Human Sacrifice List
A viewset for viewing and editing Human Sacrifices.
GET /api/rt/human-sacrifices/?format=api&page=5
{ "count": 357, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/rt/human-sacrifices/?format=api&page=6", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/rt/human-sacrifices/?format=api&page=4", "results": [ { "id": 276, "polity": { "id": 195, "name": "ru_sakha_late", "long_name": "Sakha - Late", "start_year": 1632, "end_year": 1900 }, "year_from": 1643, "year_to": 1900, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "In the seventeenth century, with the arrival of the Russians, HS was banned <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/c13734ee-2af4-4c1a-9a34-02d2d1f614fb/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Okladnikov, Alexey P. 1955. Yakutiya do prisoedineniia...)</a> This information was provided by Nikolay Kradin (pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021). We have dated the transition to Russian rule to 1642, by which point the Lena valley was “under tribute to the czar” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GD78HCEV\">[Balzer_Skoggard 1997]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 277, "polity": { "id": 419, "name": "cn_yangshao", "long_name": "Yangshao", "start_year": -5000, "end_year": -3000 }, "year_from": -5000, "year_to": -3501, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Strong archaeological evidence of HS in the Middle Yellow River Valley becomes common only in the later Yangshao period (Katrinka Reinhart, pers. comm. to Jill Levine, May 2017). There are isolated burials outside cemeteries from this period that may have been of victims of HS. In the early Yangshao Banpo site, two skeletons were found buried in ash pits in the residential area of the community rather than the cemetery <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8Q3H6FTC\">[Liu 2005, p. 46]</a> Reinhart (pers. comm. to Jill Levine, May 2017) notes that sacrificial victims dating to the early Yangshao period may be present at the Hengzhen site: a pit with eight skeletons is possible evidence <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KFDBU7IQ\">[Xue 1990]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 278, "polity": { "id": 419, "name": "cn_yangshao", "long_name": "Yangshao", "start_year": -5000, "end_year": -3000 }, "year_from": -3500, "year_to": -3001, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "By the Late Yangshao period, there is more evidence for HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015]</a> Primary evidence consists of burials in ash pits in non-residential areas. There is also evidence of child sacrifice in building foundations and walls in this period (construction HS) <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015, p. 136]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 279, "polity": { "id": 420, "name": "cn_longshan", "long_name": "Longshan", "start_year": -3000, "end_year": -1900 }, "year_from": -3000, "year_to": -1900, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Sacrificial pits and HS victims buried in the walls and foundations of homes (construction HS) have been found at multiple Longshan sites, e.g. Hougang, Wangchenggang, Hebei, and Dinggong <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/G6J58ENC\">[Demattè 1999, p. 127]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8Q3H6FTC\">[Liu 2005, p. 47]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/I3D85NN9\">[Zhao_Underhill 2013, p. 247]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015]</a> Deposition of sacrificed individuals in pits seems to have been accompanied by feasting <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015]</a> Liu <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8Q3H6FTC\">[Liu 2005]</a> describes evidence for feasting and HS at the site of Kangjia. Reinhart <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015]</a> describes the evidence for HS at Hebei: skeletons in the foundation of a house showed evidence of beatings before death and scalping after death, and those interred in a well showed signs of violent struggle. Ritual human sacrifice possibly related to wall construction was also found in the Longshan settlement of Shimao in Shaanxi. One of the pits excavated in Shimao contained the skulls of 24 young females <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015, pp. 136-138]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 280, "polity": { "id": 421, "name": "cn_erlitou", "long_name": "Erlitou", "start_year": -1850, "end_year": -1600 }, "year_from": -1850, "year_to": -1651, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "There is good evidence for HS at Erlitou <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015, p. 139]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PRKTCQES\">[Bagley 1999, pp. 158-159]</a> Reinhart <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015, p. 139]</a> gives an example of a pit with five skeletons buried “in various positions of disrespect,” near a palace building in Erlitou. The pit also contained the remains of animals, two knives, and pottery cooking and serving pots <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015, p. 139]</a> , suggesting a link between sacrificial rituals and feasting. The excavators of Erlitou have interpreted one area to the north and northeast of the palatial complex as a sacrificial area <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/eceff9f4-9a26-42c5-8ae4-27700f694373/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 2014....)</a> It contained abnormal human burials, areas of burning, and infant skeletons underneath wall foundations, perhaps suggesting construction sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/4726b557-d91f-479e-8175-07966e4ccce2/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 2014....)</a> ; ( Katrinka Reinhart, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 281, "polity": { "id": 422, "name": "cn_erligang", "long_name": "Erligang", "start_year": -1650, "end_year": -1250 }, "year_from": -1650, "year_to": -1251, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "HS was common in the Erligang culture <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015]</a> ; ( pers. comm. to Enrico Cioni and Jill Levine, December 2016). Sacrificial victims included retainers, children, and possible war captives <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/3A4RGSG2\">[Shelach 1996]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015]</a> Pits found at Yanshi, containing pottery and animal and human remains (some dismembered), provide evidence for HS in connection with feasting in this period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015, p. 139]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PRKTCQES\">[Bagley 1999, pp. 158-159]</a> This site also contained apparent sacrificial areas within the walled palace compound ( Katrinka Reinhart, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021). Human and animal remains from ritual sacrifice were also found at the Erligang settlement of Zhengzhou <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PRKTCQES\">[Bagley 1999, p. 170]</a> In one trench near