Human Sacrifice List
A viewset for viewing and editing Human Sacrifices.
GET /api/rt/human-sacrifices/?format=api
{ "count": 357, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/rt/human-sacrifices/?format=api&page=2", "previous": null, "results": [ { "id": 1, "polity": { "id": 447, "name": "fr_beaker_eba", "long_name": "Beaker Culture", "start_year": -3200, "end_year": -2000 }, "year_from": -3200, "year_to": -2301, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "U", "comment": "We are aware of no discussion of this topic for the early phases of Bell Beaker culture, but a code of ABSENT would not be justified given the strong evidence for HS in other Old World cultures during the third millennium (see tables on Mesopotamia and Egypt during the First Dynasty) and the disagreement regarding HS in the subsequent Bell Beaker culture.", "description": "" }, { "id": 3, "polity": { "id": 448, "name": "fr_atlantic_complex", "long_name": "Atlantic Complex", "start_year": -2200, "end_year": -1000 }, "year_from": -2200, "year_to": -1001, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "U", "comment": "Many burial sites have been excavated dating from the Atlantic Bronze Age, see e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2TDPAIDB\">[de_Soto 2011]</a> , but we find no evidence for HS.<br>An example of HS from the Bell Beaker culture in Ireland is the probable ritual killing of “Cashel Man,” an early bog body dating to ca. 2000 BCE. Cashel Man is often understood in the Irish context of the sacrifice of kings <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TGXPYRGN\">[Kelly 2012]</a> While the presence of HS in Ireland is suggestive, there is not enough evidence to infer either the presence or absence of HS in Paris Basin at this time.", "description": "" }, { "id": 7, "polity": { "id": 452, "name": "fr_hallstatt_d", "long_name": "Hallstatt D", "start_year": -600, "end_year": -475 }, "year_from": -600, "year_to": -475, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Daubigney <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7CNCD5WF\">[Daubigney 1984, p. 126]</a> discusses double and triple burials, possibly of the retainer sacrifice type, which occur “throughout the Iron Age”;he cites at least one example of Hallstatt date in the Marne region, but most of his citations are of La Tène sites. Given the many examples subsequent to Hallstatt D, we infer some degree of continuity with the La Tène culture in this practice.<br>Outside of Paris Basin, royal tumuli of the Hallstatt D period, e.g. at Hohmichele, Germany, include secondary burials, interpreted as evidence for retainer sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5SUF3AP7\">[Green 1998, p. 184]</a> The evidence from the Býčí Skála Cave in Moravia <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/bcfa7f22-d027-4453-9667-ff3a9edc720f/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Golec, Martin, and Pavel Fojtík. 2017. The...)</a> may belong to this period rather than Hallstatt C.", "description": "" }, { "id": 8, "polity": { "id": 453, "name": "fr_la_tene_a_b1", "long_name": "La Tene A-B1", "start_year": -475, "end_year": -325 }, "year_from": -474, "year_to": -325, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "For the Paris Basin, Daubigney <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7CNCD5WF\">[Daubigney 1984, pp. 126-128]</a> describes numerous cases of double and triple burials in the Champagne region which have been interpreted as simultaneous interments of a high-status male and his wife, child, or retainer. At Sogny-aux-Moulins, two of three men buried together had their heads removed and placed in their arms <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5SJGNZ5H\">[Demoule 1999]</a> At the third-century sanctuary in Gournay-sur-Aronde, Picardy, remains of at least twelve human victims were found. Due to the location and the manipulations of the cervical vertebrae and skulls, many scholars agree that this was ritual killing, possibly as gifts to the gods or for the protection of the community <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7CNCD5WF\">[Daubigney 1984, p. 136]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/MS3KB3SK\">[Aldhouse-Green 2001, p. 184]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KNYFDSFS\">[Brunaux_Méniel 1983]</a> The 114 decapitated males displayed at the cult site of Ribemont-sur-Ancre can be interpreted simply as grisly trophies, while extensively dismembered and processed bodies in the site’s enclosures may represent special funerary treatments of the war dead or sacrificial deaths of enemies <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/0dcdaea7-6c22-4f93-9c69-d08d9f649972/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rose, David S. 2016. “Lieux de mémoire, central...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VBK7PVPB\">[Thiol 2002]</a> At Montmartin, a cultic site of the 4th-3rd centuries BCE contained the jumbled remains of some 8 individuals with the crania present more often than other bones, and carefully de-fleshed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/7ae4180c-dfcf-4800-948a-b3614315d832/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/LJ82CF4V\">[Rousseau_et_al 2010]</a> ;according to Rose <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/617dc90c-0108-4ba3-b3ad-74c67f09d1fb/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rose, David S. 2016. “Lieux de mémoire, central...)</a> , corpses at both Gournay and Montmartin were “ritually dismembered” and skulls separated into multiple pieces, while long bones show evidence of multiple parallel blows.<br>Numerous finds of whole or partial skeletons or isolated human bones in silos throughout northern France have stimulated debate over whether such deposits (and a related phenomenon of modifying/manipulating crania) are due to “relegation” of low-status individuals, or could involve some kind of non-funerary ritual action such as a sacrificial offering to gods below <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/c9c4df44-e184-47a4-a167-3efc8a94cf34/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/0f099dab-829b-4816-9386-c22ac54b185f/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7LP5Q85M\">[Delattre_et_al 2013]</a> Delattre <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/32e82171-24a7-41b3-a6ea-eb242598a097/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie. 2013. Sacrifices et dépôts...)