Aztec religion, a complex set of beliefs, rituals, and gods, was a significant aspect of the Aztec civilization. It flourished between 1345 and 1521 and influenced the majority of northern Mesoamerican people. The Aztec gods were divided into three categories: cosmic or creator gods, gods of agriculture, water, and fertility, and gods of war and death.
Public ritual practices included food, storytelling, dance, ceremonial warfare, the Mesoamerican ballgame, and human sacrifice. The Aztecs worshipped hundreds of deities and honored them in various rituals and ceremonies. These ceremonies often lasted several days, involving music, dancing, and offerings to the sacrifice victim. Bloodletting and human sacrifice were common practices, with people fasting and feasting, dressed in their attire.
The New Fire Ceremony, also known as “The Binding of the Years”, was performed every 52 sun years. Not only were captives and warriors sacrificed, but nobles would often practice ritual bloodletting during certain sacred days of the year. Every level of Aztec culture involved feasting, dancing, processions, and singing of ritual songs accompanied by music from drums, rattles, flutes, whistles.
Ritual Cannibalism, the consumption of human flesh, was common in many parts of Mesoamerica, so the rite was not new to the Aztecs when they arrived at the Valley of Mexico. The Aztecs believed in a cosmos made up of distinct layers, and their religion permeated every aspect of their lives, from the highest born emperor to the lowest slave.
📹 Aztec Religion Explained
Bibliography: David Carrasco, “Religions of Mesoamerica,” 2nd edition, 2013. David Carrasco, “The Aztecs: A Very Short …
Are there female Aztec gods?
Xochiquetzal, a prominent Aztec female earth deity, is often depicted as a youthful, alluring woman, symbolically associated with vegetation and flowers. She is known for her beauty, love, and fertility, serving as a protector of young mothers and patroness of pregnancy, childbirth, and women’s crafts like weaving and embroidery. Her name is a compound of xōchitl (“flower”) and quetzalli (“precious feather; quetzal tail feather”), meaning “flower precious feather” or “flower quetzal feather”. Her alternative name, Ichpōchtli, corresponds to a personalized usage of ichpōchtli (“maiden, young woman”). In pre-Hispanic Maya culture, a similar figure is Goddess I.
How many sacrifices did the Aztecs make a day?
The ancient Mexican cultures were known for their high number of human sacrifices, but it is impossible to carry out such a large number of sacrifices. The resources needed for such sacrifices were insufficient, as one sacrifice every 10 minutes would require 144 per day, 4, 320 per month, and 51, 840 per year. Additionally, the size of the army needed to capture the prisoners, the number of guards needed to protect them, and the space needed to accommodate them before being sacrificed would be too large for a modern society to carry out such cold-blooded killings without resorting to automatic fire arms.
The Spanish Conquistadors painted the Mexican societies they conquered as “savage” due to moral problems back home. However, it has been shown that pre-Columbian civilizations did carry out human sacrifices in their festivals and in honor of their gods, possibly no more than 200 or 300 a year. Similarly, in Europe and Asia, human sacrifices were made in the name of God, with victims often being individuals who had offended against God.
However, few human societies have been exempt from the practice of human sacrifice, treating it as the ultimate sacrifice humans can make to their gods. It is essential to consider the maths and resources needed to carry out such sacrifices in ancient Mexican cultures.
What religious ceremonies did the Aztecs have?
The Aztec civilization, like many other indigenous Mesoamerican civilizations, placed significant emphasis on rituals, calendars, and scheduled festivals. Public rituals included food, storytelling, dance, ceremonial warfare, the Mesoamerican ballgame, and human sacrifice. The Aztec religion divided the world into thirteen heavens and nine earthly layers, each associated with a specific set of deities and astronomical objects.
The Sun, Moon, and Venus were the most important celestial entities in Aztec religion. After the Spanish Conquest, the Aztec people were forced to convert to Catholicism, which syncretized with Catholicism, as evidenced by the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Day of the Dead.
What were the practices of the Aztec religion?
