Human Sacrifice List
A viewset for viewing and editing Human Sacrifices.
GET /api/rt/human-sacrifices/?format=api&page=7
{ "count": 357, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/rt/human-sacrifices/?format=api&page=8", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/rt/human-sacrifices/?format=api&page=6", "results": [ { "id": 392, "polity": { "id": 513, "name": "eg_naqada_3", "long_name": "Egypt - Dynasty 0", "start_year": -3300, "end_year": -3100 }, "year_from": -3300, "year_to": -3101, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "HS is well attested for the next period, Dynasty 1, and it may have begun in Naqada III, or continued from Naqada II, but this is uncertain (John Baines, pers. comm., Oxford workshop, January 2017).", "description": "" }, { "id": 393, "polity": { "id": 515, "name": "eg_dynasty_2", "long_name": "Egypt - Dynasty II", "start_year": -2900, "end_year": -2687 }, "year_from": -2900, "year_to": -2687, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Possible evidence for retainer sacrifice connected with burial of Khasekhemwy (last king of Second Dynasty) <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, pp. 13-14]</a> , but this is not accepted by all scholars (John Baines, pers. comm., Oxford workshop, January 2017). It has been suggested that niches in the walls of early Second Dynasty gallery tombs at Saqqara could plausibly have held victims of human sacrifice, but there is no evidence to support this idea <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZA8THP39\">[Van_Dijk_Bremmer 2007, pp. 142-143]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 394, "polity": { "id": 515, "name": "eg_dynasty_2", "long_name": "Egypt - Dynasty II", "start_year": -2900, "end_year": -2687 }, "year_from": -2900, "year_to": -2687, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Possible evidence for retainer sacrifice connected with burial of Khasekhemwy (last king of Second Dynasty) <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, pp. 13-14]</a> , but this is not accepted by all scholars (John Baines, pers. comm., Oxford workshop, January 2017). It has been suggested that niches in the walls of early Second Dynasty gallery tombs at Saqqara could plausibly have held victims of human sacrifice, but there is no evidence to support this idea <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZA8THP39\">[Van_Dijk_Bremmer 2007, pp. 142-143]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 395, "polity": { "id": 518, "name": "eg_regions", "long_name": "Egypt - Period of the Regions", "start_year": -2150, "end_year": -2016 }, "year_from": -2150, "year_to": -2017, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Evidence for HS is weak. Muhlestein <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 33]</a> mentions the case of a servant who might have been sacrificed alongside a royal daughter. The woman was apparently strangled, as shown by forensics. However, this does not constitute proof for human sacrifice;according to John Baines (pers. comm., Oxford workshop, January 2017), the case is isolated and should be considered borderline evidence.", "description": "" }, { "id": 396, "polity": { "id": 518, "name": "eg_regions", "long_name": "Egypt - Period of the Regions", "start_year": -2150, "end_year": -2016 }, "year_from": -2150, "year_to": -2017, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Evidence for HS is weak. Muhlestein <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 33]</a> mentions the case of a servant who might have been sacrificed alongside a royal daughter. The woman was apparently strangled, as shown by forensics. However, this does not constitute proof for human sacrifice;according to John Baines (pers. comm., Oxford workshop, January 2017), the case is isolated and should be considered borderline evidence.", "description": "" }, { "id": 397, "polity": { "id": 200, "name": "eg_thebes_libyan", "long_name": "Egypt - Thebes-Libyan Period", "start_year": -1069, "end_year": -747 }, "year_from": -1069, "year_to": -761, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Prince Osorkon stated that he substituted traditional goats with captured rebels during the Feast of the Evening Sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 64]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/db7fbfc5-0d29-46a7-bbab-80c8dc473205/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Ritner, Robert K. 2009. The Libyan anarchy:...)</a> However, the text refers to the victims as having committed crimes, suggesting that these rites – if they did take place – should be viewed as ritual execution of defeated enemies (John Baines, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021). The archaeologist Pierre Montet also believed that some human remains found close to the foundations of temples at Tanis, the capital of the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties, were victims of human sacrifice, but this is not generally accepted <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 63]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 398, "polity": { "id": 200, "name": "eg_thebes_libyan", "long_name": "Egypt - Thebes-Libyan Period", "start_year": -1069, "end_year": -747 }, "year_from": -1069, "year_to": -761, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Prince Osorkon stated that he substituted traditional goats with captured rebels during the Feast of the Evening Sacrifice <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 64]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/db7fbfc5-0d29-46a7-bbab-80c8dc473205/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Ritner, Robert K. 2009. The Libyan anarchy:...)</a> However, the text refers to the victims as having committed crimes, suggesting that these rites – if they did take place – should be viewed as ritual execution of defeated enemies (John Baines, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021). The archaeologist Pierre Montet also believed that some human remains found close to the foundations of temples at Tanis, the capital of the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties, were victims of human sacrifice, but this is not generally accepted <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/V956K222\">[Muhlestein 2011, p. 63]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 399, "polity": { "id": 61, "name": "gr_crete_old_palace", "long_name": "Old Palace Crete", "start_year": -1900, "end_year": -1700 }, "year_from": -1900, "year_to": -1701, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "While many scholars agree that HS was practiced during the Middle and Late Minoan periods (Kostis Christakis, pers. comm. to Enrico Cioni, January 2017), there is no single clear and undisputed example of the practice. Children were most likely subjected to ritual cannibalism at Late Minoan Knossos, c. 1450 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/bd79a615-f3de-4f67-b465-0468990cde93/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Wall, S.M., J.H. Musgrave and P.M. Warren....)