Me: Twenty Seconds to Immortality

[zorrah at ATT.NET]

This message (below) was sent to the entire list, although it was addressed to "Colleagues."  So, I'm going to respond anyway even though some may not consider me "a colleague."

Question:  Can you please operationalize what you mean by the "reality of the Mexica Aztec and
other Mesoamerican civilizations" in your final sentence?  Are you trying to reconstruct what you think was the reality of the Mexica Aztec or what exactly do you mean?  Also, how does this "reality" connect with results from an experiment on a synthetic human cadever?  How can the results of this experiment and a citation from Francis Berdan - provide anyone with a credible representation of the "reality of the Mexica Aztec"?  What is this reality based on - theory?

Thanks for your response,

citlalin xochime
Nahuatl Tlahtolkalli
http://nahuatl.info/nahuatl.htm



> 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/