Me: Twenty Seconds to Immortality

[micc2]

Just a note from the sidelines from an amateur of all things Mexican,

Before anyone jumps to an ultimate conclusion on the number of
sacrificial offerings carried out by the Mexi'ca
we need to keep in mind:

1. Any number reported by the Spanish for European audiences must be
looked up with several large grains of salt  Just like Weapons  of mass
destruction, numbers of sacrificed people can be mirages in the desert,
created for political excuses of conquest.

2.  Since the Mexi'ca were not very nice to their neighbor's, and since
their neighbors eventually exacted revenge by siding with the Spanish
invaders, their reports on the number of victims are also suspect.  NOW
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT I AM NOT A NEO-MEXI'CA REVISIONIST WHO DENIES ANY
SACRIFICES! The archeological evidence does indeed show human sacrifice
throughout the entire pre-Columbian period.   I merely propose that the
numbers have been greatly exaggerated by people who would benefit from
such "facts" (such as Christian clergy, gold seeking mercenaries, and
royal personages bent on extending their domains and tax basis....

3. the disposal of so many bodies.  where are there skeletal remains
today?  How was a massive case of rooting corpses dealt with?  No one
can surely believe that EVERYONE sacrificed was eaten as ritual communion?

4. The Otomi and nahuas of today still have ritual sacrifices of PAPER
people as part of their pre-Columbian heritage.  I theorize that the
"Thousands of victims"
were  in large part paper effigies ritually bled on and then burnt as
offerings.

For a view of how the nahua of today's Huasteca use these please see:

http://www.deneenstreet.com/Mexico/moy1.htm
<http://www.deneenstreet.com/Mexico/tep1.htm>


There is also the book "The Shaman's Touch"

"Be careful of the propaganda you  believe, it might take you to war a
half a globe away to die..."


respectfully
mario e. aguilar
www.mexicayotl.org





John F. Schwaller wrote:

> Date:         Tue, 20 Apr 2004 07:57:29 -0400
> Reply-To: Archaeology Institute <institute at csumb.edu>
> Sender: Pre-Columbian History <AZTLAN at LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU>
> From: Archaeology Institute <institute at csumb.edu>
> Subject:      Me: Twenty Seconds to Immortality
> To: AZTLAN at LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU
>
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
>         I have just reviewed the Discovery video titled "Unsolved
> History: Aztec Temple."   Among the conclusions drawn via
> experimentation with a synthetic cadaver (of the sort created for
> military experimentation to test the effects of minefield damage
> to human tissue) is that it takes between 17 and 20 seconds to
> extract a human heart from below the sternum with a flint knife.
>
>         A professor from the University of Cincinnati, Barry
> Isaac, has estimated that it would take approximately 2 minutes
> per sacrifice to position the captive, extract the heart, and
> tumble the captive down the steps of the Templo Mayor.  By his
> calculations, at 2 minutes per captive, 30 men or women could
> have been sacrificed at each altar stone per hour.  He concludes
> that in a 10 hour day 300 captives could be dispatched, and over
> a four day period (as in the mass sacrifice of 1487) some 1,200
> captives were dispatched at each temple or altar site.
>
>         Given the projected 19 altars used from throughout the
> city of Tenochtitlan, Professor Isaac concludes that 1200
> multiplied by 19 altars comes to about 22,800.  It is this figure
> that approximates the 20,000 captive offerings that Francis
> Berdan cites from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis.  Berdan, prior
> to the experiments in question, in turn concluded that it would
> not have been possible to excise a beating human heart in anything
> under 5 minutes.  If, in fact, as the experiment demonstrated, one
> attempts to cut through the sternum with a flint or chert knife,
> then it is likely that the effort will fail.  On the other hand,
> by slicing or cutting the area below the sternum from end to end,
> one can in fact excise a still beating heart within the time frame
> noted.
>
>         Ultimately, the experiment demonstrated that such an act
> could have been performed in about 20 seconds...while of course,
> a well experienced executioner may have performed the feat in
> less time. Any thoughts on this matter would be appreciated,
> particularly as I am currently in the throes of considering
> perspectives that both advocate the idea that mass human
> sacrifice was, or was not, the reality of the Mexica Aztec and
> other Mesoamerican civilizations.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Ruben G. Mendoza, Ph.D., Director
> Institute for Archaeological Science, Technology and Visualization
> Social and Behavioral Sciences
> California State University Monterey Bay
> 100 Campus Center
> Seaside, California 93955-8001
>
> Email: archaeology_institute at csumb..edu
> Voice: 831-582-3760
> Fax: 831-582-3566
> http://archaeology.csumb.edu
> http://archaeology.csumb.edu/wireless/
>
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