Explore the mysterious Mayan civilization's bloody sacrifice customs
Mayan sacrifice, also known as "human animal", was a religious activity in which humans were sacrificed to sacrifice to ghosts and gods in ancient times. In the Mayan concept, everything from heaven to hell, including every plant, tree, and event in the world, falls within the scope of God's supervision. The human sacrifice ritual is a way used by the Mayans to sacrifice to gods. They believed that the only thing they should do was to sacrifice the best things in the world to please the gods in exchange for God's tolerance and care for them. In order to thank the gods for their contributions to mankind, and to fill the greedy mouths of the demons to delay the arrival of the end of the world, the Mayans held grand ceremonies on a series of special days to sacrifice to various gods, and the most precious sacrifice was the blood of human beings.
There are many ways of human sacrifice, the most common one is to cut the chest and dig the heart. As victims, they were first painted blue and wore a pointed headdress on their heads, and then died in the square in front of the temple or on the top of the pyramid. He was laid on his back to the ground, with a raised altar table pressed under him, which caused his chest and abdomen to bulge and his head and limbs to droop to facilitate the "operation" of opening the chest. The four priests grabbed his limbs and straightened him as far as possible. The "executioner" was the protagonist of the ritual. He accurately cut the victim's left chest rib, reached into his hand through the wound, grabbed the beating heart, placed it on a plate, and handed it to the high priest who presided over the ceremony. The latter used skillful techniques to smear the blood from his heart on the god's idol. The cut parts are all over the body and vary from person to person. Sometimes it is the forehead, nose, lips, ears, sometimes it is the neck, chest, arms, thighs, calves, and even the instep. The genitals are even cut to collect blood.
Bones found at the ruins of Tenochtitlan in the ancient city of Mexico City show that ancient Aztec priests cut open the abdomen of a human sacrifice on a sacrifice stone and pulled out the still-beating heart. The number of bones found at the Tenochtitlán site is the largest in history. Archaeologists say the dead may have been used in rituals related to Miktrán Tekutli, the god of death in the hearts of the Aztecs. Archaeologist Shimona Chavez said that skull masks were common among the Aztecs and symbolized the death god of death Miktrantekutli. The final skull mask will be decorated with green stones to serve as eyes and will be worn with a spiral necklace, gara and a dagger made of obsidian. The 45 skulls on the sacrificial stone were discovered in mid-August while construction workers were laying the foundation for a hall in the archaeological area and Aztec Temple Museum.
Near Chichen Itsa in Yucatan, there is a mysterious holy well with a diameter of about 60 meters and a depth of more than 20 meters. The well water is yellow and overgrown with water and grass. It is said that the Mayans often threw living people into wells to please the gods who lived deep in them. Landa once wrote with disgust: "The Mayans had the custom of throwing living people into this well. They believed the men were not dead, even though they would never see them again. In order to show their piety, some people threw their children in as sacrifices. They also threw gems and other things they considered precious into the well. The Indians are extremely religious about this. If this country is rich in gold, most of the gold is thrown into this well." At the beginning of the 20th century, American amateur archaeologist Edward Thompson salvaged treasures such as gold and jade, weapons such as stone knives and spears, and dozens of remains. This shows that the "human sacrifice" described by Landa did exist. Not only did the Mayans place the heads of prisoners on the altar, but kings and nobles also had to endure the pain of bleeding on their tongues and other sensitive parts as sacrifices, or mutilate their limbs, endure torture, and sacrifice themselves.
The extremely exquisite carved lintel at the Yakqiran site shows a woman pulling a barbed rope that penetrates her tongue, blood dripping on the bloody bark paper on a plate next to her, which will be dedicated to the gods; an earthenware vase now preserved in the University of Pennsylvania Museum depicts a row of squatting men, each holding an elite sharp weapon piercing their own penis.
In addition to bloody sacrifices, the Mayans also used other ways to express their desire for blood. For example: brutal massacre of prisoners of war. The Bonam Park murals faithfully record this bloody scene. The murals are all created in a relatively simple three-hall temple. The murals in the three halls echo each other: the left hall expresses the preparations for the grand ceremony, with the main mood of relaxation and anticipation; the middle hall is the exciting scene of conquering enemies and slaughtering prisoners of war., emphasizing the theme of life and death, joys and sorrows; the right hall expresses the completion of the celebration, which is solemn and grand in a warm and cheerful atmosphere. This is why this temple is named "Painting Temple".
Among them, the depiction of the murals in the middle hall is particularly shocking. The bottom column of the picture is the people of the country holding spears, ethnic symbols, totems, etc. who came to watch and celebrate the bloody trial. The middle column is the prisoners whose lives are at stake and are about to be executed. On the top steps of the mural, the king is graceful and domineering. He holds a spear in his right hand, wears a feather crown on his head, and wears tiger skin armor, making him extremely majestic. Opposite him, there are four nobles standing in the left row. They wear various grotesque animal helmets that mark the tribe's totem, wearing tiger skin battle robes and clothes embroidered with hieroglyphs, as well as jade pendants, jade ornaments, and feather handicrafts hanging all over their bodies. The prisoners on death row who were about to be executed were naked and kneeling in front of the king crying and begging for mercy. There was already a severed head at their feet, and the other prisoner was paralyzed and fainted on the steps. The pain and despair of the prisoners and the arrogance of the princes form a sharp contrast. The shapes are precise, vivid and touching, demonstrating the deep skills of Mayan realism art.
Why did the Mayans do these cruel and evil things? In fact, the Mayans were not necessarily particularly ferocious. The ancestors of China had done this, and the blond white people had such a past. We can put the issue in the context of mankind and see whether blood sacrifices are necessary for the survival and development of our mankind. Blood has become their cultural incentive mechanism! It's not that their god figurines need blood to enhance their abilities, but that they themselves need to witness and participate in bloody events regularly.
Culture is a mechanism of metaphor and symbolism, and sacrificial rituals as culture have a subtle educational function. In addition to the implicit meaning of teaching people to obey, awe, and identify, the activity of killing people mainly teaches people to dare to fight and die, and even symbolically allows people to vent their desire to kill and obtain alternative satisfaction. This is the same as modern people getting sensory stimulation from violent films. Just as modern people will imitate behaviors in violent films and lead to an increase in criminal cases, the Mayans will also learn a lot from the scenes of regular human sacrifice activities that are useful to them. The film and television murder scenes we are worried about today are exactly what the ancient Mayans wanted to see. When it comes to venting tensions within society, participating in murder is one way. Society looks for a "scapegoat" to let the group "have a addiction" together.