</a> but a sacrificial purpose for this behavior is not certain, and the cannibalism has been disputed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/6f12c054-cad7-4b1c-a330-c53fa4c1aaf2/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Branigan, Keith. 1982. “The unacceptable...)</a> Four adults were interred in a shrine at Arkhanes Anemospelia (Middle Minoan period);there is evidence for binding, while proximity of an altar and knife may point to HS of one young man <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/8044cce9-3f14-4b68-b074-93699e6568fc/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sakellarakis, Y. and E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki,...)</a> However, some e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/49ca7d4a-8b40-4d16-9ae4-a6abe5a195e7/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cromarty, Robert J. 2008. Burning Bulls,...)</a> have suggested that this was funerary preparation for a youth already dead.", "description": "" }, { "id": 400, "polity": { "id": 61, "name": "gr_crete_old_palace", "long_name": "Old Palace Crete", "start_year": -1900, "end_year": -1700 }, "year_from": -1900, "year_to": -1701, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "While many scholars agree that HS was practiced during the Middle and Late Minoan periods (Kostis Christakis, pers. comm. to Enrico Cioni, January 2017), there is no single clear and undisputed example of the practice. Children were most likely subjected to ritual cannibalism at Late Minoan Knossos, c. 1450 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/bd79a615-f3de-4f67-b465-0468990cde93/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Wall, S.M., J.H. Musgrave and P.M. Warren....)</a> but a sacrificial purpose for this behavior is not certain, and the cannibalism has been disputed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/6f12c054-cad7-4b1c-a330-c53fa4c1aaf2/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Branigan, Keith. 1982. “The unacceptable...)</a> Four adults were interred in a shrine at Arkhanes Anemospelia (Middle Minoan period);there is evidence for binding, while proximity of an altar and knife may point to HS of one young man <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/8044cce9-3f14-4b68-b074-93699e6568fc/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sakellarakis, Y. and E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki,...)</a> However, some e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/49ca7d4a-8b40-4d16-9ae4-a6abe5a195e7/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cromarty, Robert J. 2008. Burning Bulls,...)</a> have suggested that this was funerary preparation for a youth already dead.", "description": "" }, { "id": 401, "polity": { "id": 62, "name": "gr_crete_new_palace", "long_name": "New Palace Crete", "start_year": -1700, "end_year": -1450 }, "year_from": -1700, "year_to": -1451, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "While many scholars agree that HS was practiced during the Middle and Late Minoan periods (Kostis Christakis, pers. comm. to Enrico Cioni, January 2017), there is no single clear and undisputed example of the practice. Children were most likely subjected to ritual cannibalism at Late Minoan Knossos, c. 1450 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/2a7fc92e-d855-4b94-b9e6-58ebd703ea5a/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Wall, S.M., J.H. Musgrave and P.M. Warren....)</a> but a sacrificial purpose for this behavior is not certain, and the cannibalism has been disputed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/c8b5f778-9baa-48f8-8b8f-f47f1a427079/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Branigan, Keith. 1982. “The unacceptable...)</a> Four adults were interred in a shrine at Arkhanes Anemospelia (Middle Minoan period);there is evidence for binding, while proximity of an altar and knife may point to HS of one young man <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/43ec386a-b4ea-465f-bba9-14d33c1532d6/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sakellarakis, Y. and E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki,...)</a> However, some e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/58f35fd1-99b6-4048-a3ea-004026db0dd8/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cromarty, Robert J. 2008. Burning Bulls,...)</a> have suggested that this was funerary preparation for a youth already dead.", "description": "" }, { "id": 402, "polity": { "id": 62, "name": "gr_crete_new_palace", "long_name": "New Palace Crete", "start_year": -1700, "end_year": -1450 }, "year_from": -1700, "year_to": -1451, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "While many scholars agree that HS was practiced during the Middle and Late Minoan periods (Kostis Christakis, pers. comm. to Enrico Cioni, January 2017), there is no single clear and undisputed example of the practice. Children were most likely subjected to ritual cannibalism at Late Minoan Knossos, c. 1450 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/2a7fc92e-d855-4b94-b9e6-58ebd703ea5a/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Wall, S.M., J.H. Musgrave and P.M. Warren....)</a> but a sacrificial purpose for this behavior is not certain, and the cannibalism has been disputed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/c8b5f778-9baa-48f8-8b8f-f47f1a427079/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Branigan, Keith. 1982. “The unacceptable...)</a> Four adults were interred in a shrine at Arkhanes Anemospelia (Middle Minoan period);there is evidence for binding, while proximity of an altar and knife may point to HS of one young man <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/43ec386a-b4ea-465f-bba9-14d33c1532d6/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sakellarakis, Y. and E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki,...)