The Aztec civilization, like many other indigenous Mesoamerican civilizations, placed significant emphasis on rituals, calendars, and scheduled festivals, government ceremonies, and wars around key transition dates. Public ritual practices included food, storytelling, dance, ceremonial warfare, the Mesoamerican ballgame, and human sacrifice. The Aztec cosmology divided the world into thirteen heavens and nine earthly layers, each associated with a specific set of deities and astronomical objects. The Sun, Moon, and Venus were the most important celestial entities in Aztec religion.
After the Spanish Conquest, the Aztec people were forced to convert to Catholicism, which syncretized with Catholicism, as evidenced by the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Day of the Dead. Nahua metaphysics centers around teotl, a single, dynamic, vivifying, eternally self-generating sacred power, energy, or force. This concept is conceptualized in a monistic pantheism, manifested in the supreme god Ometeotl and a large pantheon of lesser gods and idealizations of natural phenomena. Priests and educated upper classes held more monistic views, while the popular religion of the uneducated tended to embrace polytheistic and mythological aspects.
How did Aztecs view their gods?
The Aztecs had a polytheistic religion with over 200 gods and goddesses who controlled various aspects of daily life, including weather, agriculture, fertility, and war. The four main Aztec gods are Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Xipe Totec, who were children of Ometecuhtli. These gods oversaw various aspects of the universe, including agriculture, fertility, and war. Other important Aztec gods are also known.
Is Aztec religion still practiced?
Contemporary Aztec villages vary greatly in their religious practices and gods. Some have lost their Aztec beliefs and practiced Catholicism or Protestantism similar to European or North American religions, while others follow traditions rooted in the ancient Aztec past and hold beliefs in the same gods worshiped by their ancestors. Most contemporary Aztec communities fall between these extremes.
The Spaniards and literate Aztecs who chronicled the ancient civilization neglected to document village life and religious traditions in smaller communities, resulting in limited knowledge about the people living at the edges of the Aztec empire and their gods and rituals. However, Aztec villagers likely shared many features of their culture with people in cities, and the gods worshiped in rural areas may have been similar to those in urban centers.
The Spanish conquerors destroyed the Aztec religion, believing it was created by the devil, and required the Aztecs to adopt the dominant Spanish Catholic religion under penalty of law.
Who was the Aztecs’ main god?
Huitzilopochtli is the Aztec solar and war deity of sacrifice, also known as the patron god of the Aztecs and their capital city, Tenochtitlan. He is depicted in various texts, including the Codex Borbonicus, Ilhuicatl-Teteocan, Ilhuicatl-Xoxoauhco, the South, Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, and Mixcoatl and Coatlicue.
What was the Aztec ritual and sacrifice?
The Aztecs sacrificed people to Huitzilopochtli, a god with warlike aspects, who was placed on a sacrificial stone. The priest would cut through the abdomen with an obsidian or flint blade, and the heart was torn out still beating and held towards the sky in honor to the Sun-God. The body was then pushed down the pyramid to the Coyolxauhqui stone, which recreates the story of Coyolxauhqui, Huitzilopochtli’s sister who was dismembered at the base of a mountain.
The body was either cremated or given to the warrior responsible for the capture, who would either cut the body in pieces and send them to important people as an offering or use the pieces for ritual cannibalism.
During the festival of Panquetzaliztli, sacrificial victims were adorned in Huitzilopochtli’s costume and blue body paint before their hearts were sacrificially removed. Representations of Huitzilopochtli called teixiptla were also worshipped, with the most significant one at the Templo Mayor.
Tezcatlipoca, considered the most powerful god, was known for his affinity for discord and his ability to forgive sins, relieve disease, or release a man from his fate. He was capricious and often brought about reversals of fortune, such as drought and famine. To the Aztecs, Tezcatlipoca was an all-knowing, all-seeing, nearly all-powerful god, often translated as “He Whose Slaves We Are”.
Are there any Aztecs left alive?
