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00:00human sacrifice it's the dark side of ancient religion God wants us to shed
00:09blood for him that was the way the ancient cultures understood it and
00:15shedding blood had a purpose to fend off disaster by offering the gods a human
00:20life every culture employed its own technology
00:27of sacrifice beheading is sometimes considered the fastest way to die in the
00:34face of disaster no sacrifice is too great if it means appeasing the
00:39bloodthirsty gods
00:47the ancient world was a terrifying place life was brutal and usually short
00:57between disease starvation and war every human life seemed to hover on the brink
01:03of catastrophe
01:06in desperation many ancient societies turned to human sacrifice to appease the
01:12gods the practice of any sacrifice goes back as early as there have been a
01:20belief in God or gods and the belief that if we can somehow appease God we can make
01:29him do things on our behalf
01:34there are different reasons for ritual murder some societies offered sacrifices
01:39to bring fertility to the land others to secure earthly power
01:47but the most compelling reason for human sacrifice may have been to fend off a looming disaster
01:53appeasement of gods or a version of catastrophe in a sense all part of the same thing the idea of getting on the right side of the golds if a disaster happened you might have to do a human sacrifice in order to try and plead with the golds
02:12one of the theories is that it's in times of great stress that people will turn to something as extreme as human sacrifice
02:21if sacrifice is a measure of stress the civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica may have been the most stressed of all
02:31in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula the ancient Maya built a civilization of stone pyramids and
02:42massive cities out of the jungle in the Yucatan the Maya had no rivers or fresh water sources
02:51their entire society was utterly dependent for water on rainfall and deep water holes or
02:57cenotes with a civilization this tenuous and its resources so fragile the mayor sought to please their gods with human sacrifice
03:09and the highest type of human sacrifice came in the form of a ball game
03:18the Maya ball game is absolutely central to their religion it's not just a sport to them for the Maya the ball game symbolized the central moment in their story of creation
03:35in the game the players reenact the mythic struggle of life itself between humanity and the gods of death
03:45archaeologists believe the players used only their hips to bounce a ball back and forth in a court with a stone hoop
03:54no one knows the complete rules today just the outcome the end of the story has to be that someone gets sacrificed
04:06some experts believe the loser was sacrificed others say the winner
04:13all we know is that one player represented the defeated God of death who will face death himself
04:22the Maya may have learned human sacrifice from their predecessors the ancient Olmecs but only the Maya made ritual bloodshed central to their society
04:40which ruled the Yucatan for nearly 1,300 years
04:46they worshiped a group of terrifying gods the range from Chuck the rain giver to Cassine lord of the dead
04:57each of these gods desired one thing
05:01human blood
05:04without it the Maya believe these gods would send droughts famines and plagues
05:10so the Maya kept their part of the bloody bargain
05:16at the peak of the Mayan culture rival kings fought constant wars not for territory but for captives from other Mayan cities
05:28once captured Mayan victims would face torture
05:31beatings fingernails pulled out blood drawn all to honor the gods
05:36some of the higher level nobles that were captured
05:43would be taken as prisoner
05:45beat up tortured but then inevitably they would end up as the other player in this ritual reenactment
05:51in the sacred ball game the victim sacrifice symbolizes the triumph of the Maya over death itself
06:06but there's a mystery about just how the victim died
06:09experts believe it was by beheading
06:12experts believe it was by beheading
06:13the Mayan artwork never depicts the act
06:15instead
06:17they show the victim's head replaced
06:19with snakes
06:22can modern medical science explain the reason for this ritual depiction
06:26forensic tests may give us the answer
06:35dr. Scott Nelson is a surgical pathologist
06:38he's a master at investigating trauma to the human body
06:41his subject a medical model made of ballistics gel
