Editing Human sacrifice (section)

===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/>