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Cinematic Corner
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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
09:23using another medical model could be used as a pulse cutting off theOTH incitement
09:27some legends suggest the victims may have been conscious even after their beheading
09:34another medical model reveals the anatomical facts
09:36beheading is sometimes considered the fastest way to die
09:40if the blow is quick the spinal cord is instantly severed cutting off all nerve endings
09:43model we can see the carotid artery represented in red this is carrying
09:47oxygenated blood from the heart directly to the brain that means that the instant
09:52of beheading there's still oxygenated blood present within the brain enough
09:57to keep the victims brain conscious and alive for several moments at the time of
10:02beheading that means that it's possible the victim is aware that he's being
10:06beheaded and can possibly even see with his eyes his killer in those last moments
10:11of life
10:17Mayans killed thousands of victims in this ritual in ball courts in every Mayan city
10:26but the victims may have stoically accepted their own death exchanging their
10:31life for the good of the people in some regards the typical Maya warrior kind of
10:40envy in the end that that individual was meeting knowing that he was going off to
10:44a better place and that he will be remembered as a brave and tried-and-true
10:51person of his group some Maya even shed their own blood in gruesome rituals to
11:00stave off the impending collapse of their own civilization
11:04the ruins of Mayan Mesoamerica a replace where the jungle ran thick with blood in an attempt to appease the gods
11:16and in the Mayan city of Yax Jalan a stone panel shows a noblewoman that the hieroglyphics called Lady Jacques performing a strange and disturbing ritual
11:28it's the year 709 AD Lady Jacques has prepared for her ordeal for days fasting praying and exhorting and exhorting in the Mayan city of Yax Jalan a stone panel shows a noblewoman that the hieroglyphics called Lady Jacques performing a strange and disturbing ritual
11:40it's the year 709 AD Lady Jacques has prepared for her ordeal for days fasting praying and exhausting herself with ritual dancing now she kneels before her husband a man the hieroglyphics called Lord Shield Jaguar
11:55Lady Jacques's Lady Jacques goal is to spill her own blood in order to speak to the spirit world a bloodletting tool is a long string knotted with cactus spines she
12:25It 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
12:41spines through the sensitive flesh.
12:45Her blood is collected into a bowl, a sacred offering to the gods.
12:56The flow from her tongue is soon a torrent, and the blood loss is about to make her pass
13:03out and see visions.
13:08Any society that's going to be practicing shamanism, which is really a global phenomenon, is in one
13:14way or another going to put themselves in an altered state.
13:18For the Maya, bloodletting triggers that vision.
13:24The Maya seem to have had the practice down to a science.
13:28The 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.
14:25These are expressed in the art primarily through the vision serpent.
14:31It begins as smoke, and then it turns into this snake.
14:36The snake comes up over their head, and then it comes down over them and burps out, specifically
14:43one of their ancestors.
14:49The ancestors are pleased.
14:51Lady Jacques and her husband, Lord Jaguar, will be victorious in war, conquering neighboring
14:56cities and reigning for over 60 years.
15:00They will be so successful, they'll even build a temple to their own power, where Lady Jacques
15:07and her vision of blood will live forever in carvings of stone.
15:15Temples like this one were central to the Mayan religion.
15:18But there was one place even more sacred to them than a temple on top of a pyramid.
15:27And that was a hole in the earth.
15:31The Mayan cenotes and watery caves.
15:37Besides rainfall, these underground streams were the Mayan's only source of fresh water.
15:46The Mayan worshipped the rain god Chark inside local caves.
15:51They believed that before rain clouds appeared in the sky, they actually formed deep inside
15:57these sacred, watery tunnels.
16:03New discoveries revealed that the size of these underground Mayan sites dwarfed the more famous
16:08temples.
16:11What's really important in Mayan religion is the sacred earth.
16:14It is alive, it's animate.
16:17And so caves are probably the most sacred element because you actually enter the living earth.
16:26The Maya may have believed these caves were trails to the underworld.
16:32There 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, a human child.
16:52My first exposure to human sacrifice I remember very well because it was at the site of Noctunich Cave.
16:59I 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.
17:29A 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.
17:49At the very deepest part of the cave they would go down even farther and you really get the
17:55impression 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, only one of many.