06:48what's interesting are these images of snakes spouting out of the neck of the victim
06:56some people believe these are religious images
06:59I think in fact that they are medical illustrations
07:02illustrations
07:04illustrations of what happens when a victim is beheaded
07:08we have constructed this medical model
07:10it has a pump the same size and power as a human heart
07:14it's pushing a blue colored synthetic material to simulate blood
07:18in a loop of blood vessels through his head
07:21now let's consider the state of the victim
07:24he's an athlete he's been playing a Mayan ball game
07:27the average blood pressure for an athlete is probably around 100 over 60
07:32as he's playing this vigorous Mayan ball game
07:35likely it's up around 180
07:38knowing that he's about to be killed
07:40there's no doubt his blood pressure would be sky high
07:42probably above 200
07:47our model heart pump is set to match the victim's blood pressure
07:53but would the blood pressure be high enough to send blood arcing into the sky
07:58like the giant snakes of the Mayan carvings
08:00we're about to find out
08:04let me remove my lab coat
08:07now the Mayan images
08:10depict a large heavy flint-edged sword that they use in their beheadings
08:15we have today
08:18a very large heavy medieval type of long sword
08:22that approximates the weight and heft of the Mayan weapon
08:25that was impressive
08:29I'm sure you can see that just like depicted in the Mayan wood carvings
08:31the blood spurted up two or three feet above the neck
08:41I think this proves that the image we saw of snakes coming out of the neck are not a religious image
08:46but in fact a direct medical illustration of what happens at the heading
08:50very impressive but of course a horrible tragic end for the victim
08:55still the moment of impact may not quite have been the end for the victim
09:01some legends suggest the victims may have been conscious even after their beheading
09:03another medical model reveals the anatomical facts
09:10beheading is sometimes considered the fastest way to die
09:13if the blow is quick the spinal cord is instantly severed cutting off all nerve endings
09:16however there's a problem
09:17in this model we can see the carotid artery represented in red
09:42In this model, we can see the carotid artery represented in red.
09:46This is carrying oxygenated blood from the heart directly to the brain.
09:50That means that the instant of beheading, there's still oxygenated blood present within
09:56the brain, enough to keep the victim's brain conscious and alive for several moments at
10:01the time of beheading.
10:03That means that it's possible the victim is aware that he's being beheaded and can possibly
10:07even see with his eyes his killer in those last moments of life.
10:17Mayans killed thousands of victims in this ritual, in ball courts in every Mayan city.
10:27But the victims may have stoically accepted their own death, exchanging their life for
10:32the good of the people.
10:35In some regards, the typical Mayan warrior kind of envied the end that that individual
10:42was meeting, knowing that he was going off to a better place and that he will be remembered
10:47as a brave and tried and true person of his group.
10:55Some Mayan even shed their own blood in gruesome rituals to stave off the impending collapse
11:02of their own civilization.
11:22The ruins of Mayan Mesoamerica are a place where the jungle ran thick with blood in an attempt
11:28to appease the gods.
11:33And in the Mayan city of Yax Jalan, a stone panel shows a noblewoman that the hieroglyphics
11:38called Lady Jacques, performing a strange and disturbing ritual.
11:44It's the year 709 A.D.
11:51Lady Jacques has prepared for her ordeal for days, fasting, praying and exhausting herself
11:58with ritual dancing.
12:01Now she kneels before her husband, a man the hieroglyphics called Lord Shield Jaguar.
12:09Lady Jacques's goal is to spill her own blood in order to speak to the spirit world.
12:17A bloodletting tool is a long string knotted with cactus spines.
12:24She pierces a hole in her tongue.
12:30Blood bursts from the tender muscle, rich in veins.
12:35Pushing the needle through her quivering tongue, Lady Jacques tugs, yanking the cactus spines through
12:42the sensitive flesh.
12:45The blood is collected into a bowl, a sacred offering to the gods.
12:56The flow from her tongue is soon a torrent.
13:01And the blood loss is about to make her pass out and see visions.
13:08Any society that's going to be practicing shamanism, which is really a global phenomena, is in one
13:14way or another going to put themselves in an altered state.
