Editing Human sacrifice (section)

===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>
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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" />