebrations and dedications to gods used to involve human sacrifice but have now been replaced with symbolic offerings. [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]]<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] |title=[[Roman Antiquities]] |section=i.19, 38 |publisher=[[University of Chicago]] |via=Penelope.uchicago.edu |section-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B*.html#38.2 |access-date=3 February 2014}}</ref> says that the ritual of the [[Argei]], in which straw figures were tossed into the [[Tiber river]], may have been a substitute for an original offering of elderly men. [[Cicero]] claimed that puppets thrown from the ''[[Pons Sublicius]]'' by the [[Vestal Virgins]] in a processional ceremony were substitutes for the past sacrifice of old men.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero]] |title=Pro Roscio Amerino |at=35.100}}</ref>

After the [[Battle of Cannae|Roman defeat at Cannae]], two Gauls and two Greeks in male-female couples were buried under the [[Forum Boarium]], in a stone chamber used for the purpose at least once before.<ref name="z445">{{cite journal | last=Rosenberger | first=Veit | title=The Gallic Disaster | journal=The Classical World | volume=96 | issue=4 | date=2003 | doi=10.2307/4352787 | pages=365–373| jstor=4352787 }}</ref>{{pn|date=July 2024}}<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Titus Livius]] |title=[[Ab Urbe Condita (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]] |at=22.55–57}}</ref> In [[Livy]]'s description of these sacrifices, he distances the practice from Roman tradition and asserts that the past human sacrifices evident in the same location were "wholly alien to the Roman spirit."<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Titus Livius]] |title=[[Ab Urbe Condita (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]] |at=22.57}}</ref> The rite was apparently repeated in 113&nbsp;BCE, preparatory to an invasion of Gaul.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Titus Livius]] |title=[[Ab Urbe Condita (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]] |at=22.57.4 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=[[Roman Questions]] |at=83 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=[[Marcus Claudius Marcellus|Marcellus]] |at=3 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author1-link=Mary Beard (classicist) |first1=M. |last1=Beard |first2=J.A. |last2=North |first3=S.R.F. |last3=Price |title=Religions of Rome: A history |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |volume=1 |page=81}}</ref> They buried the two Greeks and the two Gauls alive as a plea to the gods to save Rome from destruction at the hands of [[Hannibal]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

According to [[Pliny the Elder]], human sacrifice was banned by law during the [[Roman consul|consulship]] of [[Publius Licinius Crassus (consul 97 BC)|Publius Licinius Crassus]] and [[Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus (consul 97 BC)|Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus]] in 97&nbsp;BCE, although by this time it was so rare that the decree was largely symbolic.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] |title-link=Natural History (Pliny) |title=Natural History |at=30.3.12}}</ref> Sulla's ''[[Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis]]'' in 82 BC also included punishments for human sacrifice.<ref>Paulus, Sententiae, 5.23.14–9</ref> The Romans also had traditions that centered around ritual murder, but which they did not consider to be sacrifice. Such practices included burying unchaste [[Vestal Virgin]]s alive and drowning visibly intersex children. These were seen as reactions to extraordinary circumstances as opposed to being part of Roman tradition. Vestal Virgins who were accused of being unchaste were put to death, and a special chamber was built to bury them alive. This aim was to please the gods and restore balance to Rome.<ref name="Schultz, Celia E 2010"/>{{efn|
Burying the convicted unchaste [[Vestal virgin|vestal]] in a sealed underground chamber was also a way to impose capital punishment on her for criminally endangering the city by her religious violation, without violating her still-sacred status: Among other prohibitions, no-one could touch her person.
}}
Human sacrifices, in the form of burying individuals alive, were not uncommon during times of panic in ancient Rome. However, the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins was also practiced in times of peace. Their chasteness was thought to be a safeguard of the city, and even in punishment, the state of their bodies was preserved in order to maintain the peace.<ref>
{{cite AV media
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</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reid|first=J. S.|date=1912|title=Human Sacrifices at Rome and other notes on Roman Religion|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/abs/human-sacrifices-at-rome-and-other-notes-on-roman-religion/CF02226957B67367A969D1D3BFA7D6E7|journal=The Journal of Roman Studies|language=en|volume=2|page=40|doi=10.2307/295940|jstor=295940|hdl=2027/mdp.39015017655666|s2cid=162464054 |issn=1753-528X|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

Captured enemy leaders were only occasionally executed at the conclusion of a [[Roman triumph]], and the Romans themselves did not consider these deaths a sacrificial offering.{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} [[Gladiator]] combat was thought by the Romans to have originated as fights to the death among war captives at the funerals of Roman generals, and [[Christian polemic]]ists, such as [[Tertullian]], considered deaths [[Recreation and spectacle in the Roman Empire|in the arena]] to be little more than human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book |first=Catharine |last=Edwards |author-link=Catharine Edwards (historian) |title=Death in Ancient Rome |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2007 |pages=59–60 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |first=David S. |last=Potter |section=Entertainers in the Roman Empire |title=Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=1999 |page=305 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author=[[Tertullian]] |title=[[De Spectaculis]] |at=12}}</ref> Over time, participants became criminals and slaves, and their death was considered a sacrifice to the [[Manes]] on behalf of the dead.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Piscinus |first1=M. Horatius |title=Human sacrifice in Ancient Rome |url=http://societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Religionis/human_sacrifice.php |website=Societas via Romana}}</ref>

Political rumors sometimes centered around sacrifice and in doing so, aimed to liken individuals to barbarians and show that the individual had become uncivilized. Human sacrifice also became a marker and defining characteristic of magic and bad religion.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rives |first=J. |year=1995 |title=Asante: Human sacrifice among pagans and christians |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=85 |pages=65–85|doi=10.1017/S0075435800074761 }}</ref>
{{see also|Parthenon Frieze}}

==== Carthage ====
There is literary evidence for infant sacrifice being practiced in [[Carthage]], however, current anthropological analyses have not found physical evidence to back up these claims. There is a Tophet, where infant remains have been found, but after current analytical techniques, it has been concluded this area is more representative of the naturally high infant mortality rate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schwartz |first1=J. H. |last2=Houghton |first2=F. D. |last3=Bondioli |first3=L. |last4=Macchiarelli |first4=R. |date=2012 |title=Bones, teeth, and estimating age of perinates: Carthaginian infant sacrifice revisited |url=http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/086/ant0860738.htm |journal=Antiquity |volume=86 |issue=333 |pages=738–745|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00047888 |s2cid=162977647 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schwartz |first1=J. H. |last2=Houghton |first2=F. |last3=Macchiarelli |first3=R. |last4=Bondioli |first4=L. |title=Skeletal Remains from Punic Carthage Do Not Support Systematic Sacrifice of Infants |journal=PLOS ONE |year=2010 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0009177 |pmid=20174667 |pmc=2822869 |bibcode=2010PLoSO...5.9177S |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schwartz |first1=J. H. |last2=Houghton |first2=F. D. |last3=Bondioli |first3=L. |last4=Macchiarelli |first4=R. |date=2017 |title=Two tales of one city: data, inference and Carthaginian infant sacrifice |journal=Antiquity |publisher=Antiquity Publications Ltd. |volume=91 |issue=356 |pages=442–454 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2016.270 |s2cid=164242410 |jstor=|doi-access=free }}</ref>