13:18For the Maya, bloodletting triggers that vision.
13:23The Maya seem to have had the practice down to a science.
13:29The human body contains about five quarts of blood.
13:33You can lose about 20% or one quart and your body can compensate.
13:38Once you've lost about 40% of your blood, you're going to go into unconsciousness.
13:43Your body cannot compensate.
13:48These people are trying to hit that area between 10 and 40% to bring an altered state of consciousness.
13:58Losing this much blood can kill.
14:01Lady Jacques remains alive, encountering visions as she passes out.
14:11Lady Jacques's hallucination appears on another carving in the temple, a vision of her ancestor,
14:19blessing her for her gift of blood.
14:25Visions are expressed in the art primarily through the vision serpent.
14:30It begins as smoke and then it turns into this snake.
14:35The snake comes up over their head and then it comes down over them and burps out, specifically one of their ancestors.
14:44The ancestors are pleased.
14:51Lady Jacques and her husband, Lord Jaguar, will be victorious in war, conquering neighboring cities and reigning for over 60 years.
15:02They will be so successful, they'll even build a temple to their own power,
15:07where Lady Jacques and her vision of blood will live forever in carvings of stone.
15:12Temples like this one were central to the Mayan religion.
15:20But there was one place even more sacred to them than a temple on top of a pyramid.
15:28And that was a hole in the earth.
15:32The Mayan cenotes and watery caves.
15:37Besides rainfall, these underground streams were the Mayan's only source of fresh water.
15:44The Maya worshipped the rain god Chark inside local caves.
15:51They believed that before rain clouds appeared in the sky, they actually formed deep inside these sacred watery tunnels.
15:59New discoveries revealed that the size of these underground Maya sites dwarfed the more famous temples.
16:11What's really important in Maya religion is the sacred earth.
16:15It is alive, it's animate.
16:17And so caves are probably the most sacred element because you actually enter the living earth.
16:24The Maya may have believed these caves were trails to the underworld.
16:30There were actually pathways constructed, two different areas.
16:36And so it was probably like a ritual circuit that they would visit various spots making offerings.
16:44One gift appeased the rain god Chark above all.
16:49A human child.
16:52My first exposure to human sacrifice I remember very well because it was at the site of Noctunich Cave.
17:01I was shown this little bone that was sticking out of the dirt.
17:06So I had to very carefully excavate it to save what we could.
17:11And it turned out to be a child who was five or six years old.
17:17You can't help when you're involved in this and thinking about what might have gone on.
17:22A six year old boy has been selected to meet the god deep in his sacred cavern.
17:35The victim is painted blue, the color of water and rain.
17:42The victim and his captor follow narrow pathways carved deep into the caves.
17:48At the very deepest part of the cave they would go down even farther and you really get the impression that you're in the balls of the earth.
18:02Here at an underground lake the boy faces the priest of the god Chark.
18:08The priest lashes out.
18:14The boy's body is deposited in the underground lake.
18:17Only one of many.
18:22We have probably a hundred individuals at least.
18:25And the ones we have now it definitely looks like these were sacrificial victims.
18:29Because the bodies were just discarded in a watery pool.
18:38The number of victims may be a sign of desperation.
18:42Because at the height of its power the Mayan civilization suddenly collapsed.
18:48The great cities and their pyramids were abandoned.
18:53The reason for the Mayan collapse is still debated.
18:57But one of the prime reasons may have been the rain itself.
19:01Despite attempts to appease the god Chark, the rain stopped falling.
19:07Geological and tree ring evidence show that a severe drought hit the Mayan territory in 800 AD.
19:17The worst in 7000 years.
19:20As the precious water dried up crops would have died.
19:24Leading to famine, disease and the death of thousands.
19:28By 900 AD, many of the great Mayan cities were empty.
19:34To be slowly reclaimed by the surrounding jungle.