In the late 1400s, the Aztecs’ subjects rebelled against their tribute system and brutal sacrifices, leading to the arrival of Spanish explorers in 1519. The Spanish took King Moctezuma II prisoner and, with the help of other local groups, conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521, ending the Aztec Empire. Many Aztec descendants still live in Mexico today. The Aztecs created “floating” farms called chinampas, which are still used today. They placed intertwined branch fences in swamps, allowing water to pass through and creating a wall.
They also planted willow trees to stabilize the walls, and filled the walled-off squares with sediment until they appeared to float above the water. Farmers tended to the chinampas on canoes between each plot of farmland.
Who was the Aztec god who killed his brothers?
Huitzilopochtli, the sun god, was a significant figure in the Aztec culture, leading the Aztecs to migrate from their traditional home, Aztlan, to the Valley of Mexico. His image, in the form of a hummingbird, was carried by priests during their journey, and his voice was heard at night. Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital, was founded in 1325 CE on a small rocky island in the Valley of Mexico. The god’s first shrine was built on the spot where an eagle devoured a snake, an image so important to Mexican culture that it is portrayed on the national flag of Mexico.
The Aztecs believed that the sun god needed daily nourishment in the form of human blood and hearts, and that they, as “people of the sun”, were required to provide him with sustenance. Sacrificial hearts were offered to the sun and burned in the quauhxicalli. Warriors who died in battle or as sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli were called quauhteca. After their death, they formed part of the sun’s brilliant retinue and lived forever in the bodies of hummingbirds.
Who is the Aztec god of death?
Mictlantecuhtli, the Aztec god of death, was depicted with a skull for a face and ruled the underworld, Mictlan, alongside his wife, Mictecacíhuatl. The Aztecs believed that souls lived on after death, with some going to paradises, while others went to Mictlan. Mictlan was a dark, frightening place where souls traveled for four years, with nine stages of dangerous challenges. Once they reached Mictlantecuhtli, they disappeared forever.
In one story, Mictlantecuhtli tried to trap the god Quetzalcóatl in the underworld, who was needed to create humans for the new world. Mictlantecuhtli caused Quetzalcóatl to fall into a deep pit, but he managed to escape. However, the bones broke, causing humans to come in various sizes.
📹 The UnXplained: Dark Rituals of the Aztecs (Season 3)
Experts examine the possible reasons why the civilization that built Teotihuacan suddenly disappeared, in this clip from Season 3, …
I’m not Mexican or of Mexican descent, but around when I was in highschool I was thinking of Aztec culture and realized I didn’t know anything about it and pop culture doesn’t paint a flattering image so I started doing some research on my own starting with a figure I was familiar with Quetzalcoatl and started learning about his stories and relationships to people and other gods. There was a whole lot of misinformation out there and various different interpretations out there that made some things difficult to understand but I am now a firm admirer of Mesoamerican Culture and history and while my friends consider me an expert on the subject I know there’s still a lot that I don’t know so I am always interested to discover more! Thank you so much for this article!
Small note, and very minor at that. But when you mention the Florentine Codex it should be worth noting that most of Bernadino De Sahagun’s informants were from Tlatelolco. Why does this matter? Shortly after the founding of Tenochtitlan, a portion of the Mexica nation split themselves off and formed their own dynasty and city-state north of Tenochtitlan. The Mexica were divided into Tenocha and Tlatelolcan, and though they had a shared culture and language they developed distinguished identities. In 1473 the tlatoani of Tlatelolco, Moquihuix was killed (unclear if he was thrown off a temple or committed suicide), and thus Tlatelolco was made subject to Tenochtitlan. It would no longer have their own ruler but instead the city would be ruled by a governor subservient to Tenochtitlan. And though the Tlatelolcans would help their Tenocha brothers during the Seige of Tenochtitlan when the Spanish arrived, resentment was still high and very evident in many Tlatelocan sources. This is the reason why Moctezuma is portrayed as weak-willed and foolish, while Cuauhtemoc is portrayed rather valiantly and praiseworthy especially when one considers the Cuauhtemoc’s mother was related to Tlatelolcan royal family. I understand this is a lot of context for an admittedly very tiny note, but I feel it should be included as this small tidbit has sort of poisoned the well so to speak about how we engage and interpret the Conquest, especially Moctezuma’s character. I’m not going to touch the Quetzalcoatl-Cortes myth, but just know that the political and religious context of Mexico at the time has accidentally created one of the most persistent historical myths that really speaks a lot how cultural/historical narratives are formed, contextualized, and re-interpreted.