====Celtic peoples====
[[File:What the world believes, the false and the true, embracing the people of all races and nations, their peculiar teachings, rites, ceremonies, from the earliest pagan times to the present, to which is (14579559547).jpg|thumb|upright|A 19th century depiction of a wicker man]]
{{further|Ancient Celtic religion|Human sacrifice in the ancient Iberian Peninsula}}
There is some evidence that ancient [[Celts|Celtic peoples]] practiced human sacrifice.<ref name="koch687-690">{{Cite book |last=Koch |first=John |author-link=John T. Koch |title=The Celts: History, Life, and Culture |date=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-59884-964-6 |pages=687–690}}</ref> Accounts of Celtic human sacrifice come from Roman and Greek sources. [[Julius Caesar]]<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Gaius Julius Caesar]] |title=[[Commentaries on the Gallic War]] |section=Book&nbsp;VI:16 |year=1869 |translator1-first=W.A. |translator1-last=McDevitte |translator2-first=W.S. |translator2-last=Bohn |place=New York, NY |publisher=Harper & Brothers |section-url=http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/caesar/gallic6.html#16}}</ref> and [[Strabo]] wrote that the [[Gauls]] burnt animal and human sacrifices in a large wickerwork figure, known as a [[wicker man]], and said the human victims were usually criminals; while [[Posidonius]] wrote that [[druid]]s who oversaw human sacrifices foretold the future by watching the death throes of the victims.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |pages=60–61}}</ref> Caesar also wrote that slaves of Gaulish chiefs would be burnt along with the body of their master as part of his funeral rites.<ref name=caesar>{{cite book |author=[[Gaius Julius Caesar]] |title=[[Commentaries on the Gallic War]] |section=Book&nbsp;VI:19 |year=1869 |translator1-first=W.A. |translator1-last=McDevitte |translator2-first=W.S. |translator2-last=Bohn |place=New York, NY |publisher=Harper & Brothers |section-url=http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/caesar/gallic6.html#19}}</ref> In the 1st century AD, Roman writer [[Lucan]] mentioned human sacrifices to the Gaulish gods [[Esus]], [[Teutatis]] and [[Taranis]]. In a 9th-century [[Scholia|commentary]] on Lucan, an unnamed author added that sacrifices to Esus were [[Hanging|hanged]] from a tree, those to Teutates were [[Execution by drowning|drowned]], and those to Taranis were [[Death by burning|burned]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maier |first=Bernhard |author-link=Bernhard Maier |title=Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture |date=1997 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |page=36}}</ref> According to the 2nd-century Roman writer [[Cassius Dio]], [[Boudica]]'s forces impaled Roman captives during her rebellion against the [[Roman invasion of Britain|Roman occupation]], to the accompaniment of revelry and sacrifices in the sacred groves of [[Andraste|Andate]].<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Cassius Dio]] |title=Roman History |page=95 |section=ch&nbsp;62:7 |translator-first=Earnest |translator-last=Cary |series=Loeb classical Library |access-date=24 May 2007 |section-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/62*.html |via=penelope.uchicago.edu |publisher=[[University of Chicago]]}}</ref> It is important to note, however, that the Romans benefited from making the Celts sound barbaric, and scholars are more skeptical about these accounts now than in the past.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wells|first=Peter S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vru5XzGXkuAC|title=The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe|year=2001|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-08978-2|language=en}}</ref>

There is some archaeological evidence of human sacrifice among Celtic peoples, although it is rare.<ref name="koch687-690"/> [[Decapitation#Celts|Ritual beheading]] and [[headhunting]]  was a major religious and cultural practice that has found copious support in the archaeological record, including the numerous skulls found in [[Londinium]]'s [[River Walbrook]] and the twelve headless corpses at the Gaulish sanctuary of [[Gournay-sur-Aronde]].{{efn|
French archaeologist Jean-Louis Brunaux has written extensively on human sacrifice and the sanctuaries of [[Belgic Gaul]].<ref name=Brunaux-2001-03--04-gallic-blood/><ref name=Brunaux-1990-11-08--11-sanct-celtqs/><ref name=Brunaux-2000-mort-guerrier/>
}}

Several ancient Irish [[bog bodies]] have been interpreted as kings who were ritually killed, presumably after serious crop failures or other disasters. Some were deposited in bogs on territorial boundaries (which were seen as liminal places) or near royal inauguration sites, and some were found to have eaten a ceremonial last meal.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Eamonn |title=The Archaeology of Violence |date=2013 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-1-4384-4442-0 |editor-last=Ralph |editor-first=Sarah |pages=232–240 |chapter=An Archaeological Interpretation of Irish Iron Age Bog Bodies |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/3209307}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bentley |first=Diana |date=March–April 2015 |title=The Dark Secrets of the Bog Bodies |url=https://www.academia.edu/11790293 |journal=[[Minerva (archaeology magazine)|Minerva: The International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology]] |location=Nashville, Tennessee |publisher=Clear Media |pages=34–37}}</ref> Some academics suggest there are allusions to kings being sacrificed in Irish mythology, particularly in tales of [[threefold death]]s.<ref name="koch687-690"/>

The medieval ''[[Dindsenchas]]'' (Lore of Places) says that, in pagan Ireland, first-born children were sacrificed at an idol called [[Crom Cruach]], whose worship was ended by [[Saint Patrick]]. However, this account was written by Christian scribes centuries after the supposed events and may be based on biblical traditions about the god [[Moloch]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=65}}</ref>

In Britain, the medieval legends of [[Dinas Emrys]] and of Saint [[Oran of Iona]] mention [[Builders' rites|foundation sacrifices]], whereby people were ritually killed and buried under [[Foundation (engineering)|foundations]] to ensure the building's safety.<ref name="koch687-690"/> The [[Waldensians]] sect was later accused of child sacrifice by the Church.<ref name="Tice Wickliffe 2003 p. 19">{{cite book | last1=Tice | first1=P. | last2=Wickliffe | first2=H.J.T.L. | title=History of the Waldenses: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time | publisher=Book Tree | year=2003 | isbn=978-1-58509-099-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3v-YdBOpt0C&pg=PP19 | access-date=21 October 2022 | page=19}}</ref><ref name="Holmes 2015 p. 105">{{cite book | last=Holmes | first=C. | title=Immigrants and Minorities in British Society | publisher=Taylor & Francis | series=Routledge Library Editions: Racism and Fascism | year=2015 | isbn=978-1-317-38440-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9m9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT105 | access-date=21 October 2022 | page=105}}</ref>

====Baltic peoples====
{{Main|Baltic mythology}}
According to written sources from the 13th–14th centuries, the [[Lithuanians (tribe)|Lithuanians]] and [[Old Prussians|Prussians]] made sacrifices to their [[List of Lithuanian gods and mythological figures|pagan gods]] at their sacred places, [[Alka (Baltic religion)|alka hills]], battlefields and near natural objects ([[Baltic Sea|sea]], rivers, lakes, etc.).<ref name="Balsys">{{cite web |last1=Balsys |first1=Rimantas |title=Pagoniškieji lietuvių ir prūsų aukojimai |url=http://tautosmenta.lt/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Balsys_Rimantas/Balsys_GK_8_2015.pdf |website=Tautosmenta.lt |access-date=4 March 2023 |language=lt}}</ref> In 1389 following the military victories in the land of [[Varniai|Medininkai]] the [[Samogitians]] cast lots which indicated Marquard von Raschau, the commander of [[Klaipėda|Klaipėda (Memel)]], as a suitable victim for gods and burnt him on horseback in full armour.<ref name="ConversionOfLithuania">{{cite book|last1=Rowell|first1=Stephen Christopher|url=https://etalpykla.lituanistikadb.lt/fedora/objects/LT-LDB-0001:B.03~2015~1467038656538/datastreams/DS.001.1.01.BOOK/content|title=The conversion of Lithuania: from pagan barbarians to late medieval Christians|last2=Baronas|first2=Darius|date=2015|publisher=Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore|isbn=978-609-425-152-8|location=[[Vilnius]]|author-link1=Stephen Christopher Rowell|page=333|access-date=4 March 2023}}</ref> It possibly was the last human sacrifice in [[Middle Ages|medieval]] Europe.<ref name="ConversionOfLithuania"/>