19:38The blood offerings to appease the rain god had apparently failed.
19:43Further south in Peru, another drought stricken culture believed appeasing the gods required not just spilling blood.
19:56But drinking it.
19:59Peru is famous for the ancient Inca civilization.
20:15Builders of the monumental city of Machu Picchu.
20:20But six centuries before the Inca arose, another culture dominated Peru.
20:27The Moche.
20:33700 AD.
20:35The Temple of the Moon on the coast of Peru.
20:39A high priest dressed in feathers and solid gold awaits his first victim.
20:44A blood offering to the gods.
20:48He's a priest of the Moche people.
20:52Who ruled the coastal plains starting in the year 100.
20:56Their pyramids rival the Maya and Aztecs.
21:03Their artwork is realistic.
21:09Gory.
21:10And erotic.
21:13The most important element of Moche life was also one of the rarest.
21:21Rain.
21:22On the north coast of Peru, rains are very rare.
21:28It's one of the driest places in the world.
21:35And like the Maya, the Moche believed that to keep the rains coming demanded showers of blood.
21:41At the Moche Temple, a warrior from the rival Viru tribe has been captured.
21:51He faces down a blade wielding priest holding a special knife known as the Tumi.
21:58It's a weapon that has no defensive purpose and no use in battle.
22:05It's designed for one task.
22:08Slashing throats.
22:11As the victim waits for the blade, his heart pounds.
22:15His blood pressure skyrockets.
22:18The priest slashes with his sacred knife.
22:22Tearing a wide slice across muscle and arteries.
22:26Then the sacrifice is completed by collecting the spurting life blood in a cup and drinking it.
22:37The blood becomes food for the gods and for the priests.
22:41In so many societies around the world, blood is a very important substance.
22:46It's symbolic of life, of life force, of health.
22:50Now what we see is someone taking the strength of your captive.
22:55And incorporating it into your own body.
22:58It's taking the life force, the essence of those who you've captured.
23:05Moche artwork shows priests drinking full goblets of human blood.
23:10Can the ancient images be accurate?
23:15This is a simulated unit of blood.
23:17The body would contain about ten of these bags.
23:20In slashing a victim's throat, you probably could harvest about four of these bags.
23:24That's equivalent to about a bottle and a half of wine.
23:27It seems that a human body can provide plenty to drink.
23:33Once the blood is drunk, the drained, lifeless husk of the dead warrior is dumped behind the plaza.
23:43In a pile of corpses from previous human sacrifices.
23:46Moche priests sacrificed victims for nearly five centuries.
23:52But around the year 800, things changed.
23:59Unlike the Maya who didn't get enough rain, the Moche suddenly began to get too much.
24:06Scientists call it El Nino.
24:09A weather pattern that strikes the west coast of North and South America every few decades.
24:16And this El Nino event was the worst in centuries.
24:21El Nino is an environmental catastrophe because it's like a flash flood you're worst imagining if it's a strong one.
24:31You get fields destroyed, you get things inundated, you have your irrigation canals destroyed by being washed out.
24:38Evidence of the devastation is found in tree rings, in geological sediment and in the sacrifice pits.
24:51In one pit, archaeologists found dozens of skeletons half buried in mud and sand,
24:57obviously tossed into the pit during terrible rainstorms.
25:02It's a sign of the Moche's desperation.
25:07Priests cutting throat after throat in the middle of a torrential downpour,
25:11desperately trying to make the rain gods stop.
25:16It didn't work.
25:21Around 800 AD, the Moche culture collapsed and their cities were abandoned.
25:26The only evidence left behind, disturbing images of blood-drinking rituals.
25:33And the mud-soaked, grinning victims.
25:38Failed attempts to appease the blood-thirsty gods.
25:43As the Moche civilization was dying,
25:48across the globe another sacrificial culture was on the rise.
25:53By 900 AD, most of Europe was a collection of Christian kingdoms.
