Editing Human sacrifice (section)

=====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/>