the Zhengzhou city wall, 100 human skulls were excavated, some with cut marks and evidence of mutilation <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015, p. 142]</a> Reinhart <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015, pp. 142-143]</a> points out that cooking pots were found near bound or dismembered skeletons of humans and animals Zhengzhou: more possible evidence for the connection between HS and feasting.", "description": "" }, { "id": 282, "polity": { "id": 243, "name": "cn_late_shang_dyn", "long_name": "Late Shang", "start_year": -1250, "end_year": -1045 }, "year_from": -1250, "year_to": -1123, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "The scale of HS increased in the Late Shang <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8Q3H6FTC\">[Liu 2005, p. 48]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PFM2PBZN\">[Thorp 2013, p. 189]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UVQF6WW7\">[Reinhart 2015]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PRKTCQES\">[Bagley 1999]</a> Late Shang oracle-bone inscriptions record over 13,000 sacrificial victims in the period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8Q3H6FTC\">[Liu 2005, p. 48]</a> Skeletons found in the foundations and walls of homes point to construction rituals similar to those in previous periods. In addition, HS seemed to be an important aspect of royal funerals. This included the sacrifice of retainers and large-scale sacrifices of war captives in mortuary rituals <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PRKTCQES\">[Bagley 1999, p. 194]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 283, "polity": { "id": 244, "name": "cn_western_zhou_dyn", "long_name": "Western Zhou", "start_year": -1122, "end_year": -771 }, "year_from": -1122, "year_to": -795, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "There is written and archaeological evidence of HS in the Western Zhou period. Sacrificial victims included war captives, goats, and pigs <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/47WH8HAY\">[Cook_Sterckx 2005, p. 25]</a> King Wu of Zhou’s sacrifice of the last king of Shang and his two wives is recorded in Zhou histories. King Wu also reportedly burned the heads of the Shang soldiers killed in battle at his ancestral temple <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/L74GVN4B\">[Lewis 1990, p. 27]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 284, "polity": { "id": 245, "name": "cn_jin_spring_and_autumn", "long_name": "Jin", "start_year": -780, "end_year": -404 }, "year_from": -780, "year_to": -489, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "HS continued in the polities of the Spring and Autumn period. Von Falkenhausen <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/AEZWUJHF\">[von_Falkenhausen_Loewe_Shaughnessy 1999, p. 458]</a> describes animal sacrifices in the Jin city of Xintian and notes that human sacrifices were still occasionally practiced elsewhere in the Jin region. War captives were sometimes offered at ancestral temples or killed to “christen” war drums <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9U57R2DS\">[Ter_Haar 2000, p. 153]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/L74GVN4B\">[Lewis 1990, p. 27]</a> ; ( Barend ter Haar, pers. comm., Oxford workshop 2017). Funerary HS was also widespread in the Spring and Autumn period, carried out to provide companions for elites in the afterlife <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JXETGS73\">[Bodde_Twitchett_Loewe 1986, p. 32]</a> There is textual evidence for the sacrifice of concubines, first wives, and officials in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9U57R2DS\">[Ter_Haar 2000, p. 153]</a> Archaeological evidence was found at the tomb of a Jin marquis (ruler): 10 individuals were discovered in pits <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IQU9DGGB\">[Ji_Sun_Tao 2009, p. 133]</a> The positions of the skeletons suggest that they had been thrown haphazardly into the pits, perhaps executed by the edge and then pushed in <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IQU9DGGB\">[Ji_Sun_Tao 2009, p. 133]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 286, "polity": { "id": 251, "name": "cn_western_han_dyn", "long_name": "Western Han Empire", "start_year": -202, "end_year": 9 }, "year_from": -202, "year_to": 9, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P~A", "comment": "HS was gradually abandoned in the Han period, almost ending by 1 CE (Gene Anderson, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, June 2021); <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/L74GVN4B\">[Lewis 1990, p. 27]</a> Confucianism was an important state ideology in the Han, and Confucians denounced the practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GUBJX47E\">[Fowler 2005, p. 32]</a> They attributed it to witches and cannibals <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9U57R2DS\">[Ter_Haar 2000]</a> It is said that the Yellow Turban rebels of 184 CE sacrificed people to gain favor for their cause <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KTDCNKGC\">[De_Crespigny 2007, p. 1059]</a> , but this story could have been spread by the Han leadership to demonize the rebellion. Despite official condemnation, however, funerary HS was still practiced occasionally. Historical texts show that Emperor Jing of Han (r. 157–41 BCE) asked to be buried with slave musicians <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YXT4R3GA\">[周永坤_(Zhou_Yongkun) 2013, p. 36]</a> One Eastern Han tomb was found to contain animal and human sacrifices <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/QBW46RZG\">[Bower_Thorp_Bower 1982, p. 40]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 287, "polity": { "id": 253, "name": "cn_eastern_han_dyn", "long_name": "Eastern Han Empire", "start_year": 25, "end_year": 220 }, "year_from": 25, "year_to": 219, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P~A", "comment": "HS was gradually abandoned in the Han period, almost ending by 1 CE (Gene Anderson, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, June 2021); <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/L74GVN4B\">[Lewis 1990, p. 27]</a> Confucianism was an important state ideology in the Han, and Confucians denounced the practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GUBJX47E\">[Fowler 2005, p. 32]</a> They attributed it to witches and cannibals <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2GMIXP2K\">[Ter_Haar_Cioni 2016]</a> It is said that the Yellow Turban rebels of 184 CE sacrificed people to gain favor for their cause <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KTDCNKGC\">[De_Crespigny 2007, p. 1059]</a> , but this story could have been spread by the Han leadership to demonize the rebellion. Despite official condemnation, however, funerary HS was still practiced occasionally. Historical texts show that Emperor Jing of Han (r. 157–41 BCE) asked to be buried with slave musicians <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YXT4R3GA\">[周永坤_(Zhou_Yongkun) 2013, p. 36]</a> One Eastern Han tomb was found to contain animal and human sacrifices <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/QBW46RZG\">[Bower_Thorp_Bower 1982, p. 40]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 288, "polity": { "id": 254, "name": "cn_western_jin_dyn", "long_name": "Western Jin", "start_year": 265, "end_year": 317 }, "year_from": 265, "year_to": 317, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The state cult encompassed Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist schools of thought, all of which condemned HS. Funerary sacrifice was still occasionally performed by elites after the ancient period, but it appears to have been a rare and localized practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VS54IY8N\">[Barrett_Bremmer 2007]</a> ; ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021). HS lacked the support from the state that it had in previous periods of Chinese history. As Buddhism spread among local populations, it is likely that it put an end to bloody sacrifice ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 289, "polity": { "id": 258, "name": "cn_northern_wei_dyn", "long_name": "Northern Wei", "start_year": 386, "end_year": 534 }, "year_from": 386, "year_to": 534, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The state cult encompassed Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist schools of thought, all of which condemned HS. Funerary sacrifice was still occasionally performed by elites after the ancient period, but it appears to have been a rare and localized practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VS54IY8N\">[Barrett_Bremmer 2007]</a> ; ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021). HS lacked the support from the state that it had in previous periods of Chinese history. As Buddhism spread among local populations, it is likely that it put an end to bloody sacrifice ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 290, "polity": { "id": 260, "name": "cn_sui_dyn", "long_name": "Sui Dynasty", "start_year": 581, "end_year": 618 }, "year_from": 581, "year_to": 617, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The state cult encompassed Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist schools of thought, all of which condemned HS. Funerary sacrifice was still occasionally performed by elites after the ancient period, but it appears to have been a rare and localized practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VS54IY8N\">[Barrett_Bremmer 2007]</a> ; ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021). HS lacked the support from the state that it had in previous periods of Chinese history. As Buddhism spread among local populations, it is likely that it put an end to bloody sacrifice ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 291, "polity": { "id": 261, "name": "cn_tang_dyn_1", "long_name": "Tang Dynasty I", "start_year": 617, "end_year": 763 }, "year_from": 618, "year_to": 762, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The state cult encompassed Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist schools of thought, all of which condemned HS. Funerary sacrifice was still occasionally performed by elites after the ancient period, but it appears to have been a rare and localized practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VS54IY8N\">[Barrett_Bremmer 2007]</a> ; ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021). HS lacked the support from the state that it had in previous periods of Chinese history. As Buddhism spread among local populations, it is likely that it put an end to bloody sacrifice ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 292, "polity": { "id": 264, "name": "cn_tang_dyn_2", "long_name": "Tang Dynasty II", "start_year": 763, "end_year": 907 }, "year_from": 763, "year_to": 907, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The state cult encompassed Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist schools of thought, all of which condemned HS. Funerary sacrifice was still occasionally performed by elites after the ancient period, but it appears to have been a rare and localized practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VS54IY8N\">[Barrett_Bremmer 2007]</a> ; ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021). HS lacked the support from the state that it had in previous periods of Chinese history. As Buddhism spread among local populations, it is likely that it put an end to bloody sacrifice ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 293, "polity": { "id": 425, "name": "cn_northern_song_dyn", "long_name": "Northern Song", "start_year": 960, "end_year": 1127 }, "year_from": 960, "year_to": 1126, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The state cult encompassed Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist schools of thought, all of which condemned HS. Funerary sacrifice was still occasionally performed by elites after the ancient period, but it appears to have been a rare and localized practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VS54IY8N\">[Barrett_Bremmer 2007]</a> ; ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021). HS lacked the support from the state that it had in previous periods of Chinese history. As Buddhism spread among local populations, it is likely that it put an end to bloody sacrifice ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 294, "polity": { "id": 266, "name": "cn_later_great_jin", "long_name": "Jin Dynasty", "start_year": 1115, "end_year": 1234 }, "year_from": 1127, "year_to": 1234, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The state cult encompassed Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist schools of thought, all of which condemned HS. Funerary sacrifice was still occasionally performed by elites after the ancient period, but it appears to have been a rare and localized practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VS54IY8N\">[Barrett_Bremmer 2007]</a> ; ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021). HS lacked the support from the state that it had in previous periods of Chinese history. As Buddhism spread among local populations, it is likely that it put an end to bloody sacrifice ( Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, May 2021).", "description": "" }, { "id": 295, "polity": { "id": 268, "name": "cn_yuan_dyn", "long_name": "Great Yuan", "start_year": 1271, "end_year": 1368 }, "year_from": 1271, "year_to": 1367, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Funerary sacrifice—of retainers, slaves and family members of deceased elite men—was revived under the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty, though it “never fully regained its earlier prominence” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/J2WVZ8TK\">[Rouse_Chung_Wegars 2005, p. 11]</a> The Muslim explorer Ibn Battuta described the funerals of a Yuan emperor and the accompanying sacrifice of about 100 men from the ranks of his relatives and friends, as well as four young female slaves, six mamluks, and slaves carrying food <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/K9796MI7\">[Roux 1963, p. 171]</a> Doubts have been cast on whether he actually witnessed this process, even though the description is deemed accurate when compared to what is known of Mongol funerary