As someone with heritage from one of the countries that make up the Mesoamerica region, Carrasco has summarized my feelings better than I’ve ever heard before. The mix of shame and pride, and being connected to a whole civilization that’s mocked and ignored yet with a history that still deserves respect.
Thank you so much for raising up the voices of indigenous peoples. As an indigenous Mexican/Peruvian American, I find it difficult to celebrate my heritage because of how marred it has been, both by colonizers and the colonized. So many people point to sacrifices as the only feature of these religions and, as a result, of the culture and people. I take pride when I learn more about the history of my ancestors, and I hope that I can continue to celebrate my heritage and know it well.
Just fyi stress in Nahuatl is strongly penultimate. So it’s tenochTItlan, TLAloc, NAhuatl, etc. I may or may not have gotten flashbacks of my very impassioned Mesoamerican history professor insisting that we learn to pronounce eight foot long Nahuatl technical terms like xochiyaoyotl and Huitzilopochtli correctly. If you’re interested in a very approachable breakdown of classical Nahuatl and linguistics, the website Nativlang has a great article on the topic.
It is perhaps worth mentioning that human sacrifices were quite common in Western history. Think how even Augustus/Octavian sacrificed his enemies to the gods, after some defeats; a practice he abandoned in his later years. We could even argue that the witch burnings and the Inquisition were a sacrifice, despite being in the late medieval times, to appease God so that he forgive their sins (in actual inquisitional speeches the priest and inquisitors literally speak of a “sacrifice for the greater good” because “we all have sinned”, and so that society is about to be cleansed).
As a proud Mexican myself, I can totally relate to those “Aztec moments, ” or better yet “Mesoamerican moments” because the Nahuas were only the last of the great civilisations that rose in the land now called Mexico. The comparison between the ways in which the US and Mexico see themselves couldn’t be more spot on. It is exactly right how we are defined as a country by our defeats, our ability to make fun of ourselves and enjoy life. I don’t see it as mediocre, but as human. We were brutally invaded multiple times, our temples destroyed, our codices burned, our people massacred, our country mutilated in half, and yet we persist and thrive not having started a single war since independence. Let the party continue with a cold beer with lime juice and chilli (michelada) and some spicy tacos! ¡Viva México!
This is remarkably well done. Your introduction of the topic with Aztec metaphysics really served to help the listener see the connections that the Aztecs made. As asides: God-Impersonation reminds me quite a bit of the Catholic belief of In Persona Christi during Confessions. And your point on how Aztec gods were more like forces than anthropomorphic “sky people” mirrors the way that I understand a great deal of religion and mythology. Great work! I would love to see El Día de los Muertos covered one day.
Good article as always. As a Mexican, I sometimes feel those Aztec moments, too. I love Nahua’s poetry and I cannot but feel amazed by the recreations of Tenochtitlan in the middle of Lake Texcoco. However, it is difficult to ignore the gruesome rituals. Having studied this framework before, I can understand the idea of spilling human blood, but there are some horrific details of the sacrifices that are simply beyond my comprehension. Btw, you said there were still Nahua people living in Central America, but they live in Mexico, that is part of North America.
One of the most interesting things to me about religion is the adaption of the major/colonially imposed religion mixing with folk practices. Like the fact that on so many occasion people went, “yeah we have something like that too” and just absorbed it is amazing. Something like folk magic and Christianity in Appalachia is a great example of this idea as well.
