A Brief History Of Human Sacrifice: The Aztecs

PART 2:

weapon to die fighting facing four fully armed jaguar knights and eagle warriors two branches of the aztec military elite the other was a sacrifice of a young boy chosen to mimic tezcatlipoca for a year until his inevitable death and what a year it was the boy would be dressed as the god and treated as a living incarnation tasked with wandering the streets of tenochtitlan playing a flute and showered with luxury and women until the day of his sacrifice first a feast would be held in his honor before the boy would be expected to

climb the pyramid break his flute and surrender his body to the priests immediately after the sacrifice the next incarnation would be chosen the god of fire and heat and version of the old god we uh are worshiped both as one and separate entities during the festival of iskali for ten days before the festival preparations would be made in order to commit ritual sacrifices to the gods animals would be captured to be sacrificed on the first night of the celebration and prisoners of war or captives of the aztec empire would be burnt alongside

the animals after a large feast the captives would be thrown onto the fire but just before they died from their wounds they’d be some would say unceremoniously yanked out of the flames and their hearts cut out duplicate huey teottel and ensure he didn’t send a plague of fire to burn the city shiu tukutli was the god worshiped at the end of the 52-year cycle in the new fire ceremony priests and a sacrificial victim would travel to the top of the volcano wishland and wait for orion’s belt to rise over the top of the mountains

when it did they would rip the sacrifice’s heart from his body and light a fire in the hole in his chest as thanks to shutikutli that humans had provided enough sacrifices to live another 52 years from the fire burning in the sacrifice’s chest they then each take flames to light the ceremonial fires in temples throughout the city talaluk god of rain water and earthly fertility tilalug was a god who wanted particular sacrificial victims and those victims just happened to be children the aztecs believed if he didn’t get them the god

would wreak havoc ruining crops withholding precious rainwater and sending bouts of diseases throughout the land as if sacrifice and the sacrifice of children at that wasn’t bad enough archaeologists have uncovered evidence of the brutality of the sacrifices to tlalog the aztecs believed that the god required the tears of the young as part of the sacrifice and so the remains of the 42 children found at the great pyramid of tenochtitlan also showed signs of suffering serious injuries before their deaths the 16th century researcher and friar

bernardino de sahagun wrote of sacrifices to telaluk in the florentine codex a book describing sahagoon’s research study of mesoamerica they assembled the children whom they slew in the first month buying them from their mothers and they went on killing them in all the feasts which followed until the reigns really began and thus they slew some on the first month named kawita liua and some in the second named talakashi pew alitzly and some in the third named tokos tonteli and others in the fourth named yutokodztli so that until the reigns

began in abundance in all the feasts they sacrificed children shepatortek god of rebirth agriculture the seasons and craftsmen shippertortek was also known by the name our lord the flayed one and celebrated during the festival of talakashipe hualizli one sacrifice was chosen for each of the 40 days preceding the festival and for that time got to act live and dress as the god enjoying similar luxuries to the young man who was chosen for tezcatlipoca but at the end of the 40 days the sacrifices would be taken to ship tortex

temple where a texas chainsaw massacre-esque ritual would play out their skin would be flayed from their bodies and given to others to wear as a disturbing skin suit these individuals would then travel through the city fighting battles and collecting gifts encased in the sacrifice’s skin the sacrifices who are still alive at this point would then have their hearts removed before their bodies were dismembered for ritualistic eating have you enjoyed this breakdown of aztec human sacrifice don’t forget to like and

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