====Finnic peoples====
{{Further|Finnish paganism|Finnish mythology}}
[[Pope Gregory IX]] described in a papal letter how the [[Tavastians]] in Finland sacrificed Christians to their pagan gods:
"The little children, to whom the light of Christ was revealed in baptism, they violently tore from this light and killed, and adult men, after pulling out their entrails, they sacrifice them to evil spirits and force others to run around trees until death, and some of the priests they blind, from others they brutally sever their hands and other limbs and wrap what is left behind in straws and burn them alive."<ref>toim. Martti Linna: Suomen varhaiskeskiajan lähteitä, s. 64. Historian aitta, 1989. {{ISBN|951-96006-1-2}}.</ref>

There have been found bog graves in [[Estonia]] that have been interpreted to have been part of human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://researchinestonia.eu/2023/09/19/bogs-bones-and-bodies-violent-past-of-northern-european-mires/|title=Bogs, bones and bodies: Violent past of northern European mires|work=Research in Estonia|date=22 January 2024}}</ref> According to Aliis Moora, mostly enemy prisoners of war were sacrificed, the main reason indicated in the ''[[Livonian Chronicle of Henry|Livonian Chronicle]]'' as alleviating crop failure. Sacrifices were also performed as a show of gratitude after a victorious battle. Ritual cannibalism also took place, in order to gain the power of the enemy.<ref name=Jonuks>[https://www.folklore.ee/tagused/nr19/inimohver.pdf Inimohver eesti eelkristlikus usundis. Human Sacrifice in Estonian Pre-Christian Religion]; Author(s): Tõnno Jonuks . Publisher: Estonian Literary Museum of Scholarly Press. Publication Date: 2001</ref> The ''[[Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum]]'' by [[Adam of Bremen]] written at the end of the 11th century claims that behind the island of Kuramaa there is an island called Aestland (Estonia), whose inhabitants do not believe in the Christian God. Instead, they worship dragons and [[Finnish paganism#Sacred animals|birds]] (dracones adorant cum volucribus) to whom people bought from slavers are sacrificed.<ref name=Jonuks/> According to the ''Livonian Chronicle'', describing the events after the [[Battle of Ümera]], "Estonians had seized some Germans, Livs, and Latvians, and some of them they simply killed, others they burned alive and tore the shirts off some of them, carved crosses on their backs with a sword and then beheaded". The Chronicle explicitly states they were sacrificed "to their gods" (diis suis).<ref>{{cite book |title=Eesti ajalugu (1. osa) |last=Mäesalu |first=Ain |year=1997 |publisher=Avita |isbn=9985-2-0043-8 |pages=168 |url=http://www.raamatukoi.ee/cgi-bin/raamat?277 }}</ref>

====Germanic peoples====
[[File:Germania, 1882 "Sacrificios humanos en la antigua Germania". (4358475665).jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Cimbrian seeresses]] performing human sacrifice, from ''Germania'' by [[Johannes Scherr]].]]
{{Further|Germanic paganism|Old Norse religion|Blót}}
Human [[Blót|sacrifice]] was not particularly common among the [[Germanic peoples]], being resorted to in exceptional situations arising from environmental crises (crop failure, drought, famine) or social crises (war), often thought to derive at least in part from the failure of the king to establish or maintain prosperity and peace ({{lang|non|árs ok friðar}}) in the lands entrusted to him.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Peter Buchholz |last=Buchholz |first=Peter |year=1993 |section=Pagan Scandinavian religion |editor-last=Pulsiano |editor-first=P. |title=Medieval Scandinavia: An encyclopedia |place=New York|publisher=Routledge |pages=521–525}}</ref> In later Scandinavian practice, human sacrifice appears to have become more institutionalised and was repeated periodically as part of a larger sacrifice (according to [[Adam of Bremen]], every nine years).<ref name = "Simek">{{cite book |last=Simek |first=Rudolf |year=2003 |title=Religion und Mythologie der Germanen |publisher=Wissenshaftliche Buchgesellschaft |place=Darmstadt, DE |pages=58–64 |isbn=3-8062-1821-8}}</ref>

Evidence of human sacrifice by [[Germanic paganism|Germanic pagans]] before the [[Viking Age]] depend on archaeology and on a few accounts in [[Greco-Roman ethnography]]. Roman writer [[Tacitus]] reported the [[Suebians]] making human sacrifices to gods he [[interpretatio romana|interpreted]] as [[Germanic Mercury|Mercury]] and [[Isis]]. He also claimed that Germans sacrificed Roman commanders and officers as a thanksgiving for victory in the [[Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=62}}</ref><ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'', [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 1#61|I.61]]</ref> [[Jordanes]] reported the [[Goths]] sacrificing [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] to [[Teiwaz|Mars]], suspending the victims' severed arms from tree branches.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Origin and Deeds of the Goths |url=https://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023529/https://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html |archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=10 July 2021 |website=people.ucalgary.ca}}</ref> Tacitus further refers to those who have transgressed certain societal rules being drowned and placed in [[Wetlands and islands in Germanic paganism|wetlands]]. This potentially explains finds of [[bog bodies]] dating to the Roman Iron Age although none show signs of having died by drowning.<ref name="Simek"/>

By the 10th century, Germanic paganism had become restricted to the [[Norsemen|Norse people]]. One account by [[Ahmad ibn Fadlan]] in 922 claims [[Varangian]] warriors were sometimes buried with enslaved women, in the belief they would become their wives in [[Valhalla]]. He describes [[Norse funeral|the funeral]] of a Varangian chieftain, in which a slave girl volunteered to be buried with him. After ten days of festivities, she was given an intoxicating drink, repeatedly raped by other chiefs, stabbed to death by a priestess, and burnt together with the dead chieftain in his boat (see [[ship burial]]). This practice is evidenced archaeologically, with many male warrior burials (such as the ship burial at [[Balladoole]] on the Isle of Man, or that at [[Oseberg]] in Norway<ref>{{cite magazine |title={{grey|[no title cited]}} |magazine=British Archaeology magazine |volume=59 |date=June 2001 |publisher=Britarch.ac.uk |url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/feat4.shtml |access-date=3 February 2014 |archive-date=13 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213170444/http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/feat4.shtml }}</ref>) also containing female remains with signs of trauma.
[[File:Tollundmanden DO-10895 original.jpg|thumb|upright|The remains of the [[Tollund Man]] shortly after his discovery in 1950.]]
According to [[Adémar de Chabannes]], just before his death in 932 or 933, [[Rollo]] (founder and first ruler of the Viking [[Duchy of Normandy]]) performed human sacrifices to appease the pagan gods while at the same time giving gifts to the churches in [[Normandy]].<ref>{{cite book |first=François |last=Neveux |title=A brief history of the Normans: the conquests that changed the face of Europe |publisher=Robinson |year=2008}}</ref>

In the 11th century, Adam of Bremen wrote that human and animal sacrifices were made at the [[Temple at Uppsala|Temple]] at [[Gamla Uppsala]] in Sweden. He wrote that every ninth year, nine men and nine of every animal were sacrificed and their bodies hung in a [[Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology|sacred grove]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=59}}</ref>

The ''[[Historia Norwegiæ]]'' and ''[[Ynglinga saga]]'' refer to the willing sacrifice of King [[Dómaldi]] after bad harvests.<ref>{{cite book| title = Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia | last = Turville-Petre | first = E.O.G. | year = 1975 | orig-date = 1964 | publisher = Greenwood Press | pages = 253–254}}</ref> The same saga also relates that Dómaldi's descendant king [[Aun]] sacrificed nine of his own sons to [[Odin]] in exchange for longer life, until the Swedes stopped him from sacrificing his last son, [[Ongentheow|Egil]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In the ''[[Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks|Saga of Hervor and Heidrek]]'', [[Heidrek]] agrees to the sacrifice of his son in exchange for command over half the army of [[Reidgotaland]]. With this, he seizes the whole kingdom and prevents the sacrifice of his son, dedicating those fallen in his rebellion to Odin instead.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