</a> However, some e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/58f35fd1-99b6-4048-a3ea-004026db0dd8/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cromarty, Robert J. 2008. Burning Bulls,...)</a> have suggested that this was funerary preparation for a youth already dead.", "description": "" }, { "id": 403, "polity": { "id": 63, "name": "gr_crete_mono_palace", "long_name": "Monopalatial Crete", "start_year": -1450, "end_year": -1300 }, "year_from": -1450, "year_to": -1301, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "While many scholars agree that HS was practiced during the Middle and Late Minoan periods (Kostis Christakis, pers. comm. to Enrico Cioni, January 2017), there is no single clear and undisputed example of the practice. Children were most likely subjected to ritual cannibalism at Late Minoan Knossos, c. 1450 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/861a2ff3-4127-4c47-b873-c83dde8a92e3/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Wall, S.M., J.H. Musgrave and P.M. Warren....)</a> but a sacrificial purpose for this behavior is not certain, and the cannibalism has been disputed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/1acd5d96-6c93-4cb6-bd94-606a9b87a947/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Branigan, Keith. 1982. “The unacceptable...)</a> Four adults were interred in a shrine at Arkhanes Anemospelia (Middle Minoan period);there is evidence for binding, while proximity of an altar and knife may point to HS of one young man <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/b67f6e32-4d7e-49e6-a440-18bb01f3ccfd/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sakellarakis, Y. and E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki,...)</a> However, some e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/dfad1e96-8ecc-40d4-a842-c8b75f3a350b/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cromarty, Robert J. 2008. Burning Bulls,...)</a> have suggested that this was funerary preparation for a youth already dead.", "description": "" }, { "id": 404, "polity": { "id": 63, "name": "gr_crete_mono_palace", "long_name": "Monopalatial Crete", "start_year": -1450, "end_year": -1300 }, "year_from": -1450, "year_to": -1301, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "While many scholars agree that HS was practiced during the Middle and Late Minoan periods (Kostis Christakis, pers. comm. to Enrico Cioni, January 2017), there is no single clear and undisputed example of the practice. Children were most likely subjected to ritual cannibalism at Late Minoan Knossos, c. 1450 BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/861a2ff3-4127-4c47-b873-c83dde8a92e3/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Wall, S.M., J.H. Musgrave and P.M. Warren....)</a> but a sacrificial purpose for this behavior is not certain, and the cannibalism has been disputed <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/1acd5d96-6c93-4cb6-bd94-606a9b87a947/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Branigan, Keith. 1982. “The unacceptable...)</a> Four adults were interred in a shrine at Arkhanes Anemospelia (Middle Minoan period);there is evidence for binding, while proximity of an altar and knife may point to HS of one young man <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/b67f6e32-4d7e-49e6-a440-18bb01f3ccfd/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sakellarakis, Y. and E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki,...)</a> However, some e.g. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/dfad1e96-8ecc-40d4-a842-c8b75f3a350b/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Cromarty, Robert J. 2008. Burning Bulls,...)</a> have suggested that this was funerary preparation for a youth already dead.", "description": "" }, { "id": 406, "polity": { "id": 66, "name": "gr_crete_geometric", "long_name": "Geometric Crete", "start_year": -1000, "end_year": -710 }, "year_from": -1000, "year_to": -711, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "At Eleutherna, a cremation burial of an aristocratic warrior dating to 720–700 BCE contained a subsidiary inhumation on the edge of the pyre, a man in his 30s <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/a69107b8-2048-4b5e-b289-c769617b4d89/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Museum of Ancient Eleutherna. 2015. ‘Hall...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/df45820c-4009-4dec-9d20-2b646ff2e3dc/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Stampolidis, Nicholas Chr. 2015. “Eleutherna,...)</a> He had been beheaded and had no grave goods. While disavowing “human sacrifice,” the excavator nevertheless holds that he was a war captive killed at the warrior’s funeral, which meets our definition of HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/6d4ed239-8d44-4d7f-b38d-e62222341939/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Museum of Ancient Eleutherna. 2015. ‘Hall...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/b5c5e440-1a66-4b98-a93a-34480baf52ea/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Stampolidis, Nicholas Chr. 2015. “Eleutherna,...)</a> Iliad 23.170-83 (sacrifice of Trojan captives at Patroklos’ tomb with explicit prayer to appease the dead) provides a contemporary cultural context for this ritual.<br>Greek texts also preserve many mythic accounts of HS, but these are not necessarily evidence of historical HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/22GHV2JB\">[Bonnechere 1994]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 407, "polity": { "id": 67, "name": "gr_crete_archaic", "long_name": "Archaic Crete", "start_year": -710, "end_year": -500 }, "year_from": -710, "year_to": -501, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "At Eleutherna, a cremation burial of an aristocratic warrior dating to 720–700 BCE contained a subsidiary inhumation on the edge of the pyre, a man in his 30s <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/82bd1a64-f556-48dd-94c5-d0b33591b285/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Museum of Ancient Eleutherna. 2015. ‘Hall...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/b90f4e59-0597-462d-8712-0032d429fe2c/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Stampolidis, Nicholas Chr. 2015. “Eleutherna,...)