Human Sacrifice In The Aztec

The Ritual of Human sacrifice in Aztec : World History Research Paper

Aztec citizens are well known as being a vicious type of humans that would go to extremes for their Gods’ including Human sacrifice and Cannibalism. Human sacrifice was not new when the Aztecs started, the act of Human sacrifice actually began in the Olmec Civilization. Although, the Olmec civilization started the ritual, most people think of the Aztecs as being the innovator of Human Sacrifice. This thought began because of how often the Aztecs would Sacrifice, the vast amounts of those sacrificed and how planned the sacrifices would be. The Aztec actually had a lunar calendar that planed the whole years Human sacrifices and there celebrations. Aztecs would have a calendar

The future victims would be dressed as a specific God before and during the sacrifice. The victims at Xipe Totec were forced to dance in front of a crowd and their captors before they were scarified. Some candidates were talked into sacrifices as a way to be reborn. Also, death could be seen as a mystical death by the candidate. If the candidate was male, they would have a female entourage to escort them to the temple in which they will be executed. Some victims would be honored with dances and flowers. Females were rarely used, only participating in about six designated sacrifices a calendar year

One way, is that the victim would be taken to the top of a temple with five men. Four of those five men would both grab an arm or a leg to stretch out the victim over a special stone (Cartwright).In some cases the final man would be a Priest that would take an Obsidian and drive it through the chest of the victim, taking out the heart. The heart would be placed inside of a stone vessel in a Chacmool (Cartwright). After that was done, the offerings would be burned as an offering the Gods’. The victim could also be decapitated and dismembered; this was typical for Female victims.

A different method that was used was that the victims would be tied to a frame. Once, attached the victim would be shot at with arrows and darts. In the perhaps the worst of all methods, the victim would be thrown in to a fire repeatedly thrown into a fire until death. (Figure