Hello Mark! Thank you for this article! As a Mexican person, you have no idea how many times human sacrifice has been cited to me as proof that Europeans did actually deliver civilization to savages and as justification for messed up manifest destiny ideas. It is great to see a well-documented take on a practice that was very real, but was not the entirety of Mesoamerican culture.
I read a book about the Aztec’s when I was about 10 and found it fascinating, it’s not really taught in schools in Europe (except in maybe Spain) but the book was very heavy on graphic images of hearts been cut out which was vaguely disturbing, I can still see an image of a bunch of men queueing up to be sacrificed… probably very sensationalised. Incidentally, lots of businesses here called themselves Aztec because it put them in a optimal place on yellow pages (back when it was actually a big yellow book!) right at the top with a noticeable Z.
I was surprised to see Thor used an example of a “god of …” because most scholars of Old Norse and of Norse mythology that I am aware of are at pains to point out that, unlike the Greek Gods, the Norse gods are not rulers of discreet areas, but primarily are personalities who have associations, but who’s associations are fluid and also overlapping. Similar, perhaps, to Aztec gods.
It is well worth visiting the Templo Mayor and museum in Mexico City. The Spanish cathedral right across the square, with modern building surrounding feels anachronistic. Like you are seeing all the layers of history at once. The Aztec stone work and sculptures are incredible. The abstract style stands out and looks almost modern
From reading ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, it seems to me that calling a specific deity like, for example, Ares, “The God of War” is quite simplistic as well. Anyway, love Nahua culture and would love it if you made a article talking about contemporary Nahua religious practices. Great work as always!
thank you for posting amazing and thorough information on mesoAmerican religions, a topic that is very rarely talked about. especially how most of our modern knowledge of them is filtered through a European christian viewpoint. As someone of South American decent I would love to be able to learn more about our ancestral religions
This is why understanding language is so important. Each vocabulary from different times, places, cultures creates reality. Language creates reality. The language of the toltecs/mexicas/aztecs created an expansive reality in which people participated with their lives in the dance of the cosmos and the cycles of Earth. There are people in Mexico and New Mexico who speak Nahuatl. They are usually elders, but some younger people still learn. The day this language dies, if it does, will be a very sad time that wipes out the living memory of our ancestors and a unique and rich reality which includes Smokey Mirror.
I do large posts on Mesoamerican history and have collaborated with a number of History focused websites on the topic: Within the first minute and a half, with your excellent breakdown of Aztec, Mexica, and Nahua as terms, I could already tell this was going to be a great article! I do, however, have some corrections and clarifications. This is a bit out of order, but regarding those skull rack excavations, something I think is important to note, something I wish you did in the article, is that while the excavations do confirm that the Mexica practiced mass-scale human sacrifice, it also almost certainly DECONFIRMS that those scales were as massive as many Spanish or even joint Indigenous-Spanish sources claim: Estimates far the rack’s total size as of 2018 is roughly 11,700 skulls. Sounds like a lot, but when you consider that many sources report the Mexica sacrificing hundreds of thousands or even millions a year, roughly 12,000 doesn’t really seem like a lot. The underlying skull towers too are being excavated and across a 16 year deposition phase from 1486 to 1502 (which would include the alleged 1487 reconsecration of the Great Temple where 80,000 were allegedly sacrificed in 4 days) for one of the two towers, only roughly 500 skulls, as of this year, were found to have been deposited… 500 across 16 years, that’s paltry! Obviously there’s ambiguities here: Skulls were removed from the rack as they decayed (place onto the towers, is my understanding). I’m also under the impression, though I cannot find a source to verify this, that the rack was cleared every 52 years for the New Fire Ceremony.