rituals <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/H7JNDP8S\">[Dunn 2012, p. 265]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 296, "polity": { "id": 269, "name": "cn_ming_dyn", "long_name": "Great Ming", "start_year": 1368, "end_year": 1644 }, "year_from": 1368, "year_to": 1463, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P~A", "comment": "Several early Ming emperors were buried with imperial concubines, who committed suicide or were killed in various ways to follow them in death <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TS7X9RLK\">[李新刚 2009, p. 56]</a> Examples include Emperors Hongwu (r. 1368–98), Yongle (r. 1402–24) and Xuande (r. 1425–31). More than 100 concubines were interred with Emperor Hongwu;they were either buried alive or had their throats cut <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9DLMFELL\">[Tsai 2001, p. 222]</a> , [n. 2]. Emperor Yongle’s 16 concubines hanged themselves to accompany him in death [176]. Thirty concubines accompanied Xuande in death <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TS7X9RLK\">[李新刚 2009, p. 56]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 297, "polity": { "id": 269, "name": "cn_ming_dyn", "long_name": "Great Ming", "start_year": 1368, "end_year": 1644 }, "year_from": 1464, "year_to": 1643, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "HS was banned by Emperor Yingzong before his death in 1464 CE, and was not practiced by subsequent Ming emperors <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YXT4R3GA\">[周永坤_(Zhou_Yongkun) 2013, p. 37]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/E54UH27T\">[Gu_Xu 2014, pp. 95-96]</a> However, “following in death” remained common among local rulers <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YXT4R3GA\">[周永坤_(Zhou_Yongkun) 2013, p. 37]</a> We have coded HS absent for this period because the state—as well as Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist scholars and religious officials <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VSPPKQNS\">[Gregory_et_al 1993, p. 13]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SMH4PWTX\">[Penny_Pregadio 2008]</a> ; ( Barend ter Haar, pers. comm. to Enrico Cioni, 2016)—was opposed to it.", "description": "" }, { "id": 298, "polity": { "id": 1, "name": "cn_qing_dyn_1", "long_name": "Early Qing", "start_year": 1644, "end_year": 1796 }, "year_from": 1644, "year_to": 1795, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "“Widow suicide” was practiced by the Manchu people, and this continued under the early Qing emperors (the Qing Dynasty was founded by Manchus) (Lars Laaman, pers. comm. to Jill Levine, September 2017). The practice was discouraged in the eighteenth century by the Yongzheng emperor <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TABHAUY4\">[Mann 1997, p. 25]</a> and the Qianlong emperor (r. 1735–99) (Lars Laaman, pers. comm. to Jill Levine, September 2017).<br>However, we do not classify this practice as human sacrifice because it was not carried out so that the widows would provide a companion for their deceased husbands in the afterlife. Rather, they were understood to be preserving their honour and chastity by avoiding the obligation to remarry (Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, June 2021); <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FJ9KSMQ7\">[Schneewind 2007, p. 359]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 299, "polity": { "id": 2, "name": "cn_qing_dyn_2", "long_name": "Late Qing", "start_year": 1796, "end_year": 1912 }, "year_from": 1796, "year_to": 1912, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "“Widow suicide” was practiced by the Manchu people, and this continued under the early Qing emperors (the Qing Dynasty was founded by Manchus) (Lars Laaman, pers. comm. to Jill Levine, September 2017). The practice was discouraged in the eighteenth century by the Yongzheng emperor <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TABHAUY4\">[Mann 1997, p. 25]</a> and the Qianlong emperor (r. 1735–99) (Lars Laaman, pers. comm. to Jill Levine, September 2017).<br>However, we do not classify this practice as human sacrifice because it was not carried out so that the widows would provide a companion for their deceased husbands in the afterlife. Rather, they were understood to be preserving their honour and chastity by avoiding the obligation to remarry (Peter Bol, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, June 2021); <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FJ9KSMQ7\">[Schneewind 2007, p. 359]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 300, "polity": { "id": 470, "name": "cn_hmong_1", "long_name": "Hmong - Late Qing", "start_year": 1701, "end_year": 1895 }, "year_from": 1701, "year_to": 1895, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The Hmong people practiced ritual animal sacrifice and made offerings of food to spirits <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z9NGT72X\">[Diamond 2009, p. 3]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8NEJD7PC\">[Ling_Ruey_Tsao 1947, p. 199]</a> , but neither Chinese accounts nor later ethnographies suggest that they also sacrificed humans. There are stories among modern-day Hmong of occasional ritual killings in order to gain personal fortune (not HS according to our definition) or in order to appease angry dragons and deities (Gary Lee, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, July 2021). However, these reports are not confirmed. Hmong religion in the period coded also partially integrated beliefs and practices from Daoism, Buddhism and (later) Christianity, making HS more unlikely.", "description": "" }, { "id": 302, "polity": { "id": 144, "name": "jp_yayoi", "long_name": "Kansai - Yayoi Period", "start_year": -300, "end_year": 250 }, "year_from": -300, "year_to": 249, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Various later stories and myths refer to HS in the Yayoi period, e.g. the self-sacrifice of Prince Yamato-takeru’s concubine to avert a storm <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 146]</a> The Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan, early eighth century) asserts that the haniwa clay figurines deposited in elite tombs are substitutes for human sacrificial victims, and dates the abolition of retainer sacrifice to the reign of the semi-legendary Emperor Suinin (r. 29 BCE–70 CE in the conventional dating) <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/MJY97SY3\">[Triplett 2019, p. 165]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 304]</a> Likewise, the Wei zhi, a third-century CE Chinese historical text, claims that over 100 servants were killed to accompany Queen Himiko in death, retainer HS, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 304]</a> Himiko ruled in the mid-third century CE, probably in Kansai. The Wei zhi also refers to the Japanese custom of taking an extra person on sea voyages, who would be thrown overboard when stormy weather threatened to sink the ship <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 233]</a> Harimoto thinks this is credible, and the practice can be seen as a kind of small-scale emergency HS. The fact that the sacrifice of humans