====Slavic peoples====
{{Main|Slavic paganism}}
In the 10th century, Persian explorer [[Ahmad ibn Rustah]] described funerary rites for the [[Rus' people|Rus']] (Scandinavian [[Norsemen]] traders in northeastern Europe) including the sacrifice of a young female slave.<ref name="Early Slavs, p.120">{{cite book |first=Paul M. |last=Barford |year=2001 |title=The Early Slavs: Culture and society in early medieval Eastern Europe |page=120 |publisher=Cornell University Press |access-date=3 February 2014 |isbn=0-8014-3977-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Z9ItAtbJ5AC&q=sacrifice&pg=PA120}}</ref> [[Leo the Deacon]] describes prisoner sacrifice by the Rus' led by [[Sviatoslav I of Kiev|Sviatoslav]] during the [[Rus'-Byzantine War (968-971)|Russo-Byzantine War]] "in accordance with their ancestral custom."<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century |first1=Alice-Mary |last1=Talbot |author-link=Alice-Mary Talbot |first2=Denis F. |last2=Sullivan |isbn=978-0-88402-324-1 |year=2005 |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks |access-date=3 February 2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RCDsV41k8A0C&q=sacrifice&pg=PA193}}</ref>

According to the 12th-century [[Primary Chronicle]], prisoners of war were sacrificed to the supreme Slavic deity [[Perun]]. Sacrifices to pagan gods, along with paganism itself, were banned after the [[Christianization of Kievan Rus'|Christianization of Rus']] by Grand Prince [[Vladimir the Great]] in the 980s.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=''Lavrentevskaia Letopis'', also called the ''Povest Vremennykh Let'' |encyclopedia=Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisei (PSRL) |volume=1 |at=col. 102}}</ref>

In 1066, the Bishop of Mecklenburg [[John Scotus (bishop of Mecklenburg)|John Scotus]] was sacrificed to [[Radegast (god)|Radegast]] in [[Rethra]] by the Slavic [[Lutici]].

Archeological findings indicate that the practice may have been widespread, at least among slaves, judging from mass graves containing the cremated fragments of a number of different people.<ref name="Early Slavs, p.120" />

=== East Asia ===

==== China ====
[[File:Shang Chariot Burial with Human Sacrifice (10198540254).jpg|thumb|Human sacrifice from the [[Shang dynasty]] in China]]
The history of human sacrifice in China may extend as early as 2300&nbsp;BCE.<ref name=Larmer-2020-08-06-NG>{{cite web |first=Brook |last=Larmer |date=6 August 2020 |title=Mysterious carvings and evidence of human sacrifice uncovered in ancient city |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/08/mysterious-carvings-evidence-human-sacrifice-uncovered-ancient-city-china/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807020340/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/08/mysterious-carvings-evidence-human-sacrifice-uncovered-ancient-city-china/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 August 2020 |access-date=7 August 2020 |series=History |website=National Geographic |language=en}}</ref> Excavations of the ancient fortress city of [[Shimao]] in the northern part of modern [[Shaanxi|Shaanxi province]] revealed 80 skulls ritually buried underneath the city's eastern wall.<ref name=Larmer-2020-08-06-NG/> Forensic analysis indicates the victims were all teenage girls.<ref name=Larmer-2020-08-06-NG/> Human sacrifices were also documented in the [[Qijia culture]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Ancient human sacrifice in China likely served to reinforce social hierarchies |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/article/3272202/ancient-human-sacrifice-china-likely-served-reinforce-social-hierarchies |work=South China Morning Post |date=28 July 2024}}</ref>

The [[History of China#Ancient China|ancient Chinese]] are known to have made drowned sacrifices of men and women to the river god [[Hebo]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Strassberg |first=Richard E. |year=2002 |title=A Chinese Bestiary: Strange creatures from the guideways through mountains and seas |place=Berkeley, CA |publisher=University of California Press |page=202}}</ref> They also have buried [[Slavery in China|slaves]] alive with their owners upon death as part of a [[funeral]] service. This was especially prevalent during the [[Shang dynasty|Shang]] and [[Zhou dynasty|Zhou]] dynasties. During the [[Warring States period]], [[Ximen Bao]] of [[Wei (state)|Wei]] outlawed human sacrificial practices to the river god.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ximen Bao |publisher=Chinaculture.org |date=24 September 2003 |url=http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_26349.htm |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174603/http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_26349.htm |archive-date=3 March 2016 }}</ref> In Chinese lore, Ximen Bao is regarded as a folk hero who pointed out the absurdity of human sacrifice.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

The sacrifice of a high-ranking male's slaves, [[concubine]]s, or servants upon his death (called ''Xun Zang'' 殉葬 or ''Sheng Xun'' 生殉) was a more common form. The stated purpose was to provide companionship for the dead in the afterlife. In earlier times, the victims were either killed or buried alive, while later they were usually forced to commit suicide.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Funeral human sacrifice was widely practiced in the ancient Chinese [[state of Qin]]. According to the ''[[Records of the Grand Historian]]'' by [[Han dynasty]] historian [[Sima Qian]], the practice was started by [[Duke Wu of Qin|Duke Wu]], the tenth ruler of Qin, who had 66&nbsp;people buried with him in 678&nbsp;BCE. The 14th&nbsp;ruler [[Duke Mu of Qin|Duke Mu]] had 177&nbsp;people buried with him in 621&nbsp;BCE, including three senior government officials.<ref name="shiji">
{{cite book
 |script-title=zh:秦本纪
 |trans-title=Annals of Qin
 |series=[[Records of the Grand Historian]]
 |first=Sima |last=Qian
 |language=zh
 |url=http://www.guoxue.com/shibu/24shi/shiji/sj_005.htm
 |access-date=1 May 2012|author-link=Sima Qian
}}
</ref><ref name="han">
{{cite book
 |title=Annotated Shiji
 |author=Han, Zhaoqi
 |year=2010 |publisher=Zhonghua Book Company
 |isbn=978-7-101-07272-3
 |language=zh
 |chapter=Annals of Qin
 |pages=415–420}}
</ref>
Afterwards, the people of Qin wrote the famous poem ''Yellow Bird'' to condemn this barbaric practice, later compiled in the [[Confucian]] ''[[Classic of Poetry]]''.<ref>
''[[:zh:s:詩經/黃鳥|Yellow Bird]]'', ''[[Classic of Poetry]]'' (in Chinese)
</ref>
The tomb of the 18th&nbsp;ruler [[Duke Jing of Qin]], who died in 537&nbsp;BCE, has been excavated.  More than 180&nbsp;coffins containing the remains of 186&nbsp;victims were found in the tomb.<ref>
{{cite news
 |last=Burns |first=John F.
 |date=4 May 1986
|title=China hails finds at ancient tomb
 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/04/us/china-hails-finds-at-ancient-tomb.html
 |access-date=8 May 2012
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web
 |script-title = zh:秦公一号大墓
 |trans-title  = First tomb of Qin dukes
 |publisher    = Baoji city government
 |language     = zh
 |date         = 7 June 2011
|url          = http://www.bjdqw.cn/fjms/fxx/201106/t20110607_311703.htm
 |access-date  = 3 May 2012 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20140714215419/http://www.bjdqw.cn/fjms/fxx/201106/t20110607_311703.htm
 |archive-date = 14 July 2014
}}
</ref>
The practice would continue until [[Duke Xian of Qin (424–362 BC)|Duke Xian of Qin (424–362 BCE)]] abolished it in 384&nbsp;BCE. Modern historian Ma Feibai considers the significance of Duke Xian's abolition of human sacrifice in Chinese history comparable to that of [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s abolition of slavery in American history.<ref name="han"/><ref>
{{cite journal
 |last=Zhu |first=Zhongxi
 |year=2004
 |title=On Duke Xian of Qin
 |journal=Long You Wen Bo (陇右文博)
 |issue=2
 |language=zh
 |publisher=Gansu Provincial Museum
 |url=http://wenku.baidu.com/view/f09be6efaeaad1f346933f4c.html
 |access-date=3 May 2012
}}
</ref>

