Page 26 - All About History - Issue 54-17

AZTECSS
C
A A Z T E CS
S
g f

HUMAN SACRIFICE

IC 1 1

AT A GLANCE

The Aztecs believed that they
owed a debt of blood to the
gods, and so to keep them
happy they offered up both
volunteers and prisoners as
human sacrifices. It is not known
exactly how many met this fate,
but some estimates claim that is
was around 20,000 a year.

Battles were It was a Even children Priests ate It contributed
01 staged to 02 bloody affair 03 weren’t safe 04the remains 05 to the fall of
capture victims The sacrifical victim would be Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain, While the hearts were offered the empire
To fulfil their quota of human taken to the top of a temple demanded the tears and to the gods, the rest of the The widespread practice of
sacrifices, the Aztecs struck a pyramid, where they would blood of children. As a result, sacrificed bodies were not human sacrifice by the Aztecs
deal with their neighbours, the be laid down on a stone dais. a large number were sacrificed wasted. Their flesh was caused tensions with their
Tlaxcalans, who shared similar A priest would then cut open each year in order to prevent considered sacred, so was neighbours. When the Spanish
beliefs. Both sides agreed to their chest, pull out their still- drought and the failed harvests cooked and served to the launched their conquest
engage in ritualistic battles beating heart and triumphantly it would bring. In addition, the emperor or priests. A corn in 1519, the now warring
called flower wars, in which hold it up to the gods, before birth of twins was seen as a soup called pozole was one city-state of Tlaxcala was
noble warriors would face-off kicking the limp, lifeless body mortal threat to the parents, such dish made with human motivated to join their fight,
in close combat to secure the down the temple pyramid’s and so one of the babies was thigh, but when cannibalism and the severely diminished
rights to prisoners who could steps to be cut into pieces usually killed and offered back was banned bythe Spanish, the Aztec population failed to
then be sacrificed. by the people. to the gods. flesh was swapped for pork. defeat them. © Alamy

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