during funerals was officially prohibited in 646 CE, and the sacrifice of widows banned in 833 CE, also indicates that HS may have taken place earlier in the historical sequence <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 235]</a> Iles and Kidder believe that aside from possible rare occurrences, HS was not practiced (Timothy Iles, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, June 2021) <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, pp. 140-146]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 304]</a> On balance, we have coded for scholarly disagreement: the later literary evidence is suggestive, and isolated instances of elite-sanctioned HS would still point towards a present code, but some authors are sceptical and we know of no archaeological evidence for HS in the period.", "description": "" }, { "id": 304, "polity": { "id": 146, "name": "jp_asuka", "long_name": "Asuka", "start_year": 538, "end_year": 710 }, "year_from": 538, "year_to": 710, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Buddhism, which prohibited both human and animal sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a> , was gaining influence in Japan during this period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/2PB6XZJP\">[Mitsusada_Brown 2008]</a> The sacrifice (including self-sacrifice) of humans during funerals was officially prohibited in 646 CE, but records suggest that it continued even after this point <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 235]</a> It was still apparently necessary in 833 to forbid the practice of killing widows after the husband’s death <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 235]</a> There is also a possibility that low-status people were sacrificed to the kami. Wooden tallies found close to Fujiwara record the killing of two female slaves in 705 CE in order to appeal to Shin-ryū-ō, a dragon deity, to lower the water level <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 147]</a> However, Kidder <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 147]</a> notes that there is no record of floods in 705, so this account may not be reliable.", "description": "" }, { "id": 305, "polity": { "id": 147, "name": "jp_heian", "long_name": "Heian", "start_year": 794, "end_year": 1185 }, "year_from": 794, "year_to": 1184, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Buddhism, which prohibited both human and animal sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a> , was well-established. The practice of killing widows after the husband’s death was officially forbidden in 833 CE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 235]</a> Any HS that took place in the Heian or later periods would not have been sanctioned by the state or religious elite.", "description": "" }, { "id": 306, "polity": { "id": 148, "name": "jp_kamakura", "long_name": "Kamakura Shogunate", "start_year": 1185, "end_year": 1333 }, "year_from": 1185, "year_to": 1333, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Buddhism, which prohibited both human and animal sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a> , was well-established. The practice of killing widows after the husband’s death was officially forbidden in 833 CE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 235]</a> Any HS that took place in the Heian or later periods would not have been sanctioned by the state or religious elite.", "description": "" }, { "id": 307, "polity": { "id": 149, "name": "jp_ashikaga", "long_name": "Ashikaga Shogunate", "start_year": 1336, "end_year": 1467 }, "year_from": 1336, "year_to": 1466, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Buddhism, which prohibited both human and animal sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a> , was well-established. The practice of killing widows after the husband’s death was officially forbidden in 833 CE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 235]</a> Any HS that took place in the Heian or later periods would not have been sanctioned by the state or religious elite.", "description": "" }, { "id": 308, "polity": { "id": 150, "name": "jp_sengoku_jidai", "long_name": "Warring States Japan", "start_year": 1467, "end_year": 1568 }, "year_from": 1467, "year_to": 1567, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Buddhism, which prohibited both human and animal sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a> , was well-established. The practice of killing widows after the husband’s death was officially forbidden in 833 CE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 235]</a> Any HS that took place in the Heian or later periods would not have been sanctioned by the state or religious elite.", "description": "" }, { "id": 309, "polity": { "id": 151, "name": "jp_azuchi_momoyama", "long_name": "Japan - Azuchi-Momoyama", "start_year": 1568, "end_year": 1603 }, "year_from": 1568, "year_to": 1602, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Buddhism, which prohibited both human and animal sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a> , was well-established. The practice of killing widows after the husband’s death was officially forbidden in 833 CE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 235]</a> Any HS that took place in the Heian or later periods would not have been sanctioned by the state or religious elite.", "description": "" }, { "id": 310, "polity": { "id": 152, "name": "jp_tokugawa_shogunate", "long_name": "Tokugawa Shogunate", "start_year": 1603, "end_year": 1868 }, "year_from": 1603, "year_to": 1868, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Buddhism, which prohibited both human and animal sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a> , was well-established. The practice of killing widows after the husband’s death was officially forbidden in 833 CE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/688UREJF\">[Bremmer_Harimoto 2007, p. 235]</a> Any HS that took place in the Heian or later periods would not have been sanctioned by the state or religious elite.", "description": "" }, { "id": 311, "polity": { "id": 37, "name": "kh_funan_1", "long_name": "Funan I", "start_year": 225, "end_year": 540 }, "year_from": 225, "year_to": 539, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "U", "comment": "No data.", "description": "" }, { "id": 312, "polity": { "id": 38, "name": "kh_funan_2", "long_name": "Funan II", "start_year": 540, "end_year": 640 }, "year_from": 540, "year_to": 639, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "U", "comment": "Vickery <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/RQIB73R3\">[Vickery 1998, pp. 246-247]</a> posits that inscription K.258A may contain a reference to human sacrifice: \"In certain other Mon-Khmer languages, /sit, sot/ means die, kill, or to be finished [...] We may be faced with human sacrifice, although the evidence is too little and too vague to be sure. [...] At least this reveals one more category of dependent personnel, the lowest, who were really owned and could be dedicated as property, perhaps even sacrificed.