Shocking! 14 bloodiest human sacrifice rituals in history

Human sacrifice can be named an act of killing people in the name of god or other divine creature. It`s the ritual that can be traced in many cultures all around the world. Human sacrifices throughout the history is a familiar ritual to make their divines happy. People who participated in the rituals could be burned, beheaded or divided into parts.

The victims of those sacrifices were usually people from different nations and parts of society. It might have been enemies or conquered slaves, it might be virgins or criminals, it might be even kings. Nevertheless, some human sacrifice rituals even include eating people.

Human Sacrifices in History

Ancient Egypt

You might find many pieces of evidence that ancient Egyptians provided human sacrifices rituals in their culture. The human sacrifices were traced in the reign of Abydos dynastic. When the death of the king was followed by the death of his servants, wives, and burning treasures. The history research of the facts from the human sacrifices rituals provides the information that servants were volunteers.    They killed themselves possibly in being in the drug indoctrination state. Nevertheless, in 2800 BCE the traces of the human sacrifice disappeared from the history. The burial statues of the servants and wives can be found in the Old Kingdom tombs.

Mesopotamia

Human sacrifice in Mesopotamia was one of the rituals that were performed grooms, handmaidens, musicians, guards, and courtiers; they took poison when a king died or when the city was conquered. The archeology discoveries provided new ideas of the way the human sacrifices were performed in the countries. Nevertheless, the lower servants of kings did not get poison, instead of this they took spears into their skulls. According to the historian documents, the servants took the rituals seriously and voluntarily. Still, there are theories that they took some drugs to perform these human sacrifice rituals.

Levant

According to the Bible, human sacrifices were performed in the Levant. During the battle with the Israelites, one of the Kings offered his Son for the blood sacrifice to win in battle. In the Book of Genesis and also in Quran, it appears the story about God testing Abraham. He asked Abraham to bring his son as a sacrifice to God. The poor man agreed to perform human sacrifice ritual. Human sacrifice in Bible also mentioned in the story of the sacrifice of Jephthah`s daughter. Nevertheless, according to the rabbinic literature, the daughter was not sacrificed, and God saved her at the last moment.

Phoenicia

According to the historical documents saved to us from the Greek and Roman historians, Carthaginians and Phoenicians sacrificed their infants to the gods for their allegiance in battles. It was even found a cemetery in Tophet with more than 20 000 urns. Nevertheless, Plutarch argues with the ideas of human sacrifice in many cities of that country. Still, he claims that children were not sacrificed for any rituals. They were killed when the Carthaginians were conquered. The modern historians dispute the accuracy of the human sacrifices in the ancient world.

Europe

According to the various sources and historian documents. The human sacrifice rituals took places in many Neolithic and Eneolithic Europe. It`s mainly seen in the territories of the modern East Europe. Human sacrifices were seen in Luhansk sacrifice sites in the Eastern Ukraine. It was developed in the Yamna culture. There are many sites for the human sacrifice in the East side of the Europe. Nevertheless, historians still have disputes about the true intentions of these sacrifices. They can be part of the world rituals or new reign of kings. The work of richer branch of the society.

Romanian and Greece sacrifices

The references to the human sacrifices in The Ancient Greek culture can be found in their myths and legends. In the myths of Iphigeneia, it was mentioned her father Agamemnon sacrificed her to have a victory in the war against Troy. He also allowed her to have a place in the pandemonium of the gods as the deer of Artemis. Nevertheless, there is others evidence of the sacrifice the children in the Greek mythology. The beautiful women were sacrificed to the beast of the Crete – Minotaur. Moreover, there were also legends about sacrificing princesses in the name of Gods.

In the Roman Empire, human sacrifices were frequently documented. The human sacrifices were made in the name of gods. The usual sacrifices victims were made out of the slaves of conquered nations. Blood sacrifices were made in the arena of a coliseum. Moreover, sacrifices were made as the rituals before battle and as a sign of the killing their enemies in front of them. Nevertheless, various bloody cults were presented in the ancient Rome. Even members of the high society were sacrificed in the name of gods or as a part politic games.