After the abolition by Duke Xian, funeral human sacrifice became relatively rare throughout the central parts of China. However, the [[Hongwu Emperor]] of the [[Ming dynasty]] revived it in 1395, following the Mongolian [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]] precedent, when his second son died and two of the prince's concubines were sacrificed. In 1464, the [[Emperor Yingzong of Ming|Tianshun Emperor]], in his will, forbade the practice for Ming emperors and princes.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Human sacrifice was also practised by the [[Manchus]]. Following [[Nurhaci|Nurhaci's]] death, his wife, [[Lady Abahai]], and his two lesser consorts committed suicide. During the [[Qing dynasty]], sacrifice of slaves was banned by the [[Kangxi Emperor]] in 1673.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

==== Japan ====
In the practice known as [[Hitobashira]]  (人柱, "human pillar"), a person was buried alive at the base of large structures such as dams, castles, and bridges.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

==== Tibet ====
Human sacrifice was practiced in [[Tibet]] prior to the arrival of [[Tibetan Buddhism|Buddhism]] in the 7th century.{{efn|
"Human sacrifice seems undoubtedly to have been regularly practised in Tibet up till the dawn there of Buddhism in the seventh century."<ref>
{{cite book
 |first=L. Austine |last=Waddell |author-link=L. Austine Waddell
 |year=1895
 |title=Tibetan Buddhism: With its mystic cults, symbolism, and mythology, and in its relation to Indian Buddhism
 |page=516
}}
</ref>
}}
Historical practices such as burying bodies under the cornerstones of houses may have been practiced during the medieval era, but few concrete instances have been recorded or verified.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29>{{cite book |first=A.T. |last=Grunfeld |author-link=A. Tom Grunfeld |title=The Making of Modern Tibet |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-56324-714-9 |page=29|publisher=M.E. Sharpe }}</ref>

The prevalence of human sacrifice in medieval Buddhist Tibet is less clear. The [[Lamaism|Lamas]], as professing Buddhists, could not condone blood sacrifices, and they replaced the human victims with effigies made from dough which is still to this day dyed partially red to symbolize sacrifice.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/> This replacement of human victims with effigies is attributed to [[Padmasambhava]], a Tibetan saint of the mid-8th century, in Tibetan tradition.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Richard J. |last=Kohn |title=Lord of the Dance: The Mani Rimdu festival in Tibet and Nepal |publisher=SUNY Press |year=2001 |page=120 |isbn=0-7914-4891-6}}</ref>

Nevertheless, there is some evidence that outside of orthodox Buddhism, there were practices of [[tantra|tantric]] human sacrifice which survived throughout the medieval period, and possibly into modern times.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/> The 15th&nbsp;century [[Blue Annals]] reports that in the 13th&nbsp;century so-called "18&nbsp;robber-monks" slaughtered men and women in their ceremonies.<ref>{{cite book |title=Blue Annals |edition=1995 |page=697}}</ref> Grunfeld (1996) concludes that it cannot be ruled out that isolated instances of human sacrifice did survive in remote areas of Tibet until the mid-20th&nbsp;century, but they must have been rare.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/> Grunfeld also notes that Tibetan practices unrelated to human sacrifice, such as the use of human bone in ritual instruments, have been depicted without evidence as products of human sacrifice.<ref name=Grunfeld-1996-p29/>

===Indian subcontinent===
[[File:Camunda5.JPG|thumb|upright|Fierce goddesses like [[Chamunda]] are recorded to have been offered human sacrifice.]]

In India, human sacrifice is mainly known as ''Narabali''. Here "nara" means human and "bali" means sacrifice. It takes place in some parts of India mostly to find lost treasure. In [[Maharashtra]], the government made it illegal to practice with the [[Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Act]]. Currently human sacrifice is very rare in modern India.<ref>{{cite news |title=Indian cult kills children for goddess |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=5 March 2006 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/05/india.theobserver}}</ref> There have been at least three cases through 2003–2013 where men have been murdered allegedly in the name of human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2892333.stm | work=BBC News | first=Mahesh | last=Pandey | title=Priest 'makes human sacrifice' | date=27 March 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.wishesh.com/kollywood/top-stories/27650-dalit-burnt-to-death-it%E2%80%99s-human-sacrifice,-says-family.html | title=Dalit burnt to death; it's human sacrifice, says family! &#124; Top Stories | date=27 March 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8624269.stm | work=BBC News | first=Subir | last=Bhaumik | title=India 'human sacrifice' suspected | date=16 April 2010}}</ref>
	
[[Thuggee]]s, or thugs, were an organized gang of professional [[Robbery|robbers]] and [[murder]]ers who traveled in groups across the [[Indian subcontinent]] for several hundred years.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bates |first1=Crispin |title=Human Sacrifice in Colonial Central India: Myth, Agency and Representation |date=January 2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=19–54 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273793676}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Thuggee |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/thuggee |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> They were first mentioned in [[Ziauddin Barani|Ẓiyā'-ud-Dīn Baranī's]] {{no wrap|''Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi''}} ({{langx|en|History of Fīrūz Shāh}}) dated around 1356.<ref name="thuggee-britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Thug |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/thug |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=2 February 2024 }}</ref> Thugs would join travellers and gain their confidence. This would allow them to then surprise and strangle them by tossing a handkerchief or noose around their necks. They would then rob the bodies of valuables and bury them. This led them to also be called ''Phansigar'' ({{langx|en|using a [[noose]]}}), a term more commonly used in southern India.<ref name="RussellLai1995">{{cite book |first1=R.V. |last1=Russell |first2=R.B.H. |last2=Lai |year=1995 |title=The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-0833-7 |page=559 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=76c1VSYnPE0C&pg=PA559 |access-date=19 April 2011}}</ref>

Regarding possible [[Vedic]] mention of human sacrifice, the prevailing 19th-century view, associated above all with [[Henry Colebrooke]], was that human sacrifice did not actually take place. Those verses which referred to ''[[purushamedha]]'' were meant to be read symbolically,<ref name="VD">{{Cite book |last1=van Kooij |first1=K.R. |last2=Houben |first2=Jan E.M. |year=1999 |title=Violence denied: Violence, non-violence and the rationalization of violence in South Asian cultural history |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden, NL |pages=117, 123, 129, 164, 212, 269 |isbn=90-04-11344-4}}</ref> or as a "priestly fantasy". However, [[Rajendralal Mitra]] published a defence of the thesis that human sacrifice, as had been practised in [[Bengal]], was a continuation of traditions dating back to Vedic periods.<ref name="Bremmer">{{cite book |author=Bremmer, J.N. |date=31 December 2007 |title=The Strange World of Human Sacrifice |publisher=Peeters Akademik |location=Leuven |page=159 |isbn=978-90-429-1843-6}}</ref> [[Hermann Oldenberg]] held to Colebrooke's view; but [[Jan Gonda]] underlined its disputed status.{{cn|date=July 2024}}
[[File:Thugs Strangling Traveller.jpg|thumb|180px|left|A group of [[Thuggee]]s strangling a traveller on a highway in India in the early 19th century.]]
Human and animal sacrifice became less common during the post-Vedic period, as ''ahimsa'' (non-violence) became part of mainstream religious thought. The [[Chandogya Upanishad]] (3.17.4) includes ahimsa in its list of virtues.<ref name="VD"/> The impact of Sramanic religions such as Buddhism and Jainism also became known in the Indian subcontinent.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In the 7th century, [[Banabhatta]], in a description of the dedication of a temple of [[Chandi]]ka, describes a series of human sacrifices; similarly, in the 9th century, [[Haribhadra (Seng-ge Bzang-po)|Haribhadra]] describes the sacrifices to Chandika in [[Odisha]].<ref name="NC">{{Cite book|editor=Hastings, James |editor-link=James Hastings |title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol 9. |publisher=Kessenger Publishing |year=2003 |pages=15, 119 |isbn=0-7661-3680-9|title-link=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics }}</ref> The town of [[Kuknur]] in North Karnataka there exists an ancient [[Kali]] temple, built around the 8-9th century CE, which has a history of human sacrifices.<ref name="NC"/>
Human sacrifice is reputed to have been performed on the altars of the [[Hatimura Temple]], a [[Shakti]] (Great Goddess) temple located at [[Silghat]], in the [[Nagaon]] district of [[Assam]]. It was built during the reign of king [[Pramatta Singha]] in 1667 ''[[Saka era|Sakabda]]'' (1745–1746 CE). It used to be an important center of [[Shaktism]] in ancient Assam. Its presiding goddess is [[Durga]] in her aspect of ''[[Mahisamardini]]'', slayer of the demon Mahisasura. It was also performed in the [[Tamresari Temple]] which was located in [[Sadiya]] under the [[Chutiya kingdom|Chutia kings]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}
[[File:Suttee. Wellcome V0041335.jpg|thumb|[[Sati (practice)|Suttee]]-Wife burning with her dead husband]]
Open human sacrifices were carried out in connection with the worship of Shakti until approximately the early modern period, and in [[Bengal]] perhaps as late as the early 19th century.<ref name="Lipner"/><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=atapur |first=Alex Perry |date=22 July 2002 |title=Killing for 'Mother' Kali |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,322673,00.html |access-date=14 January 2024 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}}</ref> Although not accepted by larger section of [[Hindu culture]]{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} certain Tantric cults performed human sacrifice until around the same time, both actual and symbolic; it was a highly ritualised act, and on occasion took many months to complete.<ref name="Lipner">{{Cite book|author=Lipner, Julius |title=Hindus: their religious beliefs and practices |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1994 |pages=185, 236 |isbn=0-415-05181-9|author-link=Julius J. Lipner }}</ref> An occasional ritual murder, to Kali, periodically appears in the contemporary press.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McDougall |first=Dan |date=5 March 2006 |title=Indian cult kills children for goddess |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/05/india.theobserver |access-date=14 January 2024 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref>

