Human sacrifice reinforced Aztec political control and religious belief

Human sacrifice in the Inca Empire

In the lands ruled by the Incas, mountain deities were well-respected and related summits were often selected as places for making the most important of all offerings — human sacrifices.

What were the Aztecs really like?

Does the society live up to its blood-thirsty stereotype? Archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma answers this question and more in this short article. Moctezuma was the principal excavator of the major Aztec archaeological site Templo Mayor in the 1970s. He shares how the culture grew from a combined emphasis on war and agriculture, and ruled one of the world's largest cities at the time.

The archaeology of human sacrifice

Human sacrifice appears in cultures around the globe. But how do we know that to be true? Scientists can tell the difference between ritual sacrifice and mass graves better explained by war and political instability. Learn how in this article about...

The Aztecs worshipped a vast pantheon of more than 200 gods

This detailed visualization breaks down how Aztec deities were identified through symbolic cues—colors, garments, poses, and objects—each reflecting specific powers and mythologies. It highlights fearsome figures like Tlaltecuhtli, the earth monster depicted with a gaping maw, said to devour the sun each night.

Aztec mythology informs the Day of the Dead

The ancient people believed the dead journeyed to Mictlán, the Land of the Dead. To get there, they had to travel for four years through nine underworld levels, with the final being occupied by Mictlantecuhtli, the Aztec god of death, and his wife Mictecacíhuatl.

Using AI to rewrite and revive Aztec tales

Despite being vanquished by the conquering Spaniards in the 16th century, the Aztecs' culture endured through their descendants and rituals, as well as texts that escaped destruction at the hands of the Europeans. These texts, known as codices and preserved in part by Christian monks, revealed intimate details of life as an Aztec in the Middle Ages. Today, AI programs allow students to learn the Aztec's language, Nahuatl, further preserving their heritage.

An Aztec skull whistle discovered in the 1990s was mistaken for a toy

In the late 1990s, archaeologists unearthed a sacrificed man clutching two skull-shaped clay whistles at a Mexico City temple to the wind god Ehecatl (eh-HEH-kahtl). Initially dismissed as toys, the instruments produce a scream-like sound that modern brain scans show triggers fear and urgency responses in listeners. This podcast explores the discovery.

See how the elite warriors of the Aztec Empire trained

This video explores the Aztec military’s elite Eagle and Jaguar warriors, known for their courage and combat skills, and highlights their rigorous training regimen. It concludes with a workout routine modeled on their methods.

The Aztec capital fell after a brutal 75-day siege

The violent Spanish conquest ended with a 75-day siege of Tenochtitlan, where thousands died as Spanish forces and their Indigenous allies overwhelmed the city of 200,000. This animated explainer breaks down how those alliances enabled the empire’s collapse.

Watch a traditional Aztec fire-serpent dance rooted in Mexica mythology

This video captures a performance of a Xicauhuatl—or fire-serpent—dance, rooted in Mexica beliefs that these serpents carried the sun across the sky. The performance highlights the fire serpent’s central role in Aztec ritual and storytelling.

New research challenges the myth that Montezuma peacefully surrendered to Spain

For centuries, historians claimed Montezuma II willingly ceded control to the conquistadors, and that later Aztec resistance was a rogue uprising. Evidence now shows no peaceful handover occurred, revealing a far more turbulent and contested encounter between the two warring empires.

The benefits of extreme pain rituals, explained

We naturally avoid pain and see it as a negative experience. But many traditional cultures incorporate extremely painful rituals into their religious ceremonies, claiming they, in fact, provide ample benefits. Researchers were able to observe boosts in happiness and a sense of belonging in a tribe of Mauritians after they undertook a rigorously painful religious ritual. Read about the study here.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

The Maya played a ballgame that symbolized the conflict between good and evil

Played on I-shaped courts across Mesoamerica, the Maya ballgame was a ritualized sport tied to cosmic struggle. Contrary to popular belief, the game did not involve mass sacrifice or basketball-style scoring.

How women ascended the ranks in the highstakes world of Maya politics

Two bloodlines attained near total supremacy of the Maya civilization in contemporary central America: the lords of Tikal and the Kaanul Dynasty. The Kaanul, or snake, dynasty often used marriage to expand their empire, wedding their sorcerer queens to low-ranking rulers of desired lands. Read this Archaeology Magazine article to learn more about these Maya snake queens.

Roman terror was key to its centuries-long dominance

Historians like Polybius recorded Rome's violent tactics in detail, including the enslavement of entire populations and the mass killing of whole cities. Even as terror and violence proved effective in war, many Romans came to view the tactics with skepticism.

Without mummies, ancient Egyptians feared their souls would perish

The ancient Egyptians placed major importance on mummification because of their beliefs about the afterlife. They believed a preserved body was essential for the soul’s survival, as it needed a physical form to return to. Without it, they feared the soul would perish.

The ritual burns of California forests

Many ecosystems around the world have adapted to regularly occurring wildfires. Some human cultures saw the advantage of such fires and integrated them into their community rituals. Learn about similar tribal traditions looking to better manage California's forests today.

One researcher posed a theory that aliens played a significant role in human evolution

Researcher Zecharia Sitchin proposed that Sumerian cuneiform tablets revealed that Sumerian gods were aliens who landed on Earth in Mesopotamia and influenced the creation of modern humans. While his ideas gained cultural interest, they are widely rejected by mainstream scholars.

Manifest destiny fueled US aggression against Mexico

The belief that the United States had a divine right to expand westward—known as manifest destiny—justified President Polk’s push for territorial conquest. It shaped public support for the Mexican-American War and framed the invasion as national destiny.

Crowds used a thumb gesture to decide whether a gladiator lived or died

This explainer unpacks pollice verso, the hand signal spectators used to call for a gladiator’s execution. Ancient sources never specify the direction; evidence suggests that the thumb was likely turned up or thrust toward the throat, not down.

The strange endurance of consuming blood for health

Blood's importance to humanity is best summarized this way: without it, we die. This importance naturally begets assumptions about its medicinal properties, many of which appear accessible through drinking or eating the fluid connective tissue. This article details the history of blood drinking, from ancient Roman gladiators to modern-day sanguinarians.

Dreams have long been used for religious and political power

Classic literature and mythology attests to the crucial role dreams play in narratives, from the Virgin Birth to the prophetic visions of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The heightened state of dreaming and its analog, hallucinating, have long held special power over the collective imagination.

The origins of Iceland's child-eating Yule Cat legend

Iceland is a cold place, and wool production has long been a key means of surviving the climate's severity. For those Icelanders who failed to get new Christmas clothing before the holiday, their lurked a vicious, hungry cat to consume them. The centuries-old folklore is a fascinating story of social control through the tales we tell. For a dose of Christmas fear, read this wild article.

The US government ran boarding schools designed to erase Native American identity

From the late 19th century into the 20th century, the federal government sent Native children to boarding schools under the philosophy of "kill the Indian, save the man." Children were forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their cultures, and many endured abuse.

The Shah used torture and other human rights abuses to maintain power before the revolution

A declassified 1976 US Embassy telegram acknowledged that the Shah held 3,400-3,500 political prisoners, documented torture allegations against the SAVAK secret police, and confirmed press censorship, even as American diplomats sought to minimize human rights concerns for Congress.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Experimental hantavirus vaccines and therapies, still under development, have long been funded by the US military.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.