\" Referring to Southeast Asia more generally at this time, De Casparis and Mabbett note that human sacrifice may have been widespread: \"This type of practice is likely to have attended the antique cults of territorial gods and spirits of tree, river, and mountain. In each case, it was considered that the spirit, dwelling essentially in a placeless, timeless, sacred world, was inaccessible to the community except through special rituals designed to give him the means of communication.\" However, they also that \"there is no real evidence as to the prevalence of human sacrifice in the civilized areas of ancient Southeast Asia.\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/UPKXDIJB\">[De_Casparis_Mabbett_Tarling 1992, p. 285]</a> We have coded unknown due to the scarcity of evidence.", "description": "" }, { "id": 314, "polity": { "id": 40, "name": "kh_angkor_1", "long_name": "Early Angkor", "start_year": 802, "end_year": 1100 }, "year_from": 802, "year_to": 1100, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Tully writes that Cambodian kings may have sponsored rituals featuring human sacrifice at this time, based on evidence (e.g. in Chinese sources) that they did so in previous and later times. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/RML8857D\">[Tully 2005, p. 35]</a> However, John Miksic believes the ancient Chinese texts are unreliable on this point, and in general doubts that Cambodian rulers practiced it <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KMZH3SLE\">[Miksic_Dupeyron 2017]</a> It is also worth noting that Buddhism was a substantial minority faith at this time, and that Buddhist imagery was common in Angkor temples <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/USXJ5DVK\">[Roveda 2004]</a> , even though Hinduism was the official cult. Indeed, in the next period, Buddhism rose to the status of official cult. According to Buddhism, a person should refrain from harming and killing sentient beings <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a> . However, elite support for Buddhism has coexisted with elite-sponsored human sacrifice in other periods, so its presence does not rule out the possibility that humans were sometimes sacrificed.", "description": "" }, { "id": 315, "polity": { "id": 41, "name": "kh_angkor_2", "long_name": "Classical Angkor", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1220 }, "year_from": 1150, "year_to": 1220, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Tully writes that Cambodian kings may have sponsored rituals featuring human sacrifice at this time, based on evidence (e.g. in Chinese sources) that they did so in previous and later times. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/RML8857D\">[Tully 2005, p. 35]</a> However, John Miksic believes the ancient Chinese texts are unreliable on this point, and in general doubts that Cambodian rulers practiced it <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KMZH3SLE\">[Miksic_Dupeyron 2017]</a> It is also worth noting that Buddhism was a substantial minority faith at this time, and that Buddhist imagery was common in Angkor temples <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/USXJ5DVK\">[Roveda 2004]</a> , even though Hinduism was the official cult. Indeed, in the next period, Buddhism rose to the status of official cult. According to Buddhism, a person should refrain from harming and killing sentient beings (Schmidt-Leukel 2006: 64). <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a> However, elite support for Buddhism has coexisted with elite-sponsored human sacrifice in other periods, so its presence does not rule out the possibility that humans were sometimes sacrificed. We have coded for scholarly disagreement.", "description": "" }, { "id": 316, "polity": { "id": 42, "name": "kh_angkor_3", "long_name": "Late Angkor", "start_year": 1220, "end_year": 1432 }, "year_from": 1220, "year_to": 1431, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "[Jayavarman VII r. 1181–1218], was the first Angkor ruler to elevate Buddhism to the status of official ideology, and indeed, despite anti-Buddhist iconoclasm under Jayavarman VIII, from the 13th century on the polity saw the influence of Hinduism wane in favour of Buddhism, for a detailed, nuanced summary, see <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6FUXX8D5\">[Harris 2005, pp. 22-25]</a> As noted above, Buddhism opposes the killing of sentient beings, suggesting that human sacrifice was likely not practiced at this time.<br>However, a late 19th-century Cambodian source mentions the \"offering\" of two prisoners of war on the part of the Cambodian king in a time of crisis. Chandler <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/df5d197f-663a-4e12-9725-059419275f48/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Chandler, David. 1974. \"Royally Sponsored...)</a> interprets this as a royally-sponsored ceremony where human sacrifice was intended to honor a local ancestral spirit known as Me Sa;Chandler also notes that according to \"tradition\" this ceremony had been performed every year since \"former times\"—though he himself observes that this is rather vague--and that Buddhist priests were involved. This suggests the possibility that, despite the Buddhist ban on killing, the official cult may have continued to include human sacrifice even long after Buddhism became the dominant ideology.<br>Overall, however, given the vagueness and late date of some of Chandler's sources, it seems overall more likely that human sacrifice was not part of official cultic practices at this time.", "description": "" }, { "id": 317, "polity": { "id": 43, "name": "kh_khmer_k", "long_name": "Khmer Kingdom", "start_year": 1432, "end_year": 1594 }, "year_from": 1432, "year_to": 1593, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "[Jayavarman VII r. 1181–1218], was the first Angkor ruler to elevate Buddhism to the status of official ideology, and indeed, despite anti-Buddhist iconoclasm under Jayavarman VIII, from the 13th century on the polity saw the influence of Hinduism wane in favour of Buddhism, for a detailed, nuanced summary, see <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6FUXX8D5\">[Harris 2005, pp. 22-25]</a> As noted above, Buddhism opposes the killing of sentient beings, suggesting that human sacrifice was likely not practiced at this time.<br>However, a late 19th-century Cambodian source mentions the \"offering\" of two prisoners of war on the part of the Cambodian king in a time of crisis. Chandler <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/a1be0f0b-afd5-4f17-b684-aa3d82a82568/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Chandler, David. 1974. \"Royally Sponsored...)</a> interprets this as a royally-sponsored ceremony where human sacrifice was intended to honor a local ancestral spirit known as Me Sa;Chandler also notes that according to \"tradition\" this ceremony had been performed every year since \"former times\"—though he himself observes that this is rather vague--and that Buddhist priests were involved. This suggests the possibility that, despite the Buddhist ban on killing, the official cult may have continued to include human sacrifice even long after Buddhism became the dominant ideology.