18:22We have probably a hundred individuals at least and the ones we have now it definitely looks
18:28like these were sacrificial victims because the bodies were just discarded in a watery pool.
18:38The number of victims may be a sign of desperation.
18:43Because at the height of its power the Mayan civilization suddenly collapsed.
18:50The great cities and their pyramids were abandoned.
18:54The reason for the Mayan collapse is still debated.
18:58But one of the prime reasons may have been the rain itself.
19:03Despite attempts to appease the god Chark, the rain stopped falling.
19:10Geological and tree ring evidence show that a severe drought hit the Mayan territory in 800 A.D.
19:16The worst in 7,000 years.
19:20As the precious water dried up crops would have died leading to famine, disease and the death of thousands.
19:28By 900 A.D. many of the great Mayan cities were empty to be slowly reclaimed by the surrounding jungle.
19:38The blood offerings to appease the rain god had apparently failed.
19:48Further south in Peru, another drought stricken culture believed appeasing the gods required not just spilling blood, but drinking it.
19:57Peru is famous for the ancient Inca civilization, builders of the monumental city of Machu Picchu.
20:19But six centuries before the Inca arose, another culture dominated Peru.
20:27The Moche.
20:28The Moche.
20:29700 A.D.
20:34The Temple of the Moon on the coast of Peru.
20:38A 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 who ruled the coastal plains starting in the year 100.
20:58Their pyramids rival the Maya and Aztecs.
21:07Their artwork is realistic, gory and erotic.
21:14The most important element of Moche life was also one of the rarest.
21:21Rain.
21:22Rain.
21:23On the north coast of Peru, rains are very rare.
21:29It'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.
21:46At the Moche Temple, a warrior from the rival Viru tribe has been captured.
21:52He faces down a blade-wielding priest holding a special knife known as the Tumi.
22:00It's a weapon that has no defensive purpose and no use in battle.
22:05It's designed for one task.
22:08Slashing throats.
22:12As the victim waits for the blade, his heart pounds, his blood pressure skyrockets.
22:19The priest slashes with his sacred knife, tearing a wide slice across muscle and arteries.
22:28Then the sacrifice is completed by collecting the spurting lifeblood 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 and incorporating it into your own body.
22:58It's taking the life force, the essence of those who you've captured.
23:02Moche artwork shows priests drinking full goblets of human blood.
23:09Can the ancient images be accurate?
23:12This 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.
23:37Once 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.
23:48Moche priests sacrificed victims for nearly five centuries.
23:55But around the year 800, things changed.
24:00Unlike the Maya who didn't get enough rain, the Moche suddenly began to get too much.
24:07Scientists call it El Nino.
24:10A weather pattern that strikes the west coast of North and South America every few decades.
24:18And this El Nino event was the worst in centuries.
24:23El Nino is an environmental catastrophe because it's like a flash flood.
24:28You'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.
24:42Evidence of the devastation is found in tree rings, in geological sediments, 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.
25:01It's a sign of the Moche's desperation.
25:05Priests cutting throat after throat in the middle of a torrential downpour.
25:11Desperately trying to make the rain gods stop.
25:14It didn't work.
25:18Around 800 AD, the Moche culture collapsed and their cities were abandoned.
25:28The only evidence left behind, disturbing images of blood-drinking rituals.
25:36And the mud-soaked, grinning victims.
25:40Failed attempts to appease the blood-thirsty gods.
25:46As the Moche civilization was dying, across the globe another sacrificial culture was on the rise.
25:57By 900 AD, most of Europe was a collection of Christian kingdoms.
26:03Only the far north, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, remained pagan.
26:12And only there did people still practice human sacrifice.
26:16It's the year 965.
26:22And here on the northern shores of Europe, the Dark Ages are about to get darker.
26:29This is a sacrifice to the gods of the Vikings.
26:35What most people don't realize about European human sacrifice is that it was still taking place in the 10th and 11th centuries.
26:47The people known as the Vikings made Scandinavia their home.
27:00They were a warrior culture, valuing strength, power and blood-thirsty courage.
27:07They believed in multiple gods.
27:12Thor, the savage god of storms.
27:16Freya, 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.