The free or forced burning of widows, in a Vedic practise known as [[Sati (practise)|Sati]], was noted during Alexander's invasion, of 327 BCE. A practice that was codified during the Gupta empire, and later prohibited, in Bengal via [[Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829]], later across India, the last explicit legislation, in India, being the [[Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 April 2023 |title=Sati: How the fight to ban burning of widows in India was won |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65311042 |access-date=14 January 2024 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

===Pacific===
[[File:James Cook, English navigator, witnessing human sacrifice in Taihiti (Otaheite) c. 1773.jpg|thumb|[[James Cook]] witnessing human sacrifice in [[Tahiti]] c. 1773]]

In [[Ancient Hawaii]], a [[luakini]] temple, or luakini [[heiau]], was a [[Native Hawaiian]] sacred place where human and animal blood sacrifices were offered. ''[[Kauwa]]'', the outcast or slave class, were often used as human sacrifices at the ''luakini heiau''. They are believed to have been [[POW|war captives]], or the descendants of war captives. They were not the only sacrifices; law-breakers of all castes or defeated political opponents were also acceptable as victims.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Related Articles |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-1083579/luakini-heiau |title=luakini heiau (ancient Hawaiian religious site) |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.soulwork.net/huna_articles/pu%27ukohala.htm |title=Pu'ukohala Heiau & Kamehameha I |publisher=Soulwork.net |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-date=6 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106145213/http://soulwork.net/huna_articles/pu%27ukohala.htm }}</ref> Rituals for the [[Hawaiian religion#Deities|Hawaiian god]] [[Kū|Kūkaʻilimoku]] included human sacrifice, which was not part of the worship of other gods.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

According to an 1817 account, in [[Tonga]], a child was strangled to assist the recovery of a sick relation.<ref>{{cite book |title=An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, with an original grammar and vocabulary of their language |volume=2 |page=220 |first1=William |last1=Mariner |first2=John |last2=Martin |place=London |year=1817}}</ref>

===Pre-Columbian Americas===
{{See also|Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures}}
[[File:Monte Albán-12-05oaxaca031.jpg|thumb|Altar for human sacrifice at [[Monte Albán]]]]

Some of the most famous forms of ancient human sacrifice were performed by various [[Pre-Columbian]] civilizations in the [[Americas]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6756.html |title =Mexican tomb reveals gruesome human sacrifice |publisher=Newscientist.com |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref> that included the sacrifice of prisoners as well as voluntary sacrifice. Friar [[Marcos de Niza]] (1539), writing of the [[Chichimeca]]s, said that from time to time "they of this valley cast lots whose luck (honour) it shall be to be sacrificed, and they make him great cheer, on whom the lot falls, and with great joy they lund him with flowers upon a bed prepared in the said ditch all full of flowers and sweet herbs, on which they lay him along, and lay great store of dry wood on both sides of him, and set it on fire on either part, and so he dies" and "that the victim took great pleasure" in being sacrificed.<ref>Grace E. Murray, ''Ancient Rites and Ceremonies'', p. 19, {{ISBN|1-85958-158-7}}</ref>

====North America====
The [[Mixtec]] players of the [[Mesoamerican ballgame]] were sacrificed when the game was used to resolve a dispute between cities. The rulers would play a game instead of going to battle. The losing ruler would be sacrificed. The ruler "Eight Deer", who was considered a great ball player and who won several cities this way, was eventually sacrificed, because he attempted to go beyond lineage-governing practices, and to create an empire.<ref>{{cite book|last= Palka|first=Joel W. |title= The A to Z of Ancient Mesoamerica| publisher= Scarecrow Press| year=2010| isbn=978-1-4616-7173-2 | page= 54}}</ref>

[[File:Maya vessel with sacrificial scene DMA 2005-26.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Human sacrificial victim on a Maya vessel, 600–850 CE ''(Dallas Museum of Art)'']]

=====Maya=====
{{Main|Human sacrifice in Maya culture}}
The [[Maya civilisation|Maya]] held the belief that [[cenote]]s or limestone sinkholes were portals to the underworld and sacrificed human beings and tossed them down the cenote to please the water god [[Chaac]]. The most notable example of this is the "[[Sacred Cenote]]" at [[Chichén Itzá]].<ref name=Benjamin-2009-p13/> Extensive excavations have recovered the remains of 42&nbsp;individuals, half of them under twenty years old.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Only in the [[Post-Classic]] era did this practice become as frequent as in central Mexico.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/474227/pre-Columbian-civilizations |title=pre-Columbian civilizations |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=14 June 2023 }}</ref> In the Post-Classic period, the victims and the altar are represented as daubed in a hue now known as [[Maya blue]], obtained from the [[añil]] plant and the clay mineral [[palygorskite]].<ref name="Palygorskite">{{cite journal |author=Arnold, Dean E. |author2=Bohor, Bruce F. |year=1975 |title=Attapulgite and Maya blue: An ancient mine comes to light |journal=Archaeology |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=23–29}} cited in {{Cite journal |author=Haude, Mary Elizabeth |year=1997 |title=Identification and classification of colorants used during Mexico's early colonial period |journal=The Book and Paper Group Annual |volume=16 |issn=0887-8978 |url=http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v16/bp16-05.html}}</ref>