</a> argues for the latter, noting that the “relegated” persons sometimes wear jewelry showing that they were not necessarily of a low social order, that in some cases the hands or feet appear to be bound, and that some show evidence of violent death. In some cases the human remains are found beside those of horses or dogs, and there are parallels in the treatment of animal and human remains <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/cbd924fa-60f4-469a-9f0f-757ed62d2cd5/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie. 2013. Sacrifices et dépôts...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/9042e326-0a5e-440e-bd6a-c4315bbfc956/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie, Ginette Auxiette, and...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2IEPPC3J\">[Delattre_Auxiette_Pinard 2018]</a> HS among the Gauls is reported by a number of Classical authors, including Caesar: e.g. Bellum Gallicum 6.16 on retainer sacrifice, 6.19 on burning humans to appease the gods;see <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/E8UZHQ5I\">[Brunaux_Albert_Midant-Reynes 2005]</a> Diodorus Siculus <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/22P9TIFS\">[Diodorus_Siculus 0]</a> describes killing humans for purposes of divination as well as ritual killing of prisoners of war <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6I9MSG5I\">[Brunaux 1988, pp. 131-132]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5SUF3AP7\">[Green 1998, p. 174]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Q4UJ7XVX\">[McIntosh 2006, p. 254]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/a28a8351-319a-4ca5-ab0f-ccc214690f47/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean-Louis. 2005. “Sacrifices humains...)</a> The sources just cited note that scholars have expressed skepticism about the Classical accounts, arguing that the Greeks and Romans wished to vilify Celts as superstitious barbarians;others accept some aspects of these accounts. While judicious regarding the Classical sources, Brunaux <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/dfc1342c-b960-43e2-9ff3-513558e440ac/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean-Louis. 2005. “Sacrifices humains...)</a> writes that human sacrifice by the Gauls certainly took place, but it was “exceptional” rather than a regular/calendrical practice. Although there is scholarly disagreement, we find that a preponderance of evidence favors the code PRESENT.", "description": "" }, { "id": 9, "polity": { "id": 454, "name": "fr_la_tene_b2_c1", "long_name": "La Tene B2-C1", "start_year": -325, "end_year": -175 }, "year_from": -324, "year_to": -175, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "For the Paris Basin, Daubigney <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7CNCD5WF\">[Daubigney 1984, pp. 126-128]</a> describes numerous cases of double and triple burials in the Champagne region which have been interpreted as simultaneous interments of a high-status male and his wife, child, or retainer. At Sogny-aux-Moulins, two of three men buried together had their heads removed and placed in their arms <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/e7643123-6dd3-4007-ae84-80334f0adfa1/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Demoule Jean Paul. 1999. “Reclassement des...)</a> At the third-century sanctuary in Gournay-sur-Aronde, Picardy, remains of at least twelve human victims were found. Due to the location and the manipulations of the cervical vertebrae and skulls, many scholars agree that this was ritual killing, possibly as gifts to the gods or for the protection of the community <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7CNCD5WF\">[Daubigney 1984, p. 136]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/MS3KB3SK\">[Aldhouse-Green 2001, p. 184]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/8fc5ed0e-9533-4f3e-87de-60e772123ff4/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean Louis and Patrice Méniel. 1983....)</a> The 114 decapitated males displayed at the cult site of Ribemont-sur-Ancre can be interpreted simply as grisly trophies, while extensively dismembered and processed bodies in the site’s enclosures may represent special funerary treatments of the war dead or sacrificial deaths of enemies <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/85f03d56-c862-47ec-883f-d8a37c777655/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rose, David S. 2016. “Lieux de mémoire, central...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/0e11ecb7-3450-430d-a1ea-a82ab3e71abf/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Thiol, Sandrine. 2002. “Les guerriers gaulois...)</a> At Montmartin, a cultic site of the 4th-3rd centuries BCE contained the jumbled remains of some 8 individuals with the crania present more often than other bones, and carefully de-fleshed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/10ada0f8-1107-4fc0-b84c-9ffc4cd8e85f/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/12646f79-d4ef-4372-9640-a105daebb79d/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a> ;according to Rose <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/83d5b872-be25-4668-98dd-50d5572b4a71/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rose, David S. 2016. “Lieux de mémoire, central...)</a> , corpses at both Gournay and Montmartin were “ritually dismembered” and skulls separated into multiple pieces, while long bones show evidence of multiple parallel blows.<br>Numerous finds of whole or partial skeletons or isolated human bones in silos throughout northern France have stimulated debate over whether such deposits (and a related phenomenon of modifying/manipulating crania) are due to “relegation” of low-status individuals, or could involve some kind of non-funerary ritual action such as a sacrificial offering to gods below <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/b0dcbb7f-826a-43c8-b629-1a24f3862480/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/0c4fbbff-0fbd-4a5f-b317-2c02e78a7fb4/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/2f278fb4-b935-4eeb-953b-598fa274b72b/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie. 2013. Sacrifices et dépôts...)