26:01Only the far north, Denmark, Norway, Sweden remained pagan.
26:08And only there did people still practice human sacrifice.
26:15It's the year 965.
26:21And here on the northern shores of Europe, the dark ages are about to get darker.
26:27This is a sacrifice to the gods of the Vikings.
26:39What most people don't realize about European human sacrifice is that it was still taking place in the 10th and 11th centuries.
26:46The people known as the Vikings made Scandinavia their home.
27:01They were a warrior culture, valuing strength, power and blood-thirsty courage.
27:08They believed in multiple gods.
27:12Thor, the savage god of storms.
27:15Freya, the goddess who gathered dead Viking warriors from battlefields.
27:21And Odin, the king of gods, who demanded tribute from his worshippers in the form of human blood from captured warriors.
27:33It seems in the Viking period that most sacrifices were offered to Odin as chief of the gods.
27:39As the god of warfare, Odin demanded blood for battlefield success.
27:44And to flatter the god, the Vikings performed a human sacrifice called the blood eagle.
27:53The actual process of the blood eagle is rather disturbing.
27:58You took your live victim.
28:02It was said you carved the shape of an eagle on his back.
28:09To add to the horror, salt water is sprayed in the victim's face and nostrils.
28:18To keep the victim alive and conscious through the entire gruesome process.
28:24The more pain the victims felt, the happier Odin was said to be.
28:30Based on artwork and ancient texts, experts believe the process was to cut open the victim's back to reveal the spine.
28:39And then you cut the ribs from each side of his spine and you splayed them out, pulling them out of the back so they formed a pair of sort of wings like this.
28:54In the final act of the ritual, ancient writers said the victim's lungs are pulled out to look like actual wings.
29:07It's an unlikely and bizarre story.
29:10So bizarre that some experts doubt the very existence of the blood eagle ritual.
29:14Is there any truth to the legend?
29:21Is the bloody practice even possible?
29:24I have with me here now a very large iron dagger of the type of Vikings might have used.
29:32It's not only very sharp, it's big.
29:34Anything smaller may not have gotten the job done.
29:35I'm going to slice down to the soft tissues of the back, trying to avoid any large vessels or piercing the organs to get down to the ribs.
29:46You can hear some of those ribs cracking there.
29:50I'm going to pull some of the soft tissue back.
29:53I need to get up those lungs.
29:55How am I going to do that?
29:56Well, I'm going to see if I can break the ribs.
29:58I really don't think they could have survived this.
30:02There's another big problem with this.
30:04The legend says that they open the back and pull the lungs out to look like big wings.
30:10Big bloody wings.
30:12The problem is, once you pierce this chest wall cavity, you'd hear an inflush of air.
30:18And the lungs would collapse, just like a balloon whose air had been released.
30:22Instead of being a nice, big, fluffy, billowy lung that looks like a wing, you'd have something around the size of a tennis ball.
30:30So for this reason, I don't think that this was the method that brought about the legend that we're speaking about.
30:37But there is another possibility.
30:40And another gruesome experiment in human anatomy may reveal the secrets of the blood eagle.
30:47I think there's another way that this legend could have come about.
30:50The scapula, or shoulder blade, is also known as the wing bone.
30:55It's a large, flat bone that basically floats on the back of the chest.
31:00So, if we were to take our dagger and cut the soft tissues this way, releasing all these muscles that come from the back,
31:11we're not disturbing the lungs at all.
31:14We're cutting the muscles, the trapezius muscles, just to release the shoulder bite from the back.
31:18Now, with all of these muscles released from the back side of the scapula, I could pull the scapula back.
31:25And look at that. A big, bloody wing.
31:29If I do the same thing to the other side, this definitely could have been what the legend was all about.
31:34For the victim, unfortunately, it is possible that he could be alive while they're making these cuts for at least a matter of minutes.
31:46Vikings believed the blood eagle appeased the god Odin, preventing defeat in raids and combat.