27:30It 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.
28:13To add to the horror, salt water is sprayed in the victim's face and nostrils to keep the victim alive and conscious through the entire gruesome process.
28:22The 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.
28:37And 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.
29:04It's an unlikely and bizarre story.
29:09So bizarre that some experts doubt the very existence of the blood eagle ritual.
29:18Is there any truth to the legend?
29:21Is the bloody practice even possible?
29:23I have with me here now a very large iron dagger of the type Vikings might have used.
29:32It's not only very sharp, it's big.
29:34Anything smaller may not have gotten the job done.
29:38I'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.
29:47You 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? Well, I'm going to see if I can break the ribs.
30:00I really don't think they could have survived this.
30:02There's another big problem with this.
30:05The legend says that they open the back and pull the lungs out to look like big wings, big bloody wings.
30:11The 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.
30:23Instead 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 we're speaking about.
30:35But there is another possibility.
30:39And another gruesome experiment in human anatomy may reveal the secrets of the blood eagle.
30:46I 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.
30:54It'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.
31:35For 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.
32:05But that was only one method of Viking sacrifice.
32:09And the stories of other forms it took struck terror into the hearts of all Europe.
32:16One 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, but it turns out to have been real.
32:45However, much of what people think they know about Vikings is actually a myth.
32:54They didn't drink from the enemy skulls.
32:59They didn't burn every village they raided.
33:02And even the famous horned helmets of the Vikings seem to be a fantasy.
33:07But one Viking legend turns out to be true.
33:11The Viking funeral.
33:13Eyewitnesses report burning dragon ships that carry the corpse of a dead warrior.
33:22But rarely mentioned, Viking funerals often involved a human sacrifice.
33:27An Arab traveller named Ibn Fadlan spent time living with a Viking tribe in the year 921 AD.
33:46And reported this strange ritual.
33:48A Viking nobleman was buried with great pomp and ceremony in celebrations that went on for several days.
33:59And the central focus of that is the killing after several days of his slave girl.
34:08The funeral begins with the Viking leader's ship pulled aground.
34:12His body is placed on it, surrounded by gifts.
34:14Overseeing the funeral is an elderly priestess the Vikings call the Angel of Death.
34:25For ten days, the Viking crew feasts and drinks.
34:29One slave girl is chosen to accompany the chieftain into the afterlife.
34:34She's plied with alcohol as she serves the Viking crew in every way.
34:39Even sexually.
34:40On the tenth day, the Angel of Death calls for the victim to take her place at her dead master's side.
34:58She knows her fate as she removes her jewellery and gives it to the Angel of Death.
35:02Then, at a signal, the Vikings strangle the girl.
35:13Her last sight is the Angel of Death raising a sacred dagger and plunging it into her heart to end her struggles.
35:24The slave girl's corpse is laid next to the Viking chief.
35:30Then the entire longboat, filled with its gifts, its treasure and its cargo of corpses, is set on fire.
35:37Unlike the myth, the ship burns on land, not on the sea.
35:44The Vikings believe if the ship burns quickly, the gods are appeased and the chief and his slave are welcomed into Valhalla.
35:52It's one of the last human sacrifices to take place in Europe.
35:59Within decades of this 10th century funeral, Viking tribes converted to Christianity.
36:07Blood was no longer spilled to satisfy the war god.
36:11The religion of Odin was replaced by the religion of the Bible.
36:18But the Bible itself is filled with sacrifice.
36:23Animal sacrifice is found throughout the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible.
36:29The book of Genesis frequently commands,
36:32You shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar.
36:36It's a burnt offering to the Lord.
36:40The idea was that the smoke would lift the fragrance up to God.
36:46And you get this refrain over and over in the Bible.
36:48A pleasing aroma to the Lord.
36:50That is, God is actually pleased by the fragrance of a barbecue.
36:54But the Bible also contains its own version of human sacrifice.
37:07It's a story a Viking would find familiar.
37:10A demanding God who's appeased only by blood.
37:15Except this God is in the Old Testament.
37:19And the blood he demands is from Isaac, the only son of Abraham.
37:24The three great monotheistic faiths,
37:30Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
37:33all root themselves in a single event.
