Mesoamerican Archaeology

[Beagle]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070411/sc_ ... ramid_dc_2

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Ancient Mexicans brought human sacrifice victims from hundreds of miles (km) away over centuries to sanctify a pyramid in the oldest city in North America, an archeologist said on Wednesday.



DNA tests on the skeletons of more than 50 victims discovered in 2004 in the Pyramid of the Moon at the Teotihuacan ruins revealed they were from far away Mayan, Pacific or Atlantic coastal cultures.

From Yahoo News.

[Beagle]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Tol ... 18865.html

The grisly find of the buried bones of 24 pre-Hispanic Mexican children may be the first evidence that the ancient Toltec civilisation sacrificed children, an archaeologist studying the remains said.

The bones, dating from 950 AD to 1150 AD and dug up at the Toltecs' former capital Tula, north of present day Mexico City, indicated the children had been decapitated in a group.

TDG

[Cognito]

The bones, dating from 950 AD to 1150 AD and dug up at the Toltecs' former capital Tula, north of present day Mexico City, indicated the children had been decapitated in a group.

That's just not a nice thing to do ... who do you believe they were trying to terrorize?

[Minimalist]

The bones, dating from 950 AD to 1150 AD and dug up at the Toltecs' former capital Tula, north of present day Mexico City, indicated the children had been decapitated in a group.

That's just not a nice thing to do ... who do you believe they were trying to terrorize?

Religion is usually happy to terrorize anyone. Even to members it gets the message across.

[Cognito]

Religion is usually happy to terrorize anyone. Even to members it gets the message across.

In other words, bow to our invisible deity or it's off with your children's heads!

[Minimalist]

Pretty much.

Religion is about control.

[Digit]

That makes politics the new religion!

[Minimalist]

They've usually worked hand in hand.

[Digit]

And both organisations seem to be as bent as fiddler's elbow!

[Minimalist]

Good line.

[Beagle]

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/200 ... copan.html

COPÁN RUINAS, Honduras - A short drive from the main Maya ruins at Copán, a forested hillside holds a cluster of mounds that Peabody Museum archaeologists believe date from near the end of the great Maya civilization that once dominated the region.

On Tuesday (April 17), Peabody Museum director and Bowditch Professor of Central American and Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology William Fash, along with director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program Barbara Fash and two Harvard graduate students, walked the site with Honduran government officials charged with regulating and overseeing archaeological activity in the Central American nation.

The site, called Rastrojón, provides a "before" look at an archaeological site, a bookend in time to compare with the simultaneously soaring and crumbling remains a short distance away in what was once the city center.

From Arch. News

[Forum Monk]

Religion is about control.

Religion is about "self" control. Something that seems greatly lacking in today's world. I doubt, for example, that many of the survivors and families of the Virginia Tech rampage will be thinking of control and fear of invisible dieties as they turn toward their churches and religious leaders for comfort and hope.

[kbs2244]

Actually, Monk, I don’t think ‘Self Control” became part of religion until Christianity.
There was a lot of “We know more than you, so do what we tell you” in all the organized religions up to then.
After a few years, it found it’s way back into organized Christianity.

[Forum Monk]

I agree with you KB. Religion always becomes corrupted when it becomes more and more about the organization and government and hierachy of power.

True religion is between man and God and brother and brother.

[Beagle]

Here in the US and other democratic countries, people are free to decide on their religious affiliation - or none at all. So there is no control. However that has not been historically true and is still not true in many countries.