[Aztlan] UPDATE ON TOLTEC CHILD SACRIFICE

[vgray (gotsky)]

Sounds to me we are jumping to conclusions again - was this a sacrifice of 
children or merely the killing of captives of war. Killing the royal 
offspring from other enemy tribes, to ensure their lineage did not continue 
into the future to wage war in later years is much more likely, than the 
express sacrificing of children in order to invoke rain from the heavens. 
Competing polities waging war often killed the royal family members of the 
opposition as the spoils of war , and to protect themselves from future wars 
from avenging offspring.

Cheers Cliff



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "michael ruggeri" <michaelruggeri at mac.com>
To: "Aztlan" <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 10:23 AM
Subject: [Aztlan] UPDATE ON TOLTEC CHILD SACRIFICE


>
>
>
> Ancient Tomb Found in Mexico Reveals Mass Child Sacrifice
> Kelly Hearn
> for National Geographic News
> June 12, 2007
>
> The skeletons of two dozen children killed in an ancient mass  sacrifice 
> have been found in a tomb at a construction site in Mexico.
>
> The find reveals new details about the ancient Toltec civilization  and 
> adds to an ongoing debate over ritualistic killing in historic 
> Mesoamerica.
>
> Construction crews unearthed the burial chamber this spring near the  town 
> of Tula, the ancient Toltec capital, 50 miles (80 kilometers)  north of 
> Mexico City (see Mexico map).
>
> The chamber contained 24 skeletons of children believed to have been 
> sacrificed between A.D. 950 and 1150, according to Luis Gamboa, an 
> archaeologist at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and  History.
>
> All but one of the children were between 5 to 15 years of age, and  they 
> were likely killed as an offering to the Toltec rain god Tlaloc,  Gamboa 
> said.
>
> The Toltec, a pre-Aztec civilization that thrived from the 10th to  12th 
> centuries, had not been previously thought to have sacrificed  children.
>
> But the ritualistic placement of the skeletons, cut marks on bones,  and 
> the presence of a figurine of Tlaloc led Gamboa to conclude the  children 
> had been sacrificed to bring rain.
>
> "To try and explain why there are 24 bodies grouped in the same  place, 
> well, the only way is to think that there was a human  sacrifice," Gamboa 
> told the Reuters news agency.
>
> "You can see evidence of incisions, which make us think they possibly 
> used sharp-edged instruments to decapitate them."
>
> Elaborate Burials
>
> The skeletons were each found in a seated position looking east to  face 
> the sunrise, Gamboa said.
>
> Several artifacts were also found around the bodies, some of which 
> suggest that the children had been brought in from another region, he 
> added.
>
> "We believe that based on the comparison of archaeological materials  that 
> accompanied the human burials," Gamboa told National Geographic  News.
>
> In particular, he said, his team discovered some vessels that bore 
> markings "similar to those found in the southern region of the Basin  of 
> Mexico."
>
> Two of the children also appear to have been given especially  elaborate 
> burials, based on the quality of vessels and other  artifacts found 
> nearby, including turquoise that may have originated  in the present-day 
> southwestern United States.
>
> Gamboa's discovery requires some important changes to the time line  of 
> Mesoamerican history, said Traci Ardren, an archaeologist at  University 
> of Miami who was not involved in the research.
>
> "This new discovery at Tula pushes back the evidence for a  relationship 
> between child sacrifice and the [appeasement] of the  rain god Tlaloc at 
> least 300 years," she said.
>
> Evidence suggests the children sacrificed to Tlaloc were in very poor 
> health when they died and that the sacrifices were not punitive, she 
> added.
>
> Children of "young age and greater purity" were "more powerful  mechanisms 
> for the petitions of the living," Ardren said.
>
> Signs of sacrifice are not unique at this time and place, noted  Robert 
> Carmack, an anthropologist at the University of Albany, but  Gamboa's 
> findings demonstrate the influence that the Toltec had in  the region.
>
> "[Cultures during this] period in Central Mexico, especially the  Aztecs, 
> were profoundly influenced by the Toltecs, so the existence  of Toltec 
> child sacrifice is not at all surprising," he said.
>
> Carmack said early Toltec influence was also pervasive in the  highlands 
> of what is now Guatemala, and Maya documents from the  region refer to 
> child sacrifice.
>
> (See a video about Maya violence in the movie Apocalypto.)
>
> "There is sound evidence of the existence of child sacrifice there, 
> although perhaps not on a grand scale," he said.
>
>
>
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>
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