31:58Victims were offered after a victory as a special thanks to the bloodthirsty god of battle.
32:04But that was only one method of Viking sacrifice.
32:10And the stories of other forms it took struck terror into the hearts of all Europe.
32:15One of the most dramatic Viking rituals involves strangling, stabbing and fire.
32:24The human sacrifice ritual called the blood eagle was once considered a legend.
32:44But it turns out to have been real.
32:50However, much of what people think they know about Vikings is actually a myth.
32:56They didn't drink from the enemy skulls.
32:59They didn't burn every village they raided.
33:01And even the famous horned helmets of the Vikings seem to be a fantasy.
33:08But one Viking legend turns out to be true.
33:12The Viking funeral.
33:17Eyewitnesses report burning dragon ships that carry the corpse of a dead warrior.
33:24But rarely mentioned, Viking funerals often involved a human sacrifice.
33:29An Arab traveller named Ibn Fadlan spent time living with a Viking tribe in the year 921 AD.
33:46And reported this strange ritual.
33:51A Viking nobleman was buried with great pomp and ceremony in celebrations that went on for several days.
33:57And the central focus of that is the killing after several days of his slave girl.
34:06The funeral begins with the Viking leader's ship pulled aground.
34:11His body is placed on it, surrounded by gifts.
34:15Overseeing the funeral is an elderly priestess the Vikings call the Angel of Death.
34:20For ten days, the Viking crew feasts and drinks.
34:21One slave girl is chosen to accompany the chieftain into the afterlife.
34:23She's plied with alcohol as she serves the Viking crew in every way, even sexually.
34:26On the 10th day, the angel of death calls for the victim to take her place at her dead master's side.
34:27On the 10th day, the angel of death calls for the victim to take her place at her dead master's side.
34:28On the 10th day, the angel of death calls for the victim.
34:29On the 10th day, the angel of death calls for the victim to take her place at her dead master's side.
34:33She knows her fate as she removes her jewelry and gives it to the angel of death,
34:47and the chieftain into the afterlife.
34:48On the 10th day, the angel of death calls for the victim to take her place at her dead master's side.
34:50calls for the victim to take her place at her dead master's side she knows her fate
34:59as she removes her jewelry and gives it to the angel of death then at a signal the Vikings strangle
35:10the girl her last sight is the angel of death raising a sacred dagger
35:19I'm plunging it into her heart to end her struggles the slave girl's corpse is laid next to the Viking
35:29chief then the entire longboat filled with its gifts its treasure and its cargo of corpses is set
35:37on fire unlike the myth the ship burns on land not on the sea the Vikings believe if the ship burns
35:47quickly the gods are appeased and the chief and his slave are welcomed into Valhalla it's one of the
35:55last human sacrifices to take place in Europe within decades of this 10th century funeral Viking tribes
36:04converted to Christianity blood was no longer spilled to satisfy the war God the religion of Odin was
36:15replaced by the religion of the Bible but the Bible itself is filled with sacrifice animal sacrifice is
36:25found throughout the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible the book of Genesis frequently commands you shall
36:33offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar it's a burnt offering to the Lord the ideal is that the
36:42smoke would lift the fragrance up to God and you get this refrain over and over in the Bible a pleasing
36:49aroma to the Lord that is God is actually pleased by the fragrance of a barbecue
36:54but the Bible also contains its own version of human sacrifice it's a story a Viking would find familiar a demanding God who's appeased only by blood except this God is in the Old Testament and the blood he demands is from Isaac the only son of Abraham
37:23Abraham the three great monotheistic faiths Judaism Christianity and Islam all root themselves in a single event Abraham climbing up that mountain and sacrificing his son the God of Abraham stops the sacrifice before blood is spilled
37:45it's a test of Abraham it's a test of Abraham's obedience and he is passed from that point on the Bible denounces human sacrifice
37:52the Bible denounces human sacrifice
37:54but that doesn't mean it didn't happen
37:58several books of the Bible condemn a type of human sacrifice called walking through fire a ritual practice by the Israelites enemies the Canaanites