</a> Delattre <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/5962cf41-8d75-4323-b3cd-cf296a4b29b4/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie. 2013. Sacrifices et dépôts...)</a> argues for the latter, noting that the “relegated” persons sometimes wear jewelry showing that they were not necessarily of a low social order, that in some cases the hands or feet appear to be bound, and that some show evidence of violent death. In some cases the human remains are found beside those of horses or dogs, and there are parallels in the treatment of animal and human remains <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/1a9a9833-dd97-4053-ac15-e7edddd1e0b9/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie. 2013. Sacrifices et dépôts...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/702aa7a4-7153-44d5-b1db-acd88a5920b9/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie, Ginette Auxiette, and...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/3c1e3f81-76c5-405d-82b1-8060032ab31e/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie, Ginette Auxiette, and...)</a> HS among the Gauls is reported by a number of Classical authors, including Caesar: e.g. Bellum Gallicum 6.16 on retainer sacrifice, 6.19 on burning humans to appease the gods;see <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/92216318-1f0c-4c3f-9f15-6599c76ad3d2/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean-Louis. 2005. “Sacrifices humains...)</a> Diodorus Siculus <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/d49bad53-b8aa-4a5b-b948-63b154f1da03/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica)</a> describes killing humans for purposes of divination as well as ritual killing of prisoners of war <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6I9MSG5I\">[Brunaux 1988, pp. 131-132]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5SUF3AP7\">[Green 1998, p. 174]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Q4UJ7XVX\">[McIntosh 2006, p. 254]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/bafcefbc-f20e-4dd3-969e-5eab16007680/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean-Louis. 2005. “Sacrifices humains...)</a> The sources just cited note that scholars have expressed skepticism about the Classical accounts, arguing that the Greeks and Romans wished to vilify Celts as superstitious barbarians;others accept some aspects of these accounts. While judicious regarding the Classical sources, Brunaux <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/ed359794-b5bc-4f73-b7df-8d90f83f3089/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean-Louis. 2005. “Sacrifices humains...)</a> writes that human sacrifice by the Gauls certainly took place, but it was “exceptional” rather than a regular/calendrical practice. Although there is scholarly disagreement, we find that a preponderance of evidence favors the code PRESENT.", "description": "" }, { "id": 10, "polity": { "id": 455, "name": "fr_la_tene_c2_d", "long_name": "La Tene C2-D", "start_year": -175, "end_year": -27 }, "year_from": -174, "year_to": -27, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "For the Paris Basin, Daubigney <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7CNCD5WF\">[Daubigney 1984, pp. 126-128]</a> describes numerous cases of double and triple burials in the Champagne region which have been interpreted as simultaneous interments of a high-status male and his wife, child, or retainer. At Sogny-aux-Moulins, two of three men buried together had their heads removed and placed in their arms <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/bdf378c5-3da7-4a19-a0a4-5ee214f5bf51/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Demoule Jean Paul. 1999. “Reclassement des...)</a> At the third-century sanctuary in Gournay-sur-Aronde, Picardy, remains of at least twelve human victims were found. Due to the location and the manipulations of the cervical vertebrae and skulls, many scholars agree that this was ritual killing, possibly as gifts to the gods or for the protection of the community <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7CNCD5WF\">[Daubigney 1984, p. 136]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/MS3KB3SK\">[Aldhouse-Green 2001, p. 184]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/ec9831c3-401d-4611-938a-a81e983fe6a6/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean Louis and Patrice Méniel. 1983....)</a> The 114 decapitated males displayed at the cult site of Ribemont-sur-Ancre can be interpreted simply as grisly trophies, while extensively dismembered and processed bodies in the site’s enclosures may represent special funerary treatments of the war dead or sacrificial deaths of enemies <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/a370f6ac-f22a-42e9-b08b-cf62fadddf0a/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Thiol, Sandrine. 2002. “Les guerriers gaulois...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9LLUJTEB\">[Mandich_et_al 2016]</a> At Montmartin, a cultic site of the 4th-3rd centuries BCE contained the jumbled remains of some 8 individuals with the crania present more often than other bones, and carefully de-fleshed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/f8a8dfa8-52d9-40c2-8d73-ad0b5e7193c6/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/97f234cf-9583-45dd-a0fb-042eb9c1050d/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a> ;according to Rose <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/fc7d00a5-2745-405a-ba50-e58f7736e1c6/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rose, David S. 2016. “Lieux de mémoire, central...)</a> , corpses at both Gournay and Montmartin were “ritually dismembered” and skulls separated into multiple pieces, while long bones show evidence of multiple parallel blows.<br>Numerous finds of whole or partial skeletons or isolated human bones in silos throughout northern France have stimulated debate over whether such deposits (and a related phenomenon of modifying/manipulating crania) are due to “relegation” of low-status individuals, or could involve some kind of non-funerary ritual action such as a sacrificial offering to gods below <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/c8a7005b-91bc-4731-a95b-975236a5bc27/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/5190750f-446c-4155-82c3-2fc8846d1274/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Rousseau, Élisabeth. 