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Appeasing the Gods: Human Sacrifice in Pre-Columbian Cultures

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Knives

Aztec knife

knife

These ceremonial knives were perhaps used by Aztec priests to perform human sacrifices. Priests laid the victim’s body (often a captive warrior) over a stone slab and cut open his abdomen with a horizontal incision to remove his heart, which they gave to the gods as an offering. Obsidian, or volcanic glass, is extremely hard and used in surgical instruments today.

Knives
Aztec
15th–16th c.
Mexico, Guerrero
Obsidian and wood
(69.1, top)
flint and wood
(69.2, bottom)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Cedric H. Marks