</a> He had been beheaded and had no grave goods. While disavowing “human sacrifice,” the excavator nevertheless holds that he was a war captive killed at the warrior’s funeral, which meets our definition of HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/1b483789-92db-43e3-9158-f5a8d1ec719b/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Museum of Ancient Eleutherna. 2015. ‘Hall...)</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/7dff8be0-43a7-4dd9-9c47-4c3ef486958e/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Stampolidis, Nicholas Chr. 2015. “Eleutherna,...)</a> Iliad 23.170-83 (sacrifice of Trojan captives at Patroklos’ tomb with explicit prayer to appease the dead) provides a contemporary cultural context for this ritual.<br>Greek texts also preserve many mythic accounts of HS, but these are not necessarily evidence of historical HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/22GHV2JB\">[Bonnechere 1994]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 410, "polity": { "id": 162, "name": "tr_hatti_old_k", "long_name": "Hatti - Old Kingdom", "start_year": -1650, "end_year": -1500 }, "year_from": -1650, "year_to": -1501, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "There are scattered attestations of HS in Hittite ritual texts. One comes from a tablet found at Hattuša, describing a ritual for use when the army is facing imminent defeat: “Behind the river they sever a human, a billy-goat, a puppy (and) a piglet. On one side they set halves and on the other side they set the (other) halves. In front (of these) they make a gate of hawthorn and stretch a tiyamar up over it. Then on one side they burn a fire before the gate (and) on the other side they burn a fire. The troops go through, but when they come alongside the river, they sprinkle water over them(selves)”. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/E9D5KCF3\">[Collins 2007, p. 184]</a> Collins believes the victim was likely a prisoner of war. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a> She also cites a fragmentary text calling for a prisoner, a piglet, a dog and a bull to be sacrificed, and several fragmentary texts calling for a human, dog, and pig. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a> Not all scholars accept this as good evidence that HS was practiced, arguing that there is no archaeological evidence and ritual texts may be figurative (Mark Altaweel, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021). However, parallels from later times suggest that bisecting a sacrificial victim and marching an army through the parts may be an old and widespread ceremony in the region, a form of ritual purification in times of war (i.e., emergency HS). In Herodotus 39, the Persian king Xerxes bisects the son of the Lydian man Pythius and marches the army through the pieces; the Macedonian army also had a ritual involving marching through bisected dog parts (Polybius 23.10). It is likely that such rituals would leave no archaeological evidence.", "description": "" }, { "id": 412, "polity": { "id": 163, "name": "tr_konya_lba", "long_name": "Konya Plain - Late Bronze Age II", "start_year": -1500, "end_year": -1400 }, "year_from": -1500, "year_to": -1400, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "There are scattered attestations of HS in Hittite ritual texts. One comes from a tablet found at Hattuša, describing a ritual for use when the army is facing imminent defeat: “Behind the river they sever a human, a billy-goat, a puppy (and) a piglet. On one side they set halves and on the other side they set the (other) halves. In front (of these) they make a gate of hawthorn and stretch a tiyamar up over it. Then on one side they burn a fire before the gate (and) on the other side they burn a fire. The troops go through, but when they come alongside the river, they sprinkle water over them(selves)”. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/E9D5KCF3\">[Collins 2007, p. 184]</a> Collins believes the victim was likely a prisoner of war. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a> She also cites a fragmentary text calling for a prisoner, a piglet, a dog and a bull to be sacrificed, and several fragmentary texts calling for a human, dog, and pig. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a> Not all scholars accept this as good evidence that HS was practiced, arguing that\r\nthere is no archaeological evidence and ritual texts may be figurative (Mark\r\nAltaweel, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021). However, parallels from later times suggest that bisecting a sacrificial victim and marching an army through the parts may be an old and widespread ceremony in the region, a form of ritual purification in times of war (i.e., emergency HS). In Herodotus 39, the Persian king Xerxes bisects the son of the Lydian man Pythius and marches the army through the pieces; the Macedonian army also had a ritual involving marching through bisected dog parts (Polybius 23.10). It is likely that such rituals would leave no archaeological evidence.", "description": "" }, { "id": 414, "polity": { "id": 164, "name": "tr_hatti_new_k", "long_name": "Hatti - New Kingdom", "start_year": -1400, "end_year": -1180 }, "year_from": -1344, "year_to": -1181, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "There are scattered attestations of HS in Hittite ritual texts. One comes from a tablet found at Hattuša, describing a ritual for use when the army is facing imminent defeat: “Behind the river they sever a human, a billy-goat, a puppy (and) a piglet. On one side they set halves and on the other side they set the (other) halves. In front (of these) they make a gate of hawthorn and stretch a tiyamar up over it. Then on one side they burn a fire before the gate (and) on the other side they burn a fire. The troops go through, but when they come alongside the river, they sprinkle water over them(selves)”. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/E9D5KCF3\">[Collins 2007, p. 184]</a> Collins believes the victim was likely a prisoner of war. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a> She also cites a fragmentary text calling for a prisoner, a piglet, a dog and a bull to be sacrificed, and several fragmentary texts calling for a human, dog, and pig. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a> Not all scholars accept this as good evidence that HS was practiced, arguing that there is no archaeological evidence and ritual texts may be figurative (Mark\r\nAltaweel, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021). However, parallels from later times suggest that bisecting a sacrificial victim and marching an army through the parts may be an old and widespread ceremony in the region, a form of ritual purification in times of war (i.e., emergency HS). In Herodotus 39, the Persian king Xerxes bisects the son of the Lydian man Pythius and marches the army through the pieces; the Macedonian army also had a ritual involving marching through bisected dog parts (Polybius 23.10). It is likely that such rituals would leave no archaeological evidence.", "description": "" }, { "id": 415, "polity": { "id": 165, "name": "tr_neo_hittite_k", "long_name": "Neo-Hittite Kingdoms", "start_year": -1180, "end_year": -900 }, "year_from": -1180, "year_to": -901, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "There are scattered attestations of HS in Hittite ritual texts. One comes from a tablet found at Hattuša, describing a ritual for use when the army is facing imminent defeat: “Behind the river they sever a human, a billy-goat, a puppy (and) a piglet. On one side they set halves and on the other side they set the (other) halves. In front (of these) they make a gate of hawthorn and stretch a tiyamar up over it. Then on one side they burn a fire before the gate (and) on the other side they burn a fire. The troops go through, but when they come alongside the river, they sprinkle water over them(selves)”. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/E9D5KCF3\">[Collins 2007, p. 184]</a> Collins believes the victim was likely a prisoner of war. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a> She also cites a fragmentary text calling for a prisoner, a piglet, a dog and a bull to be sacrificed, and several fragmentary texts calling for a human, dog, and pig. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CPKL92W7\">[Collins 1992, p. 5]</a> Not all scholars accept this as good evidence that HS was practiced, arguing that\r\nthere is no archaeological evidence and ritual texts may be figurative (Mark\r\nAltaweel, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, January 2021). However, parallels from later times suggest that bisecting a sacrificial victim and marching an army through the parts may be an old and widespread ceremony in the region, a form of ritual purification in times of war (i.e., emergency HS). In Herodotus 39, the Persian king Xerxes bisects the son of the Lydian man Pythius and marches the army through the pieces; the Macedonian army also had a ritual involving marching through bisected dog parts (Polybius 23.10). It is likely that such rituals would leave no archaeological evidence.", "description": "" }, { "id": 417, "polity": { "id": 476, "name": "iq_akkad_emp", "long_name": "Akkadian Empire", "start_year": -2270, "end_year": -2083 }, "year_from": -2250, "year_to": -2113, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "There is no sign of HS in Susiana itself, but it may have been practiced elsewhere in the Akkadian Empire. Disarticulated and partially dismembered human skeletal remains were found in deposits associated with a “closing ritual” of a temple at Tell Brak, modern Syria, dating to the late third millennium BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KZTNSXQN\">[Recht 2010, p. 172]</a> This is not conclusive evidence: the remains may have belonged to people who died natural deaths. There are also hints of construction sacrifice in Akkadian-period finds of infants and children “near and under temple walls and in chapels,” e.g. at Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak, both in Syria <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KZTNSXQN\">[Recht 2010, p. 172]</a> This is not universally accepted.", "description": "" }, { "id": 418, "polity": { "id": 476, "name": "iq_akkad_emp", "long_name": "Akkadian Empire", "start_year": -2270, "end_year": -2083 }, "year_from": -2250, "year_to": -2113, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "There is no sign of HS in Susiana itself, but it may have been practiced elsewhere in the Akkadian Empire. Disarticulated and partially dismembered human skeletal remains were found in deposits associated with a “closing ritual” of a temple at Tell Brak, modern Syria, dating to the late third millennium BCE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KZTNSXQN\">[Recht 2010, p. 172]</a> This is not conclusive evidence: the remains may have belonged to people who died natural deaths. There are also hints of construction sacrifice in Akkadian-period finds of infants and children “near and under temple walls and in chapels,” e.g. at Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak, both in Syria <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KZTNSXQN\">[Recht 2010, p. 172]</a> This is not universally accepted.", "description": "" }, { "id": 421, "polity": { "id": 129, "name": "af_hephthalite_emp", "long_name": "Hephthalite Empire", "start_year": 408, "end_year": 561 }, "year_from": 426, "year_to": 561, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Religions in the region that came under Hephthalite control in the fifth century CE included Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism, and Hinduism <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/X8WJ99I3\">[Kurbanov 2010, p. 238]</a> None of these traditions provided support for HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5C6ZW8B\">[Boyce 1983]</a> ; ( Alessandro Ceccarelli, pers. comm. to Agathe Dupeyron, June 2017); <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4FFR7BN9\">[Sherwood 2004]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/264af09d-19f9-4174-b6eb-acb505a83ca4/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sundermann, Werner. 2009. \"Manicheism i....)