2010. Questionnements...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/5ce63dc0-0067-4e78-acc9-c2719d41807b/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie. 2013. Sacrifices et dépôts...)</a> Delattre <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/d2498629-5cd4-45a5-b120-51b5df5c1e45/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie. 2013. Sacrifices et dépôts...)</a> argues for the latter, noting that the “relegated” persons sometimes wear jewelry showing that they were not necessarily of a low social order, that in some cases the hands or feet appear to be bound, and that some show evidence of violent death. In some cases the human remains are found beside those of horses or dogs, and there are parallels in the treatment of animal and human remains <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/05caa1d4-a1f5-4e58-b90c-7c76469c5c0d/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie. 2013. Sacrifices et dépôts...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/522a3aa1-38c7-4c24-b75d-ff26619424ad/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie, Ginette Auxiette, and...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/68162dac-52b8-4f06-8e7f-e5f52bf27984/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Delattre, Valérie, Ginette Auxiette, and...)</a> HS among the Gauls is reported by a number of Classical authors, including Caesar: e.g. Bellum Gallicum 6.16 on retainer sacrifice, 6.19 on burning humans to appease the gods;see <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/55f5bb47-90c4-4748-a14a-679a27c64fb8/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean-Louis. 2005. “Sacrifices humains...)</a> Diodorus Siculus <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/eadc3d45-9fb0-4d7a-833d-fab14ff5fa1e/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica)</a> describes killing humans for purposes of divination as well as ritual killing of prisoners of war <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6I9MSG5I\">[Brunaux 1988, pp. 131-132]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5SUF3AP7\">[Green 1998, p. 174]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Q4UJ7XVX\">[McIntosh 2006, p. 254]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/ee6c7a8b-85ea-4d2c-8387-8d675c02e07c/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean-Louis. 2005. “Sacrifices humains...)</a> The sources just cited note that scholars have expressed skepticism about the Classical accounts, arguing that the Greeks and Romans wished to vilify Celts as superstitious barbarians;others accept some aspects of these accounts. While judicious regarding the Classical sources, Brunaux <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/6ccd809b-9bff-45f8-b0ac-181f5eacb747/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Brunaux, Jean-Louis. 2005. “Sacrifices humains...)</a> writes that human sacrifice by the Gauls certainly took place, but it was “exceptional” rather than a regular/calendrical practice. Although there is scholarly disagreement, we find that a preponderance of evidence favors the code PRESENT.", "description": "" }, { "id": 13, "polity": { "id": 70, "name": "it_roman_principate", "long_name": "Roman Empire - Principate", "start_year": -31, "end_year": 284 }, "year_from": -31, "year_to": 199, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P~A", "comment": "HS becomes rare during this period but does not entirely disappear. Immolatio of human beings had already been banned in the Late Republic, in 97 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/a4553fa1-abaf-43ae-afe4-d04b70bd4b40/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Pliny, Natural History)</a> and again in 81 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/272ZQEIT\">[Beard 1998, p. 234]</a> Vestals continued to be condemned for incestum but a weakening of ritual requirements suggests that these killings do not meet our definition. However, the ritual combat of the rex nemorensis in Diana's sanctuary at Nemi continued until sometime in the second century <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/456d7127-4631-4c09-a552-33e91a839c86/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Ovid, Fasti, Suetonius, The Lives of the...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/14d865e5-2b57-441c-ab6a-7679bb63e932/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Green, C. M. C. 2007. Roman religion and...)</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 14, "polity": { "id": 70, "name": "it_roman_principate", "long_name": "Roman Empire - Principate", "start_year": -31, "end_year": 284 }, "year_from": 200, "year_to": 283, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity was the state religion from fourth century CE onwards, and strongly proscribed HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a> ; late instances of the execution of Vestals appear to be criminal executions rather than ritual killings. While it is possible that the combat of the rex nemorensis continued into the third or even the fourth century, this seems unlikely (Jennifer Larson, pers. comm. to Seshat board, January 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 20, "polity": { "id": 71, "name": "tr_roman_dominate", "long_name": "Roman Empire - Dominate", "start_year": 285, "end_year": 394 }, "year_from": 285, "year_to": 394, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity was the state religion from fourth century CE onwards, and strongly proscribed HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a> ;late instances of the execution of Vestals appear to be criminal executions rather than ritual killings. While it is possible that the combat of the rex nemorensis continued into the third or even the fourth century, this seems unlikely (Jennifer Larson, pers. comm. to Seshat board, January 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 24, "polity": { "id": 304, "name": "fr_merovingian_emp_1", "long_name": "Early Merovingian", "start_year": 481, "end_year": 543 }, "year_from": 481, "year_to": 542, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 25, "polity": { "id": 306, "name": "fr_merovingian_emp_2", "long_name": "Middle