What evidence is there of human sacrifice?

‘The social sciences offer a framework free of oversimplification based on varied, objective forms of evidence. The scientific method offers an objective, critical means to evaluate the hypotheses and theories that try to explain social institutions and processes in their historic and cultural context. In the specific case of Aztec sacrifice, a good number of serious, reliable scientific publications of different orientations exist. Among them we can recommend La Fleur Létale [The Lethal Flower] by Christian Duverger, Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica edited by Elizabeth H. Boone, El sacrificio humano entre los mexicas [Human Sacrifice among the Mexicas] by Yótotl González Torres, The Human Body and Ideology by Alfredo López Austin, City of Sacrifice by Davíd Carrasco, Le sacrifice humain chez les aztèques [Human Sacrifice among the Aztecs] by Michel Graulich, and Sacrificio humano [Mesoamerican Sacrifice] edited by Leonardo López Austin and Guilhem Olivier. These publications rely mainly on the documentary sources produced in the first decades of the colonial period: the Nahuatl pictographs and texts written in Latin characters by the natives; the tales of the conquistadors, eyewitnesses to the religious life of Tenochtitlan, and descriptions of the Aztec cult made by the missionary friars.

Pic 2: Stone skull rack, Templo Mayor Museum, Mexico City

‘They were located at the entrances of the two chapels that guard the images of Huitzilopochtli (the sun god) and Tlaloc (the god of rain), where they were visible to the multitude that congregated at the base of the pyramid to attend ceremonies. Huitizilopochtli’s stone was a smooth basalt polyhedron that rose 50 centimeters from the floor. The stone of Tlaloc was a sculpture of the rain god (pic 4), lying on its back with a cylindrical altar fastened to his abdomen, which reached a height of 51 centimeters. The form and height of both stones assured their ability to function as tables for supporting the victims in the lumbar area, so that they could be bent backward in order to remove their hearts.

Pic 4: Drawing of a sacrificial stone (‘chacmool’) found at the entrance to the chapel of the god of rain, Templo Mayor, phase II (c. 1390 CE)

‘We should also consider the remains of the victims that were buried by the Aztecs at the Templo Mayor and adjoining buildings. If we add up the data from four successive archaeological projects in the area, the total reaches 126 individuals. Among these are forty-two children - mainly males and suffering from anemia, parasitism, and gastrointestinal diseases -whose throats were slit in honour of the god of rain, and a forty-third child, killed by removal of the heart and dedicated to Huitzilopochtli. A second group is made up of forty-seven adult heads, almost all men, whose skulls and first vertebrae were found in the main architectural axes of the pyramid. Another group includes three skulls with perforations at the temples, which indicate that they come from tzompantli, the rack where trophy heads impaled on wooden poles, were exhibited (pic 2). Last, we must mention thirty-three skull-masks representing Mictlantecuhtli, god of death (pic 6); these consist of the facial portion of the skulls adorned with shells and pyrite as eyes, and with sacrificial knives to simulate the nose and tongue.

Pic 6: Skull-mask representing the God of Death, found at an offering of the Templo Mayor (TM Museum)

‘At the same time, the evidence demonstrates that the numbers in the historical sources may be wildly exaggerated. There is quite a long way from the skeletal remains of the 126 individuals found so far in all the construction stages of the Templo Mayor and its thirteen adjoining buildings to the 80,400 victims mentioned in a couple of documents for one single event:the dedication of an expansion of the Templo Mayor in 1487. In this regard, it is interesting to add that the largest number of bodies associated with a religious venue in Central Mexico was recorded in the classical city of Teotihuacan and not in Tenochtitlan. The excavations done at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid (pic 8) brought to light that this religious building, which dates from 150 CE, was consecrated with the sacrifice of at least 137 individuals, almost all warriors. Recently, the remains of thirty-seven individuals were found inside the Moon Pyramid.’

Pic 8: The Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, Teotihuacan