<br>Overall, however, given the vagueness and late date of some of Chandler's sources, it seems overall more likely that human sacrifice was not part of official cultic practices at this time.", "description": "" }, { "id": 318, "polity": { "id": 44, "name": "th_ayutthaya", "long_name": "Ayutthaya", "start_year": 1593, "end_year": 1767 }, "year_from": 1594, "year_to": 1767, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "During the Ayutthaya period, Buddhism was already the dominant ideology in Thailand <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9NZXSU7Z\">[Baker,_Phongpaichit 2014, p. 19]</a> However, a seemingly reliable 17th-century Dutch source describes the custom of impaling pregnant women under posts supporting fortifications, so that their spirits may function as protective and \"ferociously supernatural agents\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/e17f2d5e-6ff1-4cb6-8af2-821cc2f90897/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Terwiel, B.J. 1978, \"The Origin and Meaning...)</a> This is an example of construction sacrifice, specifically “animation” construction sacrifice, in which the killing provides supernatural protection for a built structure.", "description": "" }, { "id": 319, "polity": { "id": 45, "name": "th_rattanakosin", "long_name": "Rattanakosin", "start_year": 1782, "end_year": 1873 }, "year_from": 1782, "year_to": 1873, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "During this period, the Siamese royal family ruled much of mainland Southeast Asia from their court at Rattanakosin (modern Bangkok). The Khmer elite continued to rule in the Lower Mekong Basin as vassals. Although Buddhism, with its emphasis on non-violence, was practiced by both groups of elites, historical sources suggest that HS did take place. Chandler argues that elite-sanctioned HS took place in nineteenth-century Cambodia. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FGUIQIAA\">[Chandler 1974]</a> As part of royally sponsored festivals at the mountain of Ba Phnom, condemned prisoners were beheaded; their heads and cut-up flesh were offered to the goddess Me Sa (likely a consort of Shiva as well as an important guardian spirit) in order to bring rain and good health <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FGUIQIAA\">[Chandler 1974]</a> Buddhist monks participated in the non-violent aspects of the ritual. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FGUIQIAA\">[Chandler 1974, p. 216]</a> Ian Harris comments that “Ritual decapitation is also attested in two other nineteenth-century Cambodian locations [besides Ba Phnom], but as the century progressed, human sacrifice fell into abeyance and a rutting buffalo was replaced as victim”. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6FUXX8D5\">[Harris 2005, p. 55]</a> Solange Thierry writes that the neak ta (earth spirit) Krol of Kompong Thom “seems to have received human victims until about 1904”. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7WQQXVVE\">[Thierry_Bonnefoy_Doniger 1993]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 320, "polity": { "id": 46, "name": "id_buni", "long_name": "Java - Buni Culture", "start_year": -400, "end_year": 500 }, "year_from": -400, "year_to": 499, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "U", "comment": "There is no evidence for HS in the region in this period.", "description": "" }, { "id": 323, "polity": { "id": 49, "name": "id_kediri_k", "long_name": "Kediri Kingdom", "start_year": 1049, "end_year": 1222 }, "year_from": 1049, "year_to": 1222, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Barnes writes that human sacrifice is a persistent cultural trope in Indonesia as a whole. In the colonial and post-independence periods there have been persistent rumors that state authorities were capturing and killing people in order to use their remains in engineering projects, especially building bridges. He suggests that political and military elites have been associated with kidnapping (culik) and construction sacrifice for many centuries. “[R]ather than being a phenomenon of the twentieth century, head-hunting panics associated with construction may be an ancient feature of Indonesian life … If a state or leader is very potent, then presumably it or he can afford to sacrifice human heads when important projects are undertaken, such as opening fields or building temples” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Y3WC8IY8\">[Barnes 1993, p. 155]</a> Hall has also commented that “sacrifices of animals and even human beings were common to Javanese Tantric ritual as depicted in the tenth-century text Sanghyang Kamahāyānikan” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XZKMPREN\">[Hall 1996, p. 106]</a> However, it is unclear whether any of these rituals were actually performed in the Medang, Kediri or Majapahit periods. As for archaeological evidence, scholarly opinion is divided. Discussing human skeletons found at several temple complexes in central Java, in some cases from deep shafts beneath cult statues, Jordaan and Wessing say that “the possibility of the practice of human sacrifice in ancient central Java” can “no longer be ignored” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CD553A5D\">[Jordaan_Wessing 1996, p. 45]</a> John Miksic has disputed that the remains are those of sacrificial victims: some of the cases they cite may represent the later use of Hindu-Buddhist temple complexes as Muslim burial grounds <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/C7FI9FXH\">[Miksic_Reddish 2022]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6N7NU6JT\">[Miksic 1999, pp. 723-724]</a> Miksic doubts that HS was ever a feature of Javanese religious practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KMZH3SLE\">[Miksic_Dupeyron 2017]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 324, "polity": { "id": 50, "name": "id_majapahit_k", "long_name": "Majapahit Kingdom", "start_year": 1292, "end_year": 1518 }, "year_from": 1292, "year_to": 1518, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Barnes writes that human sacrifice is a persistent cultural trope in Indonesia as a whole. In the colonial and post-independence periods there have been persistent rumors that state authorities were capturing and killing people in order to use their remains in engineering projects, especially building bridges. He suggests that political and military elites have been associated with kidnapping (culik) and construction sacrifice for many centuries. “[R]ather than being a phenomenon of the twentieth century, head-hunting panics associated with construction may be an ancient feature of Indonesian life … If a state or leader is very potent, then presumably it or he can afford to sacrifice human heads when important projects are undertaken, such as opening fields or building temples” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Y3WC8IY8\">[Barnes 1993, p. 155]</a> Hall has also commented that “sacrifices of animals and even human beings were common to Javanese Tantric ritual as depicted in the tenth-century text Sanghyang Kamahāyānikan” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XZKMPREN\">[Hall 1996, p. 106]</a> However, it is unclear whether any of these rituals were actually performed in the Medang, Kediri or Majapahit periods. As for archaeological evidence, scholarly opinion is divided. Discussing