</a> However, one report by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea claims that retainer HS was sometimes practiced on the death of Hephthalite elites <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/K9796MI7\">[Roux 1963, p. 170]</a> “[T]he wealthy citizens are in the habit of attaching to themselves friends to the number of twenty or more, as the case may be, and these become permanently their banquet-companions, and have a share in all their property, enjoying some kind of a common right in this matter. Then, when the man who has gathered such a company together comes to die, it is the custom that all these men be borne alive into the tomb with him” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/d3aecb07-edca-4023-8e9f-ccb431bc308a/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Herodotus, The Histories)</a> The accuracy of Procopius’ claims is not universally accepted by modern scholars ( Burzine Waghmar, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, July 2021), so we have coded for scholarly disagreement.", "description": "" }, { "id": 422, "polity": { "id": 129, "name": "af_hephthalite_emp", "long_name": "Hephthalite Empire", "start_year": 408, "end_year": 561 }, "year_from": 426, "year_to": 561, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Religions in the region that came under Hephthalite control in the fifth century CE included Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism, and Hinduism <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/X8WJ99I3\">[Kurbanov 2010, p. 238]</a> None of these traditions provided support for HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5C6ZW8B\">[Boyce 1983]</a> ; ( Alessandro Ceccarelli, pers. comm. to Agathe Dupeyron, June 2017); <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JYBZZEYQ\">[Schmidt-Leukel 2006, p. 64]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4FFR7BN9\">[Sherwood 2004]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/264af09d-19f9-4174-b6eb-acb505a83ca4/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sundermann, Werner. 2009. \"Manicheism i....)</a> However, one report by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea claims that retainer HS was sometimes practiced on the death of Hephthalite elites <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/K9796MI7\">[Roux 1963, p. 170]</a> “[T]he wealthy citizens are in the habit of attaching to themselves friends to the number of twenty or more, as the case may be, and these become permanently their banquet-companions, and have a share in all their property, enjoying some kind of a common right in this matter. Then, when the man who has gathered such a company together comes to die, it is the custom that all these men be borne alive into the tomb with him” <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/d3aecb07-edca-4023-8e9f-ccb431bc308a/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Herodotus, The Histories)</a> The accuracy of Procopius’ claims is not universally accepted by modern scholars ( Burzine Waghmar, pers. comm. to Jenny Reddish, July 2021), so we have coded for scholarly disagreement.", "description": "" }, { "id": 423, "polity": { "id": 286, "name": "mn_uygur_khaganate", "long_name": "Uigur Khaganate", "start_year": 745, "end_year": 840 }, "year_from": 745, "year_to": 840, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Scholars disagree about whether HS took place in the Uighur Khaganate. Chinese sources indicate that the funerals of Mo-yen-ch’o Kaghan in 759 CE required the sacrifice of his wife, but that princess Ning-kuo refused, and slashed her face to express grief instead <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PJR4XVD3\">[Sinor_Mackerras 1990, p. 327]</a> However, archaeologists dispute that the sacrifice of wives and retainers took place, due to lack of evidence <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NJS5YSXN\">[Findley 2004, p. 54]</a> Moreover, Princess Ning-kuo’s great-grandniece did not kill herself upon her husband’s death, and was allowed to remain there and then return to China <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NJS5YSXN\">[Findley 2004, p. 54]</a> , casting further doubt on the story. Considering the importance of the Manichaean religion in the Uighur Khaganate—it became akin to a state religion in c. 762 CE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/f99c68bf-b0f8-4f1c-972f-358f0a2d59f2/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sundermann, Werner. 2009. \"Manicheism i....)</a> —it is possible that Chinese stories were unfounded. Manichaeism forbade killing to both the “elect” (the religious elite) and laypeople <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/DHEQEMIX\">[Colditz 2009]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 424, "polity": { "id": 286, "name": "mn_uygur_khaganate", "long_name": "Uigur Khaganate", "start_year": 745, "end_year": 840 }, "year_from": 745, "year_to": 840, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Scholars disagree about whether HS took place in the Uighur Khaganate. Chinese sources indicate that the funerals of Mo-yen-ch’o Kaghan in 759 CE required the sacrifice of his wife, but that princess Ning-kuo refused, and slashed her face to express grief instead <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PJR4XVD3\">[Sinor_Mackerras 1990, p. 327]</a> However, archaeologists dispute that the sacrifice of wives and retainers took place, due to lack of evidence <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NJS5YSXN\">[Findley 2004, p. 54]</a> Moreover, Princess Ning-kuo’s great-grandniece did not kill herself upon her husband’s death, and was allowed to remain there and then return to China <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NJS5YSXN\">[Findley 2004, p. 54]</a> , casting further doubt on the story. Considering the importance of the Manichaean religion in the Uighur Khaganate—it became akin to a state religion in c. 762 CE <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"/core/citations/f99c68bf-b0f8-4f1c-972f-358f0a2d59f2/update/\">(NOZOTERO: Sundermann, Werner. 2009. \"Manicheism i....)</a> —it is possible that Chinese stories were unfounded. Manichaeism forbade killing to both the “elect” (the religious elite) and laypeople <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/DHEQEMIX\">[Colditz 2009]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 425, "polity": { "id": 145, "name": "jp_kofun", "long_name": "Kansai - Kofun Period", "start_year": 250, "end_year": 537 }, "year_from": 250, "year_to": 537, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Some written sources suggest that HS may have taken place in Kofun Japan. The Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan, early eighth century) gives an account of Emperor Nintoku (fourth century CE) receiving a message from a deity in a dream that two specific men should be sacrificed to appease the river kami <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 147]</a> One of them willingly jumped to his death <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 147]</a> The Wei zhi, a third-century