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OMG! How The Mayans Used To Sacrifice Humans By Pulling Their Still-Beating Hearts Out
Sep 23, 2020
Death is already an uncomfortable topic to talk about, let alone the idea of human sacrifices. From the pre-Columbian era, human sacrifices were pretty common in Maya culture. The Maya civilization covered a large area of land which included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America. 
Human sacrifice in Maya culture was a ritual offering of nourishment to the gods. Blood from any living creature was considered a potent source of nourishment, so by extension, the sacrifice of human life was the ultimate offering there was. Generally, it was high-status prisoners of war that were sacrificed, and a number of different methods were employed. The most common being decapitation and heart extraction. Other forms of sacrifice practised included ritual shooting with arrows, hurling sacrifices into a deep sinkhole, entombing the sacrifice alive (to accompany a noble burial), and tying the person into a ball for a ritual reenactment of the Mesoamerican ballgame and disembowelment.
The reasoning behind this ritual was due to the belief that it was offering of nourishment to the gods. The sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful offering and a human sacrifice was the ultimate one. Usually, only high-status prisoners of war were sacrificed while other captives were used as the labour force.
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