The Mexica sacrificed not just war prisoners but anyone!
Posted On: Feb 8th, 2016 at 21:06
Mexico
One of the most prevalent ideas about who the Mexica culture sacrificed has been crushed by new findings.
The Mexica – more commonly, and wrongly, known as the Aztecs – were the most prolific human sacrificers in history, if the Spanish texts are to be believed. There is no doubt they did sacrifice a huge amount of people and the idea is that most, if not all, were captured men from wars fought in the western part of Mexico – the lands ruled by the Mexica.
What annoys me, however, is the way the preceeding theory about Mexica sacrifice has been taught as fact, both in schools and in countless documentary programmes over the years, when the Spanish chroniclers were about as trustworthy with a pen as a Prime Minister is with words. But I’m not going to start a rant about that right now… although I feel I should!
The Mexica were a pretty barbaric bunch nonetheless, but the way their sacrificial rituals have been documented by the media and the history books almost but eliminates their other incredible feats, like agricultural practices. The Mexica, however, were far more ruthless with the knife than their neighbours the Maya, who have been given a pretty bad name by the Mel Gibson film ‘Apocalypto’, which would have been more accurate if the culture depicted was the Mexica and not the Maya. The Maya did also practise human sacrifice but nowhere near the numbers the Mexica achieved.
As usual I’m going off track, but this report proves categorically that the Mexica were sacrificing just about anyone who could breathe, not just their war captives.