Chinese historical text, 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> 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": 426, "polity": { "id": 145, "name": "jp_kofun", "long_name": "Kansai - Kofun Period", "start_year": 250, "end_year": 537 }, "year_from": 250, "year_to": 537, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "Some written sources suggest that HS may have taken place in Kofun Japan. The Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan, early eighth century) gives an account of Emperor Nintoku (fourth century CE) receiving a message from a deity in a dream that two specific men should be sacrificed to appease the river kami <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 147]</a> One of them willingly jumped to his death <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SF4WRPAW\">[Kidder 2007, p. 147]</a> The Wei zhi, a third-century Chinese historical text, 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> 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": 428, "polity": { "id": 47, "name": "id_kalingga_k", "long_name": "Kalingga Kingdom", "start_year": 500, "end_year": 732 }, "year_from": 500, "year_to": 731, "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": 429, "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": "A", "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": 430, "polity": { "id": 48, "name": "id_medang_k", "long_name": "Medang Kingdom", "start_year": 732, "end_year": 1019 }, "year_from": 732, "year_to": 1019, "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.\r\n\r\nAs 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": 431, "polity": { "id": 48, "name": "id_medang_k", "long_name": "Medang Kingdom", "start_year": 732, "end_year": 1019 }, "year_from": 732, "year_to": 1019, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "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.\r\n\r\nAs 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": 432, "polity": { "id": 510, "name": "eg_badarian", "long_name": "Badarian", "start_year": -4400, "end_year": -3800 }, "year_from": -4400, "year_to": -3800, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "No known evidence for HS, although may have taken place in Neolithic Nubia to the south. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/435VTF4B\">[Reinold 1986]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 435, "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": "A", "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": 436, "polity": { "id": 536, "name": "ye_yemen_lnl", "long_name": "Neolithic Yemen", "start_year": -3500, "end_year": -1201 }, "year_from": -3500, "year_to": -1201, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "To our knowledge, there is no evidence for the practice of human sacrifice in southern Arabia <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5JU56GUC\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2022]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6NTZH9UA\">[Sedov_Turchin 2022]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 437, "polity": { "id": 537, "name": "ye_yemen_lba", "long_name": "Yemen - Late Bronze Age", "start_year": -1200, "end_year": -801 }, "year_from": -1200, "year_to": -801, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "To our knowledge, there is no evidence for the practice of human sacrifice in southern Arabia <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5JU56GUC\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2022]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6NTZH9UA\">[Sedov_Turchin 2022]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 438, "polity": { "id": 538, "name": "ye_sabaean_commonwealth", "long_name": "Sabaean Commonwealth", "start_year": -800, "end_year": -451 }, "year_from": -800, "year_to": -451, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "To our knowledge, there is no evidence for the practice of human sacrifice in southern Arabia <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5JU56GUC\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2022]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6NTZH9UA\">[Sedov_Turchin 2022]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 439, "polity": { "id": 539, "name": "ye_qatabanian_commonwealth", "long_name": "Qatabanian Commonwealth", "start_year": -450, "end_year": -111 }, "year_from": -450, "year_to": -111, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "To our knowledge, there is no evidence for the practice of human sacrifice in southern Arabia <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5JU56GUC\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2022]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6NTZH9UA\">[Sedov_Turchin 2022]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 440, "polity": { "id": 540, "name": "ye_saba_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of Saba and Dhu Raydan", "start_year": -110, "end_year": 149 }, "year_from": -110, "year_to": 149, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "To our knowledge, there is no evidence for the practice of human sacrifice in southern Arabia <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5JU56GUC\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2022]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6NTZH9UA\">[Sedov_Turchin 2022]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 441, "polity": { "id": 353, "name": "ye_himyar_1", "long_name": "Himyar I", "start_year": 270, "end_year": 340 }, "year_from": 270, "year_to": 340, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "To our knowledge, there is no evidence for the practice of human sacrifice in southern Arabia <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5JU56GUC\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2022]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6NTZH9UA\">[Sedov_Turchin 2022]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 442, "polity": { "id": 354, "name": "ye_himyar_2", "long_name": "Himyar II", "start_year": 378, "end_year": 525 }, "year_from": 378, "year_to": 525, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "To our knowledge, there is no evidence for the practice of human sacrifice in southern Arabia <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5JU56GUC\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2022]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6NTZH9UA\">[Sedov_Turchin 