Aztec Human Sacrifice, Codex Florentine, 16th Century

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Framed Print of Aztec Human Sacrifice, Codex Florentine, 16th Century

Human sacrifice was a religious practice characteristic of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization, as well as of other mesoamerican civilizations such as the Maya and the Zapotec. The Aztecs had 18 months in one cycle, and for each of the 18 months there was ritual sacrifice. The victim would be painted as a part of the ritual, they would be placed on a slab where their heart would be removed and held up to the sun. The body would be thrown down the stairs of the temple, the limbs were removed and later cooked. It's estimated that 20, 000 humans were sacrificed by the Aztecs every year. The Florentine Codex is the common name given to a 16th century ethnographic research project in Mesoamerica by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Bernardino originally titled it: La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana (The General History of the Things of New Spain). Bernardino conducted research, organized evidence, wrote and edited his findings starting in 1545 up until his death in 1590. It consists of 2400 pages organized into twelve books with over 2000 illustrations drawn by native Aztec artists. © New York Public Library / Science Source

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Media ID 47345980