human skeletons found at several temple complexes in central Java, in some cases from deep shafts beneath cult statues, Jordaan and Wessing say that “the possibility of the practice of human sacrifice in ancient central Java” can “no longer be ignored” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CD553A5D\">[Jordaan_Wessing 1996, p. 45]</a> John Miksic has disputed that the remains are those of sacrificial victims: some of the cases they cite may represent the later use of Hindu-Buddhist temple complexes as Muslim burial grounds <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/C7FI9FXH\">[Miksic_Reddish 2022]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6N7NU6JT\">[Miksic 1999, pp. 723-724]</a> Miksic doubts that HS was ever a feature of Javanese religious practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KMZH3SLE\">[Miksic_Dupeyron 2017]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 325, "polity": { "id": 51, "name": "id_mataram_k", "long_name": "Mataram Sultanate", "start_year": 1568, "end_year": 1755 }, "year_from": 1568, "year_to": 1703, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Islam, which proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4FFR7BN9\">[Sherwood 2004, pp. 831-832]</a> was the state religion of the Mataram Sultanate.", "description": "" }, { "id": 326, "polity": { "id": 153, "name": "id_iban_1", "long_name": "Iban - Pre-Brooke", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1841 }, "year_from": 1650, "year_to": 1841, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Headhunting was practiced until the early twentieth century <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/LIQ7M54G\">[Austin 1977, p. 14]</a> , but it does not fit our definition of HS. It was not done in order to please or placate spirits but for a variety of other reasons, including to increase male prestige, in response to shame or sorrow, or to take revenge on neighbouring groups <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FZYNAFVX\">[Sather_Reddish 2021]</a> However, there are also reports of war captives being sacrificed on whetstones to initiate the annual farming cycle <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/WM8K7K24\">[Freeman 1955, p. 30]</a> This fits our definition, though it may never have been a common practice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FZYNAFVX\">[Sather_Reddish 2021]</a> We have coded HS inferred present for the period before 1900. The administration of the Brooke rajas gradually suppressed headhunting and similar practices in the first half of the twentieth century <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FZYNAFVX\">[Sather_Reddish 2021]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 330, "polity": { "id": 445, "name": "pg_orokaiva_pre_colonial", "long_name": "Orokaiva - Pre-Colonial", "start_year": 1734, "end_year": 1883 }, "year_from": 1734, "year_to": 1883, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Though there is no direct evidence for the absence of human sacrifice in the pre-colonial period, it seems likely that the Orokaiva did not practice it then, given that colonial-era ethnographies make no mention of it, unlike ethnographies written at a similar time about other Pacific Islands peoples. The only possible exception is the description of a ritual featuring the cannibalistic consumption of the corpse of an enemy, but it appears that this ritual was carried out in a spirit of retaliation rather than to appease supernatural entities <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KUPJA2X4\">[Williams 1930, p. 218]</a> It is also worth noting that, though missionaries brought Christianity to the Orokaiva in the colonial period, ethnographers in the 1960s were still reporting that the Orokaiva had not fully embraced the new credo e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/43MKIK3Q\">[Schwimmer 1969, p. 129]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 331, "polity": { "id": 446, "name": "pg_orokaiva_colonial", "long_name": "Orokaiva - Colonial", "start_year": 1884, "end_year": 1942 }, "year_from": 1884, "year_to": 1942, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Though there is no direct evidence for the absence of human sacrifice in the pre-colonial period, it seems likely that the Orokaiva did not practice it then, given that colonial-era ethnographies make no mention of it, unlike ethnographies written at a similar time about other Pacific Islands peoples. The only possible exception is the description of a ritual featuring the cannibalistic consumption of the corpse of an enemy, but it appears that this ritual was carried out in a spirit of retaliation rather than to appease supernatural entities <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KUPJA2X4\">[Williams 1930, p. 218]</a> It is also worth noting that, though missionaries brought Christianity to the Orokaiva in the colonial period, ethnographers in the 1960s were still reporting that the Orokaiva had not fully embraced the new credo e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/43MKIK3Q\">[Schwimmer 1969, p. 129]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 332, "polity": { "id": 17, "name": "us_hawaii_1", "long_name": "Hawaii I", "start_year": 1000, "end_year": 1200 }, "year_from": 1000, "year_to": 1199, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "According to Hawaiian oral histories, which <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/B7ZLLKKX\">[Kirch 2010, pp. 86-87]</a> credits as having a 'solid core of historical truth', human sacrifice was introduced to Hawai'i by the voyaging priest Pā'ao, who probably came from the Society Islands, some time between 1310 and 1390 CE. We infer that human sacrifice was absent until the middle of Hawaii 2.", "description": "" }, { "id": 333, "polity": { "id": 18, "name": "us_hawaii_2", "long_name": "Hawaii II", "start_year": 1200, "end_year": 1580 }, "year_from": 1200, "year_to": 1349, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "According to Hawaiian oral histories, which <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/B7ZLLKKX\">[Kirch 2010, pp. 86-87]</a> credits as having a 'solid core of historical truth', human sacrifice was introduced to Hawai'i by the voyaging priest Pā'ao, who probably came from the Society Islands, some time between 1310 and 1390 CE. We infer that human sacrifice was absent until the middle of Hawaii 2.", "description": "" }, { "id": 334, "polity": { "id": 18, "name": "us_hawaii_2", "long_name": "Hawaii II", "start_year": 1200, "end_year": 1580 }, "year_from": 1350, "year_to": 1580, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Though, according to Hawaiian oral histories, the voyaging priest Pā'ao introduced the practice of human sacrifice to Big Island Hawaii at the beginning of this period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/B7ZLLKKX\">[Kirch 2010, pp. 86-87]</a> , it also seems that oral traditions surrounding ‘Umi-a-Līloa, the ruler of the Big Island around 1600 CE, contain “one of the first explicit references to human sacrifice in the Hawaiian traditions” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NIIVVPB6\">[Kirch 2012, p. 221]</a>", "description": "" } ] }