2022]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 443, "polity": { "id": 359, "name": "ye_ziyad_dyn", "long_name": "Yemen Ziyadid Dynasty", "start_year": 822, "end_year": 1037 }, "year_from": 822, "year_to": 1037, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Islam strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4FFR7BN9\">[Sherwood 2004, pp. 831-832]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a> , and there is no evidence that it was practiced in the Yemeni Coastal Plain during the Islamic period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JSEHLC9K\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2021]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 444, "polity": { "id": 365, "name": "ye_warlords", "long_name": "Yemen - Era of Warlords", "start_year": 1038, "end_year": 1174 }, "year_from": 1038, "year_to": 1174, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Islam strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4FFR7BN9\">[Sherwood 2004, pp. 831-832]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a> and there is no evidence that it was practiced in the Yemeni Coastal Plain during the Islamic period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JSEHLC9K\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2021]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 445, "polity": { "id": 368, "name": "ye_rasulid_dyn", "long_name": "Rasulid Dynasty", "start_year": 1229, "end_year": 1453 }, "year_from": 1229, "year_to": 1453, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Islam strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4FFR7BN9\">[Sherwood 2004, pp. 831-832]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a> , and there is no evidence that it was practiced in the Yemeni Coastal Plain during the Islamic period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JSEHLC9K\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2021]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 446, "polity": { "id": 372, "name": "ye_tahirid_dyn", "long_name": "Yemen - Tahirid Dynasty", "start_year": 1454, "end_year": 1517 }, "year_from": 1454, "year_to": 1517, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Islam strongly proscribes HS <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4FFR7BN9\">[Sherwood 2004, pp. 831-832]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JLKJGGQW\">[Watts_Eberhart 2011]</a> , and there is no evidence that it was practiced in the Yemeni Coastal Plain during the Islamic period <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JSEHLC9K\">[Korotayev_Turchin 2021]</a>", "description": "" }, { "id": 447, "polity": { "id": 39, "name": "kh_chenla", "long_name": "Chenla", "start_year": 550, "end_year": 825 }, "year_from": 550, "year_to": 825, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "P", "comment": "The early 7th-century Chinese source known as the History of the Sui Dynasty notes the following about a polity named \"Zhenla\": \"Near the capital is a mountain named Ling-jia-bo-po, on the summit of which a temple is constructed, always guarded by five thousand soldiers and consecrated to the spirit named Po-do-li, to whom human sacrifices are made. Each year, the king himself goes to this temple to make a human sacrifice during the night. It is thus that they honour the spirits\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HZG83I6P\">[Coe 2003, pp. 76-77]</a> The status of the victim, or indeed any other aspect of their identity, appears to be unknown. John Miksic believes that the contemporary Chinese sources are unreliable on this point: they were not eyewitness accounts, but based on hearsay <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KMZH3SLE\">[Miksic_Dupeyron 2017]</a> We have coded for scholarly disagreement.", "description": "" }, { "id": 448, "polity": { "id": 39, "name": "kh_chenla", "long_name": "Chenla", "start_year": 550, "end_year": 825 }, "year_from": 550, "year_to": 825, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": true, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "The early 7th-century Chinese source known as the History of the Sui Dynasty notes the following about a polity named \"Zhenla\": \"Near the capital is a mountain named Ling-jia-bo-po, on the summit of which a temple is constructed, always guarded by five thousand soldiers and consecrated to the spirit named Po-do-li, to whom human sacrifices are made. Each year, the king himself goes to this temple to make a human sacrifice during the night. It is thus that they honour the spirits\" <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HZG83I6P\">[Coe 2003, pp. 76-77]</a> The status of the victim, or indeed any other aspect of their identity, appears to be unknown. John Miksic believes that the contemporary Chinese sources are unreliable on this point: they were not eyewitness accounts, but based on hearsay <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/KMZH3SLE\">[Miksic_Dupeyron 2017]</a> We have coded for scholarly disagreement.", "description": "" }, { "id": 449, "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": "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 <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": 450, "polity": { "id": 19, "name": "us_hawaii_3", "long_name": "Hawaii III", "start_year": 1580, "end_year": 1778 }, "year_from": 1580, "year_to": 1649, "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": "" }, { "id": 451, "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": "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. We have coded for scholarly disagreement.", "description": "" }, { "id": 452, "polity": { "id": 210, "name": "et_aksum_emp_2", "long_name": "Axum II", "start_year": 350, "end_year": 599 }, "year_from": 350, "year_to": 599, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Human_sacrifice", "human_sacrifice": "A", "comment": "Burials of sacrificial victims have been excavated dating to pre-Christian periods of Axumite history. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GXE6ITEJ\">[Bard_Reddish 2023]</a>, <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HE73MI6V\">[Manzo 2014, pp. 8-13]</a> However, the kingdom’s elite converted to Christianity in the fourth century CE, and this would have put an end to officially sanctioned HS. <a class=\"fw-bold\" href=\"https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GXE6ITEJ\">[Bard_Reddish 2023]</a>", "description": "" } ] }