Celts

According to the Roman historian sources, Celtic Druids provided human sacrifices. According to the Julius Caesar, Gauls offered rituals of burning their slaves along their masters. He also described these human sacrifice rituals. Barbaric rituals could also be happening to the enemies of their warlords. In the Celtic rituals connected to the druids, many maidens were burnt in a fire as the part of the rituals for pleasing the gods. According to the Caesar historian notes, Celts could sacrifice their people to please the God of the Seas – Poseidonius. Still, some sources may indicate that people for these sacrifices were volunteers.

Germanic tribes

Germanic tribes were not interested in the ideas of human sacrifice. It could only occur in the dangerous situations of crisis, like famine, crop failure or war. It was a pretty standard method for a king to establish peace and prosperity during crisis periods. The pre-Viking period of the history of Germany provided some signs of human sacrifice. In Germanic Sagas, there are many signs of sacrifices, like in the Ynglinga saga, the famous king Domalde was sacrificed to bring the harvest to his people. In the Hervarar saga, the King Heidrek agreed to sacrifice his son in the exchange of the commanding new troops.

Slavic people

According to the Byzantine emperor Mauricius Strategikon, Slav people didn`t treat slaves as slaves in the normal life. Their freedom was limited, but they had rights to ransom their freedom and find the way home or pay for the freedom and stay in the lands of Slavs. Leo the Deacon provided evidence that during the Russo-Byzantine War in Sviatoslav the Brave sacrificed hostages to the Perun, the main divinity of Slav people. The paganism was the main religion of Kyiv Rus before baptizing in 988. According to the Russian Primary Chronicle, all sacrifices were banned after baptizing.

China

According to Chinese historians, ancient China had a history of human sacrifice rituals. Human sacrifices were specially provided in the Zhou and Shang Dynasties. In the period of the Warring States, it was performed human sacrifice rituals to the river deities. Moreover, the Emperor of China had a supreme right to be served even after death. Therefore, when the Emperor died – all his concubines and servants were sacrificed to continue their service even after death. Even rich families of the China had the idea of human sacrifice, especially when somebody died. The practice of human sacrifice was banned in 1673.

Maya

The Maya believed in many gods. They made their human sacrifice rituals in the cenotes. When they sacrificed human beings, they tossed them away to the holes. The even had a religion of the sacrificing people to the river gods. One of the most famous Cenote was Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza. The archeologist found bodies of more than forty individuals. Moreover, these individuals were under the twenty years old. The human sacrifice rituals were gruesome show that was performed by priests. They would divide people into parts before they die. Therefore, it provided suffering and painful death.

Aztec

This ancient civilization was mainly famous for sacrificing people. They believed that their god Huitzilopochtli was in a constant fight for the Sun coming to a sky. Therefore, he lost much blood in battle; this blood should have been restored by blood sacrifices. Their great pyramids were used as buildings for holding hostages for sacrificing. In 1487 at the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, more than eighty thousand prisoners were sacrificed. They also periodically sacrificed children as Tlaloc, their god of rain, required more tears of children for bringing rain. They continued sacrificing practice for the very long time of their period in history.

Africa

Human sacrifices in Africa were pretty common in the 19th century. One of the most notorious examples for that can be named Annual customs of Dahomey. The sacrifices took place along the African West coast and further. The sacrifices were extremely common after the Death of a Queen or King.  There are historian recorders about thousands of the sacrifices. These sacrifices could be met in the Benin Empire, Dahomey, and Ghana. There were also common in the southwest of Nigeria. There were even secret societies who conducted killing in Africa, like the Leopard men, who was famous not only for the blood sacrifice but also for the cannibalism.

Canary Islands

According to the archeological researches and the Spanish chronicles, the Guanches, the tribe people of the Canary Island, performed both human and animal sacrifices. During the summer in Tenerife, children were sacrificed by bringing them down from the cliff. When aboriginal King died, all his wives and concubines together with servants should follow him to the next life. The archeologists found a great pile of bones of children in Gran Canaria island. It only gives information about how cruel were that sacrifices.

Human sacrifice today

It`s quite an unwelcome topic in today`s society to discuss human sacrifices. All people understand that it was just part of our history. Human sacrifices definition includes many aspects connected with killing people. It might be just long forgotten trace of history. Nevertheless, there are still evidence that human sacrifice rituals are performed today. There are religious cults that can make propaganda of these cults for today.

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