Human Sacrifice at Tula: Reputation, Representation, and Actuality

Summary

Since the mid-twentieth century, it has been a staple of the archaeological and art historical literature on Tula, echoed in popular coverage of the site, that its art is dominated by themes of human sacrifice, and that Toltec involvement in this practice exceeded that of prior Mesoamerican cultures in scope and intensity. In fact, there are no direct representations of human sacrifice in Tula’s art. Although the eclectic Tula art tradition drew on many sources, it rejected the graphic portrayals of sacrifice and bloodletting characteristic of Classic Maya and Veracruz styles in favor of the more indirect sacrificial imagery derived from Teotihuacan art. My paper examines both the archaeological and the iconographic evidence of human sacrifice at Tula to present a more nuanced and current assessment of the role of ritual violence in the city’s religion and politics.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Human Sacrifice in Ancient Mesoamerica: New Evidences and Theoretical Perspectives

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