38:08it's not clear what this practice is but the writers of the Bible hated it and some think this proves that some ancient Israelites also practiced it think of it this way when you see a parking lot that has signs that say no skateboarding no skateboarding no skateboarding
38:15odds are that they have a problem with kids skateboarding the same with the biblical text when you see legal text and prophetic text that say don't make your sons walk through fire don't make your sons walk through fire they're evil because they made their sons walk through fire odds are Israel is a
38:45and the Israelites were continuing to practice sacrifice but what was walking through fire ancient writers claim it was related to a ritual to appease a bronze idol where victims face death by fire the Bible condemns the religious practices of the great rivals of the Israelites the Canaanites the two peoples battled over territory
39:15for centuries for centuries and the Bible says one of the greatest sins of the Canaanites was making their children walk through fire 300 BC on the outskirts of a Canaanite city in the Middle East citizens gather at a sacred site called a burning place they've come to honor a bronze idol a God the Bible calls Molech
39:44molech molech molech is also known as Bahar the bullheaded king of storms molech brings destructive floods or devastating droughts unless he's appeased molech is called a false god in the Bible the Israelites condemned the ritual of walking through fire to appease molech
40:10the authors of the Bible the authors of the Bible don't describe this ritual but later writers explain it in detail
40:17the Roman writer Diodorus describes the ritual in the Canaanite colony of Carthage in the fourth century BC a young mother has been selected to give up her precious infant to the God the priest takes the baby the
40:39the baby then offers it to the bronze idol
40:46you would cut the baby in the arms of a giant bronze statue the arms are extended out of a raging open fire a music was playing and the flames would leap up around the baby
41:02if the offering is pleasing to the God then magically the statues arms begin to move
41:09as the arms of the bronze statue heated up and expanded the baby would drop through the arms into the flames and be totally consumed
41:17this child is only one of many that will be offered to the bronze idol biblical scholars say that sacrifices were given to Moloch as early as 1200 BC and as late as a hundred and forty BC the gruesome ritual travel to Canaanite colonies around the Mediterranean in the city of Carthage in North Africa an estimated
41:4620,000 funeral urns have been found near the ruins of the burning place containing the tiny charred bones of ancient infants
41:53some of the burials have small inscriptions set up over them describing these burials of babies as being gifts to the gods rather than just being regular burials the question remains how could a mother allow her infant child to be subjected to such a gruesome death the answer reflects the harsh realities of the ancient world
42:00In most societies before the last 200 years
42:04of babies as being gifts to the gods rather than just being regular burials
42:10the question remains how could a mother allow her infant child to be subjected
42:15to such a gruesome death the answer reflects the harsh realities of the
42:21ancient world in most societies before the last 200 years roughly 50% of all
42:29the babies that were born would die of natural causes before they were five
42:32years old there was horrific infant mortality and one way people dealt with
42:37this tended to be by saying that babies weren't really full human beings so in
42:44some ways it might have been easier for ancient people to sacrifice their
42:47children than it would be for modern people to sacrifice their own
42:53still it's a measure of the desperation early societies must have felt but they
43:00would give the lives of the few to avert disaster for the many we look at this
43:07today and we're appalled by it literally God wants us to shed blood for him but that
43:14was the way the ancient cultures understood it
43:20in a world of looming threats and unpredictable disasters the gruesome tradition of human sacrifice
43:27offers a terrifying option a violent bargain that attempts to buy off the gods with the blood of the
43:37and from the jungles of the Yucatan to the deserts of the Middle East to the fjords of Norway
43:47human sacrifice has seemed a small price to pay for the favor of the bloodthirsty gods
43:54you
43:59you
44:03you
44:05you
44:07you
44:08you
44:09you
44:14you
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