Merovingian", "start_year": 543, "end_year": 687 }, "year_from": 543, "year_to": 686, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 26, "polity": { "id": 456, "name": "fr_merovingian_emp_3", "long_name": "Proto-Carolingian", "start_year": 687, "end_year": 751 }, "year_from": 687, "year_to": 750, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 27, "polity": { "id": 309, "name": "fr_carolingian_emp_1", "long_name": "Carolingian Empire I", "start_year": 752, "end_year": 840 }, "year_from": 752, "year_to": 839, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 28, "polity": { "id": 311, "name": "fr_carolingian_emp_2", "long_name": "Carolingian Empire II", "start_year": 840, "end_year": 987 }, "year_from": 840, "year_to": 986, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 29, "polity": { "id": 457, "name": "fr_capetian_k_1", "long_name": "Proto-French Kingdom", "start_year": 987, "end_year": 1150 }, "year_from": 987, "year_to": 1149, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 30, "polity": { "id": 458, "name": "fr_capetian_k_2", "long_name": "French Kingdom - Late Capetian", "start_year": 1150, "end_year": 1328 }, "year_from": 1150, "year_to": 1327, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 31, "polity": { "id": 333, "name": "fr_valois_k_1", "long_name": "French Kingdom - Early Valois", "start_year": 1328, "end_year": 1450 }, "year_from": 1328, "year_to": 1449, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 32, "polity": { "id": 459, "name": "fr_valois_k_2", "long_name": "French Kingdom - Late Valois", "start_year": 1450, "end_year": 1589 }, "year_from": 1450, "year_to": 1588, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 33, "polity": { "id": 460, "name": "fr_bourbon_k_1", "long_name": "French Kingdom - Early Bourbon", "start_year": 1589, "end_year": 1660 }, "year_from": 1589, "year_to": 1659, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 34, "polity": { "id": 461, "name": "fr_bourbon_k_2", "long_name": "French Kingdom - Late Bourbon", "start_year": 1660, "end_year": 1815 }, "year_from": 1660, "year_to": 1788, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polities: HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 35, "polity": { "id": 115, "name": "is_icelandic_commonwealth", "long_name": "Icelandic Commonwealth", "start_year": 930, "end_year": 1262 }, "year_from": 930, "year_to": 1000, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "HS appears to have been practiced during the early, pagan period of the Icelandic Commonwealth, 930–1000 CE. Written sources, for example those relating to the “Christening of Iceland,” refer to the sacrifice of poor people, children and the elderly during times of famine in an attempt to placate the gods. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SGMXYPLQ\">[Júlíusson_Kristinsson_Dupeyron 2017]</a> These sources have Christian authors, whose purposes it served well to portray pagan Icelandic communities as barbaric. However, their claims are strengthened by archaeological evidence for HS in the Nordic region during the Iron Age and early Middle Ages <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/A2TFJWEB\">[Pearson 1999, p. 17]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/H87VM3SH\">[Cockburn_et_al 1998, pp. 243-245]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GJSL3R9N\">[Aldhouse-Green 2015]</a> and written records—including an account by the tenth-century Muslim traveler Ibn Fadlan—documenting HS among pre-Christian Norse groups <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SGMXYPLQ\">[Júlíusson_Kristinsson_Dupeyron 2017]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5KXZCTZ9\">[Montgomery 2000]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 36, "polity": { "id": 115, "name": "is_icelandic_commonwealth", "long_name": "Icelandic Commonwealth", "start_year": 930, "end_year": 1262 }, "year_from": 1001, "year_to": 1262, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Conversion to Christianity c. 1000 CE;HS suppressed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7IZ5PGPP\">[Kristinsson_Mullins 2017]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 37, "polity": { "id": 116, "name": "no_norway_k_2", "long_name": "Kingdom of Norway II", "start_year": 1262, "end_year": 1396 }, "year_from": 1263, "year_to": 1380, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christian polity, HS not practiced.", "description": "" }, { "id": 38, "polity": { "id": 178, "name": "it_latium_ca", "long_name": "Latium - Copper Age", "start_year": -3600, "end_year": -1800 }, "year_from": -3600, "year_to": -1801, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The “Widow’s Tomb” [Tomb 20] at the Ponte San Pietro necropolis, about 100km from the site of Rome, is a relatively clear example of “retainer sacrifice” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/LZB53FDH\">[Guilaine_Zammit_Hersey 2005, pp. 161-164]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/72f313d2-0553-452e-bf38-b2c5d1d8b810/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Miari, Monica. 1993. “La necropoli eneolitica...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/558c17a8-9a6b-49d3-899d-de8bde59106d/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Miari, Monica. 1993. “La necropoli eneolitica...)</a> However, the tomb is thought to be the earliest in the necropolis, and its date is probably closer to 4000 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/12c1ce99-60a4-46a4-8b10-96d4f0a841b8/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Negroni Catacchio, N. et al. 2014. “Nuovi...)