=====Aztecs=====
{{Main|Human sacrifice in Aztec culture}}
[[File:Codex Magliabechiano (141 cropped).jpg|thumb|Aztec heart sacrifices, [[Codex Mendoza]]]]
The [[Aztec]]s were particularly noted for practicing human sacrifice on a large scale; an offering to [[Huitzilopochtli]] would be made to restore the blood he lost, as the sun was engaged in a daily battle. Human sacrifices would prevent the end of the world that could happen on each cycle of 52 years. In the 1487 re-consecration of the [[Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan]] some estimate that 80,400 prisoners were sacrificed<ref>{{cite web |title=The enigma of Aztec sacrifice |publisher=Latinamerican Studies |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/sacrifice.htm |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://cdis.missouri.edu/exec/data/courses2/2065/lesson01.htm |title=Science and Anthropology |publisher=Cdis.missouri.edu |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219073727/http://cdis.missouri.edu/exec/data/courses2/2065/lesson01.htm |archive-date=19 December 2010 }}</ref> though numbers are difficult to quantify, as all obtainable Aztec texts were destroyed by Christian missionaries during the period 1528–1548.<ref name=Holtker-nd-v1-RlgMx>{{cite book |first=George |last=Holtker |series=Studies in Comparative Religion |title=The Religions of Mexico and Peru |volume=1 |publisher=CTS}}{{full citation needed|date=September 2021|reason=pub. date, publisher full name & place, ISBN / OCLC / or sim.}}</ref> The Aztec, also known as Mexica, periodically sacrificed children as it was believed that the rain god, [[Tlāloc]], required the tears of children.<ref name=Benjamin-2009-p13>{{cite book |last=Benjamin |first=Thomas |year=2009 |title=The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their shared history, 1400–1900 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=13}}</ref>
[[File:Tzompantli (Templo Mayor) - Ciudad de México.jpg|thumb|An excavated {{lang|nci|[[tzompantli]]}} from the [[Templo Mayor]] in modern-day Mexico City]]
According to [[Ross Hassig]], author of ''Aztec Warfare'', "between 10,000 and 80,400&nbsp;people" were sacrificed in the ceremony. The old reports of numbers sacrificed for special feasts have been described as "unbelievably high" by some authors<ref name=Holtker-nd-v1-RlgMx/> and that on cautious reckoning, based on reliable evidence, the numbers could not have exceeded at most several hundred per year in Tenochtitlan.<ref name=Holtker-nd-v1-RlgMx/> The real number of sacrificed victims during the 1487 consecration is unknown.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

[[File:Kinderopfer 2.jpg|thumb|left|Aztec burial of a sacrificed child at [[Tlatelolco (archaeological site)|Tlatelolco]]]]
Michael Harner, in his 1997 article ''The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice'', estimates the number of persons sacrificed in central Mexico in the 15th&nbsp;century as high as 250,000&nbsp;per year. [[Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl]], a Mexica descendant and the author of ''[[Codex Ixtlilxochitl]]'', claimed that one in five children of the Mexica subjects was killed annually. [[Victor Davis Hanson]] argues that an estimate by Carlos Zumárraga of 20,000&nbsp;per annum is more plausible. Other scholars believe that, since the Aztecs always tried to intimidate their enemies, it is far more likely that they inflated the official number as a [[propaganda]] tool.<ref>{{citation |last=Duverger |title=op. cit. |pages=174–177}}{{full citation needed|date=September 2021}} "Duverger, (op. cit) 174–177"</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=New chamber confirms culture entrenched in human sacrifice |publisher=Mtintouch.net |url=http://www.mtintouch.net/~nlight/mexican%20pyramid.htm |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206150349/http://www.mtintouch.net/~nlight/mexican%20pyramid.htm |archive-date=6 December 2008 }}</ref>

=====Mississippian Cultures=====
[[File:Mound 72 sacrifice ceremony HRoe 2013.jpg|thumb|Mound 72&nbsp;mass sacrifice of 53&nbsp;young women]]
[[File:Funeral procession of Serpent Pique du Pratz.jpg|thumb|upright|The funeral procession of ''Tattooed Serpent'' in 1725, with retainers waiting to be sacrificed]]

The peoples of what is now the Southeastern United States known as the [[Mississippian culture]] (800 to 1600&nbsp;CE) have been suggested to have practiced human sacrifice, because some artifacts have been interpreted as depicting such acts.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/miss.html |title=Mississippian Civilization |publisher=Texasbeyondhistory.net |date=6 August 2003 |access-date=25 May 2010}}</ref> [[Mound 72]] at [[Cahokia]] (the largest Mississippian site), located near modern [[St. Louis, Missouri]], was found to have numerous pits filled with mass burials thought to have been retainer sacrifices. One of several similar pit burials had the remains of 53&nbsp;young women who had been strangled and neatly arranged in two layers. Another pit held 39&nbsp;men, women, and children who showed signs of dying a violent death before being unceremoniously dumped into the pit. Several bodies showed signs of not having been fully dead when buried and of having tried to claw their way to the surface. On top of these people another group had been neatly arranged on litters made of cedar poles and cane matting. Another group of four individuals found in the mound were interred on a low platform, with their arms interlocked. They had had their heads and hands removed. The most spectacular burial at the mound is the "[[Birdman burial#Beaded or Birdman burial|Birdman burial]]". This was the burial of a tall man in his 40s, now thought to have been an important early Cahokian ruler. He was buried on an elevated platform covered by a bed of more than 20,000&nbsp;marine-shell disc beads arranged in the shape of a [[falcon]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2001augustmound72excavation1.htm |title=Cahokia and the excavation of Mound&nbsp;72 |access-date=21 August 2010}}</ref> with the bird's head appearing beneath and beside the man's head, and its wings and tail beneath his arms and legs. Below the birdman was another man, buried facing downward. Surrounding the birdman were several other retainers and groups of elaborate [[grave goods]].<ref name=PAUKETAT2004>{{cite book |author-link=Timothy Pauketat |last=Pauketat |first=Timothy R. |title= Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2004| isbn=0-521-52066-5 |pages=88–93}}</ref><ref name=CMSH72>{{cite web |url=http://cahokiamounds.org/explore/cahokia-mounds/number/72/ |title=Mound&nbsp;72 |publisher=Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site|access-date= 31 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623230142/http://cahokiamounds.org/explore/cahokia-mounds/number/72 |archive-date= 23 June 2012}}</ref>

A ritual sacrifice of retainers and commoners upon the death of an elite personage is also attested in the historical record among the last remaining fully Mississippian culture, the [[Natchez people|Natchez]]. Upon the death of "[[Tattooed Serpent]]" in 1725, the war chief and younger brother of the "Great Sun" or Chief of the Natchez; two of his wives, one of his sisters (nicknamed ''La Glorieuse'' by the French), his first warrior, his doctor, his head servant and the servant's wife, his nurse, and a craftsman of war clubs all chose to die and be interred with him, as well as several old women and an infant who was strangled by his parents.<ref name=LAVERE>{{cite book | title= Looting Spiro Mounds: An American King Tut's Tomb | author= La Vere, David | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LqcUbGAhSuEC&q=death+of+tattooed+serpent&pg=PA120 | publisher= University of Oklahoma Press | date = 2007 |isbn= 978-0-8061-3813-8 |pages= 119–122 }}</ref> Great honor was associated with such a sacrifice, and their kin were held in high esteem.<ref>{{cite thesis | title = Violence, symbols, and the archaeological record: A case study of Cahokia's Mound 72 | author = Koziol, Kathryn M. | url = http://udini.proquest.com/view/violence-symbols-and-the-goid:821569914/ | access-date = 29 March 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130719125819/http://udini.proquest.com/view/violence-symbols-and-the-goid:821569914/ | archive-date = 19 July 2013 }}</ref> After a funeral procession with the chief's body carried on a litter made of cane matting and cedar poles ended at the temple (which was located on top of a low [[platform mound]]), the retainers, with their faces painted red and drugged with large doses of nicotine, were ritually strangled. Tattooed Serpent was then buried in a trench inside the temple floor and the retainers were buried in other locations atop the mound surrounding the temple. After a few months' time the bodies were dis-interred and their defleshed bones were stored as bundle burials in the temple.<ref name=LAVERE/>

=====Pawnee=====
The [[Pawnee people|Pawnee]] may have occasionally conducted the [[Pawnee mythology|Morning Star Ceremony]], which included the sacrifice of a young girl. Though the ritual continued, the sacrifice was discontinued in the 19th century.<ref>[http://dactyl.som.ohio-state.edu/Densmore/Pawnee/pawnee01.html Pawnee ritual]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