37:36Abraham climbing up that mountain and sacrificing his son.
37:41The God of Abraham stops the sacrifice before blood is spilled.
37:46It's a test of Abraham's obedience and he has passed.
37:49From that point on, the Bible denounces human sacrifice.
37:54But that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
37:59Several books of the Bible condemn a type of human sacrifice called walking through fire.
38:06A ritual practiced by the Israelites enemies, the Canaanites.
38:12It's not clear what this practice is, but the writers of the Bible hated it.
38:17And some think this proves that some ancient Israelites also practiced it.
38:24Think of it this way.
38:26When you see a parking lot that has signs that say,
38:28no skateboarding, no skateboarding, no skateboarding.
38:30Odds are that they have a problem with kids skateboarding.
38:33The same with the biblical text.
38:35When you see legal text and prophetic text that say,
38:38don't make your sons walk through fire.
38:40Don't make your sons walk through fire.
38:42They're evil because they made their sons walk through fire.
38:43Odds are the Israelites were continuing to practice sacrifice.
38:50But what was walking through fire?
38:53Ancient writers claim it was related to a ritual to appease a bronze idol.
38:59Where victims face death by fire.
39:02The Bible condemns the religious practices of the great rivals of the Israelites, the Canaanites.
39:13The two peoples battled over territory for centuries.
39:17And the Bible says one of the greatest sins of the Canaanites
39:21was making their children walk through fire.
39:27300 BC.
39:28On the outskirts of a Canaanite city in the Middle East,
39:34citizens gather at a sacred site called a burning place.
39:39They've come to honor a bronze idol.
39:42A god the Bible calls Molech.
39:47Molech is also known as Bahal.
39:50The bullheaded king of storms.
39:54Molech brings destructive floods or devastating droughts
39:58unless he's appeased.
40:03Molech is called a false god in the Bible.
40:06The Israelites condemn the ritual of walking through fire to appease Molech.
40:13The authors of the Bible don't describe this ritual.
40:17But later writers explain it in detail.
40:19The Roman writer Diodorus describes the ritual in the Canaanite colony of Carthage in the 4th century BC.
40:30A young mother has been selected to give up her precious infant to the god.
40:36The priest takes the baby, then offers it to the bronze idol.
40:43You would put the baby in the arms of a giant bronze statue.
40:49The arms were extended out over a raging open fire.
40:57A music was playing and the flames would leap up around the baby.
41:02If the offering is pleasing to the god, then magically the statue's 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.
41:21This child is only one of many that will be offered to the bronze idol.
41:27Biblical scholars say that sacrifices were given to Molech as early as 1200 BC and as late as 140 BC.
41:38The gruesome ritual traveled to Canaanite colonies around the Mediterranean.
41:43In the city of Carthage in North Africa, an estimated 20,000 funeral urns have been found near the ruins of the Burning Place,
41:51containing the tiny charred bones of ancient infants.
41:58Some of the burials have small inscriptions set up over them, describing these burials of babies as being gifts to the gods,
42:06rather than just being regular burials.
42:10The question remains, how could a mother allow her infant child to be subjected to such a gruesome death?
42:16The answer reflects the harsh realities of the ancient world.
42:22In most societies before the last 200 years, roughly 50% of all the babies that were born would die of natural causes before they were five years old.
42:33There was horrific infant mortality.
42:36And one way people dealt with this tended to be by saying that babies weren't really full human beings.
42:41So in some ways it might have been easier for ancient people to sacrifice their children than it would be for modern people to sacrifice their own.
42:51Still, it's a measure of the desperation early societies must have felt.
42:59That they would give the lives of the few to avert disaster for the many.
43:04We look at this today and we're appalled by it.
43:09Literally, God wants us to shed blood for Him.
43:13But that was the way the ancient cultures understood it.
43:17In a world of looming threats and unpredictable disasters, the gruesome tradition of human sacrifice offers a terrifying option.
43:28A violent bargain that attempts to buy off the gods with the blood of the innocent.
43:38And from the jungles of the Yucatan, to the deserts of the Middle East, to the fjords of Norway, human sacrifice has seemed a small price to pay for the favor of the bloodthirsty gods.
43:54To be continued...
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