</a> The Ponte San Pietro necropolis has not yielded other examples of retainer HS and the couple in Tomb 20 were unusual in other ways [high status and likely seen as “founding ancestors”].", "description": "" }, { "id": 39, "polity": { "id": 179, "name": "it_latium_ba", "long_name": "Latium - Bronze Age", "start_year": -1800, "end_year": -900 }, "year_from": -1800, "year_to": -1001, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "U", "comment": "No evidence of HS for the Latial culture.", "description": "" }, { "id": 42, "polity": { "id": 182, "name": "it_roman_rep_1", "long_name": "Early Roman Republic", "start_year": -509, "end_year": -264 }, "year_from": -509, "year_to": -265, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Self-sacrifice (devotio) by Roman generals in battle is accepted as historical <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/M8AKJQJZ\">[Cornell 2012, p. 348]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/M8AKJQJZ\">[Cornell 2012, p. 362]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4IMM54CJ\">[Scheid_Lloyd 2003, p. 105]</a> Early munera (gladiatorial fights to the death) are regarded as human sacrifice by many scholars <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UDFY5J4H\">[Kyle 1998, p. 82]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/U2IH8NWX\">[Welch 2007, p. 19]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/2dc644e5-b04a-4e5e-bb20-918e51193ccc/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Futrell, Alison. 1997. Blood in the arena:...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/4f3e3393-cec0-4c73-bc2a-1b1f3b00e183/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Potter, D. 2004. “Gladiators and Blood Sport”...)</a> but this claim is disputed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NRZWSJD9\">[Schultz 2010, p. 517]</a> It is almost certain that the ritual combat of the rex nemorensis (“King of the Woods”, a priest at the Latin sanctuary of Diana at Aricia) was practiced by this period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/214e394c-abf2-43f5-a90d-bd57919f20b5/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Green, C. M. C. 2007. Roman religion and...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/ad80cdf8-909e-4cf5-b319-7047e58763fc/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Green, C. M. C. 2007. Roman religion and...)</a> Each holder of this priestly office was a fugitive slave who had challenged his predecessor to mortal combat <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/fdcdc106-9c14-4fbd-be25-71307199002d/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Servius, Commentary on the Aeneid)</a> text in <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/1a15c38e-51b0-4e9f-937a-91f7629e501b/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Green, C. M. C. 2007. Roman religion and...)</a> In order to be eligible, a challenger had to break off a bough from Diana's sacred woods. This constituted an offense against the goddess, requiring the death of either the challenger or the resident rex nemorensis, who went armed at all times. The combat took place in the wood and the victor oversaw the funeral of his predecessor <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/74296d47-a739-4e8b-a7e7-bbc0f8ad131d/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Green, C. M. C. 2007. Roman religion and...)</a> We define this as HS because it involved a ritual killing in order to appease Diana.", "description": "" }, { "id": 43, "polity": { "id": 183, "name": "it_roman_rep_2", "long_name": "Middle Roman Republic", "start_year": -264, "end_year": -133 }, "year_from": -264, "year_to": -134, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Whether munera at this period were still regarded as offerings to appease the dead is disputed, see e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/52894aa3-828c-4230-aeb2-34f27fa6ee41/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Futrell, Alison. 1997. Blood in the arena:...)</a> but also <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NRZWSJD9\">[Schultz 2010, p. 517]</a> Emergency HS in the form of burial alive of Greeks and Gauls in the Forum Boarium at times of military crisis (228 and 216 BCE) is considered historical and was viewed by the Romans themselves as HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JV5RHV9P\">[Forsythe 2006, p. 331]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NRZWSJD9\">[Schultz 2010, p. 532]</a> Not viewed as HS but falling under our definition is the live interment of Vestal Virgins, possibly in 228 and definitely in 216 BC <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NRZWSJD9\">[Schultz 2010, pp. 530-534]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/4a2ec1fa-2f33-4c1f-98e9-ba50150a084a/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cornell Tim. 1981. “Some observations on...)</a> and the drowning of androgyne children <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/7fe065a9-b42c-444c-ad88-3196f839009a/update/\">(NOZOTERO: MacBain, Bruce. 1982. Prodigy and expiation:...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/01f27fdc-30ce-4f4f-b003-fb08568b05fe/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Schultz, Celia E. 2012. “On the burial of...)</a> The ritual combat of the rex nemorensis is believed to have continued during this period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/fca0a23b-0e1b-4b70-bdfe-bbd999594037/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Green, C. M. C. 2007. Roman religion and...)</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 44, "polity": { "id": 184, "name": "it_roman_rep_3", "long_name": "Late Roman Republic", "start_year": -133, "end_year": -31 }, "year_from": -133, "year_to": -31, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "A final case of live burial of Greeks and Gauls in the Forum Boarium is recorded for 114/3 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JV5RHV9P\">[Forsythe 2006, p. 331]</a> Although the Senate banned human immolatio in 97 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/d2be5cc8-08e1-40d4-9de4-8b29efce29d5/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Pliny, Natural History)</a> , the live interment of Vestals continued with a case in 114/13 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NRZWSJD9\">[Schultz 2010, pp. 530-534]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/0c0e8d88-9f98-4e0a-96aa-bb1f5ab49501/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cornell Tim. 1981. “Some observations on...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/860d49c0-81bd-48c8-a3d4-c9f73c68d4ad/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cornell Tim. 1981. “Some observations on...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/ba3a95a7-d0ab-4269-8c3c-afb05de819ba/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cornell Tim. 1981. “Some observations on...)</a> as did a final instance of androgyne child drowning in 92 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/0272839b-527c-4ac7-a286-e870a1ed5ca7/update/\">(NOZOTERO: MacBain, Bruce. 