Maya Warfare and Sacrifice

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

With a history stretching back thousands of years, it’s about time that the Ancients started looking at the extraordinary Maya civilisation in Central America. Even with a range of sources that survive, many aspects of these ancient peoples remains debated and shrouded in mystery. This is especially true when studying warfare and the whole idea of ‘sacrifice’. What were the rules of engagement for the ancient Maya? What was the purpose of warfare? How did they define winning? And what would happen to those captured in war? Could they have been sacrificed?

Joining Tristan today is Professor Elizabeth Graham, a titan of Mesoamerican archaeology who has been researching the Pre-Columbian Maya for several decades. Liz puts forward a very strong case for why she believes there was not human sacrifice among the Classic Maya and why we should not associate the occasional killing of captives with that term.

For behind the scenes and extra Ancients, follow Tristan on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ancientstristan/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the Ancient on History Hits. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's
0:07.8	podcast well it's a special one prepared to be blown away because for the first
0:12.0	time on the Ancient we are really focusing in on Central America we're going to
0:17.9	be talking about the Ancient Maya during the classic period some two thousand
0:23.6	years ago and we're going to be focusing in on warfare and the questions
0:28.4	surrounding Mayan human sacrifice. Now joining me is an esteemed professor from
0:35.3	University College London who believes that this whole idea of sacrifice
0:39.6	among the Ancient Maya is flawed and this is Professor Elizabeth Graham. Liz is a
0:47.0	wonderful speaker I went over to UCL about a week ago to interview her all about
0:51.3	this it was a fantastic chat and she explains why she personally believes that
0:56.4	this idea of sacrifice is flawed so without further ado here's Liz to talk all
1:03.6	about Ancient Mayan warfare and the very credible questions surrounding this
1:08.5	whole idea of Ancient Mayan sacrifice.
1:18.4	Liz it is wonderful if you've come to the podcast thank you so much taking the
1:22.8	time to come to the podcast. Well you're very welcome. Now this is a really
1:26.6	interesting subject warfare the Ancient Maya and the possibility of sacrifice
1:32.1	but if we focus on warfare first because Liz to start this all off warfare it
1:36.6	seems to have been right at the heart of Ancient Maya society. Well people say
1:42.9	that but I don't think it was any more at the heart of Maya society than it
1:48.5	was at the heart of medieval Europe I mean if you read any medieval history the
1:54.8	elites you know the kings and the nobles were constantly thinking about how
2:00.8	they could obtain more income more tribute more taxes and I did that in two
	...

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