Did the Aztecs willingly go to their sacrificial deaths?

Some offerings weren't outright killings as well. They would have been cutting oneself and offering the blood shed to the gods. Archaeologists estimate that a few thousand people would have been sacrificed each year. read more

In addition, by the time of Spanish contact, the Aztecs had enjoyed almost a century of dominance throughout large swathes of Mesoamerica, meaning that their particular take on sacrifice would not have been unknown to many of the peoples they were taking captive. read more

Perhaps you think of the Spanish conquistadors or their beautiful capital at Tenochtitlan. What comes to mind for a lot of people is their practice of human sacrifice. In class, we learned a lot about the civilizations of the Maya and the Inca but not much about the Maya. read more

The Aztecs were not the first civilization in Mesoamerica to practise human sacrifice as probably it was the Olmec civilization (1200-300 BCE) which first began such rituals atop their sacred pyramids. read more