1982. Prodigy and expiation:...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/b5c1512a-be1e-4fc3-b958-36de7178c487/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Schultz, Celia E. 2012. “On the burial of...)</a> Reported instances of HS by generals of the Late Republic are probably not historical <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NRZWSJD9\">[Schultz 2010, p. 525]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/69ed374e-c7d0-4fcb-9da8-31aad77de840/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Lange, Carsten H. 2014. “The logic of violence...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/223f93c7-7f81-4c50-bd73-eb8751698c27/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Briquel, Dominique. 2012. “Le sacrifice humain...)</a> The ritual combat of the rex nemorensis is believed to have continued during this period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/52773927-d157-4e56-a151-f2308ef3e819/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Diosono, Francesca. 2014. \"Alle radici del...)</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 45, "polity": { "id": 185, "name": "it_western_roman_emp", "long_name": "Western Roman Empire - Late Antiquity", "start_year": 395, "end_year": 476 }, "year_from": 395, "year_to": 457, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity was the state religion from fourth century CE onwards, and strongly proscribed HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 46, "polity": { "id": 186, "name": "it_ostrogoth_k", "long_name": "Ostrogothic Kingdom", "start_year": 489, "end_year": 554 }, "year_from": 493, "year_to": 554, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 47, "polity": { "id": 187, "name": "it_ravenna_exarchate", "long_name": "Exarchate of Ravenna", "start_year": 568, "end_year": 751 }, "year_from": 568, "year_to": 710, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 48, "polity": { "id": 188, "name": "it_st_peter_rep_1", "long_name": "Republic of St Peter I", "start_year": 752, "end_year": 904 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 49, "polity": { "id": 189, "name": "it_st_peter_rep_2", "long_name": "Rome - Republic of St Peter II", "start_year": 904, "end_year": 1198 }, "year_from": 904, "year_to": 1197, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 50, "polity": { "id": 190, "name": "it_papal_state_1", "long_name": "Papal States - High Medieval Period", "start_year": 1198, "end_year": 1309 }, "year_from": 1198, "year_to": 1308, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 51, "polity": { "id": 191, "name": "it_papal_state_2", "long_name": "Papal States - Renaissance Period", "start_year": 1378, "end_year": 1527 }, "year_from": 1378, "year_to": 1526, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 52, "polity": { "id": 192, "name": "it_papal_state_3", "long_name": "Papal States - Early Modern Period I", "start_year": 1527, "end_year": 1648 }, "year_from": 1527, "year_to": 1647, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 53, "polity": { "id": 193, "name": "it_papal_state_4", "long_name": "Papal States - Early Modern Period II", "start_year": 1648, "end_year": 1809 }, "year_from": 1648, "year_to": 1800, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Christianity strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 54, "polity": { "id": 511, "name": "eg_naqada_1", "long_name": "Naqada I", "start_year": -3800, "end_year": -3550 }, "year_from": -3800, "year_to": -3551, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "No known evidence for HS.", "description": "" }, { "id": 58, "polity": { "id": 514, "name": "eg_dynasty_1", "long_name": "Egypt - Dynasty I", "start_year": -3100, "end_year": -2900 }, "year_from": -3100, "year_to": -2901, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Funerary HS. The royal burials at Abydos show evidence for the sacrifice of retainers, accompanying the ruler in death <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/LAA3TH5R\">[Bard 2015, p. 121]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 12]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 60, "polity": { "id": 516, "name": "eg_old_k_1", "long_name": "Egypt - Classic Old Kingdom", "start_year": -2650, "end_year": -2350 }, "year_from": -2650, "year_to": -2351, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Human sacrifice was not a feature of Egyptian society during the Old Kingdom <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 16]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/LAA3TH5R\">[Bard 2015, p. 121]</a> Certain iconographic and written sources suggest that the execution of enemies or criminals was practised, but these do not qualify as HS in our definition.", "description": "" }, { "id": 61, "polity": { "id": 517, "name": "eg_old_k_2", "long_name": "Egypt - Late Old Kingdom", "start_year": -2350, "end_year": -2150 }, "year_from": -2350, "year_to": -2151, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Human sacrifice was not a feature of Egyptian society during the Old Kingdom <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 16]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/LAA3TH5R\">[Bard 2015, p. 121]</a> Certain iconographic and written sources suggest that the execution of enemies or criminals was practised, but these do not qualify as HS in our definition.", "description": "" }, { "id": 63, "polity": { "id": 519, "name": "eg_middle_k", "long_name": "Egypt - Middle Kingdom", "start_year": -2016, "end_year": -1700 }, "year_from": -2016, "year_to": -1721, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "We know of only one example of HS from the Middle Kingdom, from the fortress of Mirgissa in Nubia. Foreigners were sacrificed as part of execration rites designed to banish forces of chaos and anarchy <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, pp. 18-19]</a> , in a ritual that appears to have been state-sanctioned <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/B65TMQBM\">[Ritner 1993, pp. 162-170]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 64, "polity": { "id": 520, "name": "eg_thebes_hyksos", "long_name": "Egypt - Thebes-Hyksos Period", "start_year": -1720, "end_year": -1567 }, "year_from": -1720, "year_to": -1567, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Funerary HS: young females buried with tomb owners and placed in pits outside of the main chambers at Tell-el-Daba in Lower Egypt <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 43]</a> However, these rituals were likely conducted by a culturally Levantine population, and the precise chronology of the find is not certain (John Baines, pers. comm., Oxford workshop, January 2017). Our focus here is the Theban state in Upper Egypt.", "description": "" }, { "id": 65, "polity": { "id": 198, "name": "eg_new_k_1", "long_name": "Egypt - New Kingdom Thutmosid Period", "start_year": -1550, "end_year": -1293 }, "year_from": -1550, "year_to": -1294, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Several New Kingdom tombs include depictions of a figure being dragged on a sledge, known as the tekenu, but scholars disagree about whether the figure represents a victim chosen to be sacrificed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7I7VV6AJ\">[Reeder 1994, pp. 53-54]</a> Amenhotep II, Tutankhamun and possibly other kings mounted slain enemies on the prows of their ships in a display of their power <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 48]</a> , but this constitutes ritual execution rather than HS. Otherwise no evidence for HS, despite abundant mortuary archaeology.", "description": "" }, { "id": 66, "polity": { "id": 199, "name": "eg_new_k_2", "long_name": "Egypt - New Kingdom Ramesside Period", "start_year": -1293, "end_year": -1070 }, "year_from": -1293, "year_to": -1071, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Several New Kingdom tombs include depictions of a figure being dragged on a sledge, known as the tekenu, but scholars disagree about whether the figure represents a victim chosen to be sacrificed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7I7VV6AJ\">[Reeder 1994, pp. 53-54]</a> Amenhotep II, Tutankhamun and possibly other kings mounted slain enemies on the prows of their ships in a display of their power <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 48]</a> , but this constitutes ritual execution rather than HS. Otherwise no evidence for HS, despite abundant mortuary archaeology.", "description": "" }, { "id": 68, "polity": { "id": 521, "name": "eg_kushite", "long_name": "Egypt - Kushite Period", "start_year": -747, "end_year": -656 }, "year_from": -747, "year_to": -665, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "U", "comment": "Evidence for execution of criminals and rebels <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, pp. 66-67]</a> , but none known for HS (John Baines, pers. comm., Oxford workshop, January 2017). Retainer sacrifice was practiced in Nubia in the second millennium BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZA8THP39\">[Van_Dijk_Bremmer 2007]</a> , but appears to have disappeared sometime between the late New Kingdom and the Napatan period (c. 700–300 BCE) (John Baines, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 69, "polity": { "id": 203, "name": "eg_saite", "long_name": "Egypt - Saite Period", "start_year": -664, "end_year": -525 }, "year_from": -664, "year_to": -526, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Mortuary archaeology for the Saite Period is abundant, so the absence of any other good evidence for HS (John Baines, pers. comm., Oxford workshop 2017) leads us to infer that it was absent.", "description": "" }, { "id": 74, "polity": { "id": 107, "name": "ir_achaemenid_emp", "long_name": "Achaemenid Empire", "start_year": -550, "end_year": -331 }, "year_from": -550, "year_to": -331, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Archaeological evidence for HS in the Achaemenid Empire is lacking, and the practice is “profoundly at odds with Zoroastrian morality” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5C6ZW8B\">[Boyce 1983]</a> However, there are reasons to believe that it occasionally took place and was sanctioned by the ruling elite. Herodotus (7.114.2) claimed that Xerxes’s wife Amestris sacrificed the sons of Persian nobles as an offering to a chthonic god when she reached old age <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SIEXVLAC\">[Strassler_Purvis_Herodotus 2007]</a> He also wrote that Xerxes’s army buried local people alive as they crossed over a river in Anatolia (7.114.1), and that Xerxes had the son of a Lydian nobleman killed, bisected, and then marched his army through the pieces (39). <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SIEXVLAC\">[Strassler_Purvis_Herodotus 2007]</a> While these claims could be mere rumours, the “bisecting” parallels procedures described in much older Hittite texts, in which a defeated army is ritually purified by being marched through the pieces of sacrificed humans and domestic animals <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/E9D5KCF3\">[Collins 2007, p. 184]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a> The Macedonian army also had a ritual involving marching through bisected dog parts (Polybius 23.10). We have coded “inferred present” because the literary evidence points to the use of HS in association with military campaigns, and perhaps also in other contexts.", "description": "" }, { "id": 76, "polity": { "id": 205, "name": "eg_inter_occupation", "long_name": "Egypt - Inter-Occupation Period", "start_year": -404, "end_year": -342 }, "year_from": -404, "year_to": -343, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "No evidence for HS in this period (John Baines, pers. comm., Oxford workshop 2017). The practice seems to have been remembered as a myth in the Ptolemaic period. Within Greek culture, the story of Busiris is attested as early as the fifth century and already depicts Egyptian human sacrifice as an archaic practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/75TKSRZD\">[Yoyotte 1980, p. 35]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 77, "polity": { "id": 109, "name": "eg_ptolemaic_k_1", "long_name": "Ptolemaic Kingdom I", "start_year": -305, "end_year": -217 }, "year_from": -305, "year_to": -218, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "HS was not practiced within Classical Greek or Hellenistic cultures ( Jennifer Larson, pers. comm. to Enrico Cioni, 2016);no evidence for HS among Egyptian population.", "description": "" } ] }