Abstract

TIESLER, Vera  and  CUCINA, Andrea. El sacrificio humano por extracción de corazón: Una evaluación osteotafonómica de violencia ritual entre los mayas del Clásico. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2007, vol.30, pp.57-78. ISSN 0185-2574.

The present study provides a new osteological model for the procedures employed in human heart sacrifice and associated body treatments among the Classic Maya. It is based on a set of ritual steps, which make up the practice and the consequent osteo-taphonomic signature. The model is employed in the interpretation of cultural marks encountered in four skeletons from Palenque, Calakmul and Becán, México. The reconstruction of the involved procedures is confronted with information obtained from osteo-archaeological, ethnohistorical and iconographic sources, leading to a broader discussion concerning techniques, visual effects and meaning of human heart extraction in ancient Maya society. Heart removal formed part of a broader set of concerted actions, which were aimed at the sacrificial destruction of life, materialized in the body and the offering of its essences. From a consideration of possible methods of extracting the heart, we conclude that direct skeletal evidence will always be rare.

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