====South America====
[[File:Llullaillaco mummies in Salta city, Argentina.jpg|thumb|"The Maiden", one of the [[Llullaillaco mummies]], Inca human sacrifice, [[Salta province]] ([[Argentina]])]]
[[File:Ceremonial Knife (Tumi).jpg|thumb|left|upright|A "[[Tumi]]", a ceremonial knife used in Andean cultures, often for sacrificial purposes]]
The Incas practiced human sacrifice, especially at great festivals or royal funerals where retainers died to accompany the dead into the next life.<ref>{{cite book |last=Woods |first=Michael |title=Conquistadors |page=114 |publisher=[[BBC Worldwide]] |year=2001 |isbn=0-563-55116-X}}</ref> The [[Moche (culture)|Moche]] sacrificed teenagers en masse, as archaeologist Steve Bourget found when he uncovered the bones of 42&nbsp;male adolescents in 1995.<ref name=Allingham-2003-06-02-DSC>{{cite news |first=Winnie |last=Allingham |date=2 June 2003 |title=The mystery of Inca child sacrifice |publisher=Exn.ca |website=Discovery |department=Science & Technology |url=http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452|access-date=3 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506113520/http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452 |archive-date=6 May 2008 }}</ref>

The study of the images seen in Moche art has enabled researchers to reconstruct the culture's most important ceremonial sequence, which began with ritual combat and culminated in the sacrifice of those defeated in battle. Dressed in fine clothes and adornments, armed warriors faced each other in ritual combat. In this hand-to-hand encounter the aim was to remove the opponent's headdress rather than kill him. The object of the combat was the provision of victims for sacrifice. The vanquished were stripped and bound, after which they were led in procession to the place of sacrifice. The captives are portrayed as strong and sexually potent. In the temple, the priests and priestesses would prepare the victims for sacrifice. The sacrificial methods employed varied, but at least one of the victims would be bled to death. His blood was offered to the principal deities in order to please and placate them.<ref name="Bourget">{{Cite book|author=Bourget, Steve |title=Sex, Death, and Sacrifice in Moche Religion and Visual Culture |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-292-71279-9}}</ref>

The [[Inca]] of Peru also made human sacrifices. As many as 4,000&nbsp;servants, court officials, favorites, and concubines were killed upon the death of the Inca [[Huayna Capac]] in 1527, for example.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Nigel Davies (historian) |first=Nigel |last=Davies |title=Human Sacrifice |year=1981 |pages=261–262}}</ref> A number of mummies of sacrificed children have been recovered in the Inca regions of [[South America]], an ancient practice known as ''[[qhapaq hucha]]''. The Incas performed [[Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures|child sacrifices]] during or after important events,  such as the death of the [[Sapa Inca]] (emperor) or during a [[famine]].<ref name=Allingham-2003-06-02-DSC/>

=== Africa ===

==== West Africa ====
[[File:Victims for sacrifice-1793.jpg|thumb|Victims for sacrifice – from ''[[Archibald Dalzel|The history of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom of Africa]]'', 1793]]

[[JuJu]] Human sacrifice is still covertly practiced in some parts of West Africa, though it is illegal in all West African countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillings1900_1950b.htm|title=The Leopard Society&nbsp;– Africa in the mid 1900s|access-date=3 April 2008|archive-date=23 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123220812/http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillings1900_1950b.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://cornellpress.manifoldapp.org/read/0a9c919e-58ef-4dde-affb-26ace8154b3a/section/242b3048-dd27-40ae-8042-e240202a5d8d | title='Chapter 5. Ritual Cannibalism: A Case Study of Socially-Sanctioned Group Violence' in 'Toward a Theory of Peace: The Role of Moral Beliefs' on Cornell University Press Digital Platform }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=|url=https://africanlii.org/article/20210805/uganda-prepares-new-law-%E2%80%98human-sacrifice%E2%80%99-here%E2%80%99s-what-case-%E2%80%98human-sacrifice%E2%80%99-looks |title=Uganda prepares for new law on 'human sacrifice': here's what a case of 'human sacrifice' looks like &#124; African Legal Information Institute |publisher=Africanlii.org |date=3 August 2021 |access-date=3 August 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-15255357 | title=Where child sacrifice is a business | work=BBC News | date=11 October 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/486817-nigerias-huge-market-of-blood-and-human-sacrifice-by-festus-adedayo.html | title=Nigeria's huge market of blood and human sacrifice, by Festus Adedayo – Premium Times Nigeria | date=26 September 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-cannibal-warlords-of-liberia/560a7cac7676b705187e64f7 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160715064451/https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-cannibal-warlords-of-liberia/560a7cac7676b705187e64f7 | url-status=dead | archive-date=15 July 2016 | title=The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://theworld.org/stories/2011-08-01/liberia-s-elections-ritual-killings-and-cannibalism | title=Liberia's elections, ritual killings and cannibalism }}</ref> The [[Annual customs of Dahomey]] was the most notorious example, but sacrifices were carried out all along the West African coast and further inland. Sacrifices were particularly common after the death of a king or queen, and there are many recorded cases of hundreds or even thousands of slaves being sacrificed at such events. Sacrifices were particularly common in [[Dahomey]], in what is now [[Benin]], and in the small independent states in what is now southern [[Nigeria]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=de Cardi |first=C. N. |date=1899 |title=Ju-Ju Laws and Customs in the Niger Delta |url=https://ia600708.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/22/items/crossref-pre-1909-scholarly-works/10.2307%252F2841975.zip&file=10.2307%252F2842576.pdf |journal=The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=29 |pages=51–64 |via=Archive.org }}</ref> According to [[Rudolph Rummel]], "Just consider the Grand Custom in Dahomey: When a ruler died, hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of prisoners would be slain. In one of these ceremonies in 1727, as many as 4,000 were reported killed. In addition, Dahomey had an [[Annual customs of Dahomey|Annual Custom]] during which 500&nbsp;prisoners were sacrificed."<ref>{{cite book |first=R. |last=Rummel |year=1997 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1j1QdPMockC |title=Death by Government |publisher=Transaction Publishers |page=63 |isbn=1-56000-927-6}}</ref>

In the [[Ashanti Region]] of modern-day [[Ghana]], human sacrifice was often combined with capital punishment.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Clifford |last=Williams |year=1988 |title=Asante: Human sacrifice or capital punishment? An assessment of the period 1807–1874 |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=433–441|doi=10.2307/219449 |jstor=219449 }} – [[Ashanti Empire|Asante]] is also called the [[Ashanti Empire]].</ref>

The ''[[Leopard men]]'' were a West African secret society active into the mid-1900s that practised [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]]. It was believed that the ritual cannibalism would strengthen both members of the society and their entire tribe.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Leopard Society – Africa in the mid 1900s |website=Liberia Past and Present |url=http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillings1900_1950b.htm |access-date=3 April 2008 |archive-date=23 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123220812/http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillings1900_1950b.htm }}</ref> In [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]], the ''Lion men'' committed an estimated 200&nbsp;murders in a single three-month period.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Murder by lion |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867859,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207012239/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867859,00.html |archive-date=7 February 2009}}</ref>

==== Canary Islands ====
It has been reported from Spanish chronicles that the [[Guanches]] (ancient inhabitants of these islands) performed both animal and human sacrifices.<ref name=Academia-6630296>{{cite web |title=Sacrificios entre los Aborígenes canarios |website=academia.edu |id=6630296 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6630296 |last1=Martin |first1=Alfredo Mederos }}</ref>

During the summer solstice in [[Tenerife]] children were sacrificed by being thrown from a cliff into the sea.<ref name=Academia-6630296/> These children were brought from various parts of the island for the purpose of sacrifice. Likewise, when an aboriginal king died his subjects should also assume the sea, along with the embalmers who embalmed the [[Guanche mummies]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In [[Gran Canaria]],  bones of children were found mixed with those of lambs and goat kids and on Tenerife, amphorae have been found with the remains of children inside. This suggests a different kind of ritual infanticide from those who were thrown off the cliffs.<ref name=Academia-6630296/>