Me: Twenty Seconds to Immortality

[John F. Schwaller]

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
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http://archaeology.csumb.edu
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