Human Sacrifice In Aztec Culture

Human sacrifice to gods and tale-telling to people were two components that summarized and showed the religious admiration to their gods in the Aztec culture, and are shown repeatedly in the key art pieces including the Templo Mayor, the Calendar Stone and the Coyolxauhqui Stone.

Human sacrifice was seen as a crucial behavior to give offering to god in exchange of the god’s protection to the Aztec society, and this idea is illustrated in both Templo Mayor and the Coyolxauhqui Stone. The sacred Templo Mayor was viewed and honored as a main temple to perform Aztec’s main religious ritual, to dedicate the deities of both the god of warfare Huizilopotchli and the god of rain Tlaloc. And the practice of sacrificing was seen through the sacrificial stone in the center

Constructors of the temple not only made a practical choice that the ceremonial behavior could be illustrated through architectural choices on a general picture of the whole temple, but also used a detailed art piece at the temple to clarify a particular story of human sacrifice to god. On the bottom of the Huizilopotchli’s side of the temple lies a volcanic stone monolith named the Coyolxauhqui Stone that demonstrates the story how the death of Huizilopotchli’s sister, Coyolxauhqui offered peace the god himself. The scalloping shaped details at the joint of her neck, shoulders and hips, along with the bones and skull that filled up the whole composition showed that she has been decapitated to death. The artists used high-relief carving to portray the dismantled body of