Andrew, Thank you for this. It represents to me my first encounter with a ‘religion’ that I was fascinated by, as well as horrified by. While I was still in grade school, I came upon an archaeology book that dealt with the Mesoamerican religions of antiquity! I read all about the Aztecs, Toltecs, etc. Between the summer after my 4th grade year through the summer of my 5th grade year I read and reread this book. I was able to check it out from the local library. To say that I was fascinated does not give this time period enough justice. While I was in high school I distracted myself from the inherently intellectually and physically abusive family life that I was a part of, I read several translations of the beloved book, the Tao Te Ching. I did an interlibrary loan with the University of Louisville for alternate translations, as well as reading books by Arthur Whalen. Once I was in college, I stuck stupidly to the idea that I would still major in chemistry and physics which were my majors in high school. However, once I found out that a real department of Religious Studies existed at IU-Bloomington, you know that I changed my major right away! I started out with a class titled the Taoist Tradition and then moved onto Buddhism, Hinduism with great fascination! While I was studying as an undergraduate I chose to take a Patton scholar class taught by none other than the preeminent female scholar of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism Mary Boyce. She became the scholar for me and I went on to graduate school, studying Early Christianity of the first, second and third centuries as my minor.
I think it’s extremely unfortunate this indigenous culture was only taught to american students briefly as “other” and only notable for their human sacrifice. As a mexican american i think the romanticism of europe and the savior complex given to columbus in textbooks contributed to my childhood shame for my heritage 🙁
Research both religions. I love to learn about different cultures from the current and past times. Religion is created by men trying to describe something they cannot understand but which they think know the complete answer to. There is a folk-tale from India that seems to describe this. In the folk-tale a number of blind wise men are asked to describe a elephant after each has touched a different part of the elephant. Each describes something different and each argues that they are correct and the others are wrong in describing the elephant.
I minored in anthropology, and I was lucky enough to have a professor who was also an archeologist that discovered a lot of mesoamerican artifacts. She was my favorite instructor and had such a passion for the indigenous peoples of central/southern America. I’m honestly thrilled to see a article of this calibur on the subject available for free, on the internet. Thank you so much for the time that you put into your website and the quality of your articles.
All my life I’ve yearned to visit Angkor Wat, the pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, etc. A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit Tikal. OMG! Tikal! It’s been in my geographical back yard, completely overlooked! I’ve been exploring the ancient structures of the New World, on site or through media, with awe ever since.
Thanks for this article, this is super fascinating! It’s true that from a an outsider perspective, the thought of human sacrifice is simply horrific. But the way you’ve broken it down here, though there are those theories about it being used as a political tool or a form of “propaganda by terror”, it also doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch for me to imagine that it might not have even been a terror thing at all. Obviously in European-based cultures, bones and skulls and such are often seen as symbols of fear and death, etc., but it seems entirely possible to me that in Aztec culture, they may have not been seen that way at all. If the body was seen as a reservoir for divine cosmic energy, perhaps skulls were seen as holy symbols representing the sacred container of power and/or the divine destiny of returning to cosmic energy after death. And since they saw divine impersonation as literally becoming that divine personage, maybe the act of sacrificing a living being wasn’t even seen as particularly terrifying, at least for the audience. Now, I imagine for the person being sacrificed it was likely still terrifying, but onlookers might have perceived it very differently. It’s all very interesting to think about.
Love what was shared here, as a Chicano, Mexica mythology and historical data has always fascinated me. Often not discussed. However, there were some mistakes in pronunciations. Tlaloc being one, pronounced “look” at the end. Quetzalcoatl and other names/words with “-tl.” Tl is pronounced like “cl” in clown. Just a few tips. They were written down in Spanish, use the rules in Spanish language to help your pronunciation. Great job, keep it up!
Great work. Aztec culture is an important part of Mexican identity. Becuase of this, it’s soemtimes difficult to find accurate and scientific information, as we learn about Aztecs in elementary school or through legends and anecdotes. This article does a great job of presenting hsitorical data. Also, including a bibriogaphy is very helpful. I’ll defniitely check some of those books. Saludos, from Mexico City.
At 1:38, Nahuatl speakers are not concentrated in Central America, they are actually in central Mexico, which is North America. There are small pockets of Nahuatl related (Uto-Aztecan) languages in Central America, such as the Pipil in El Salvador, but their numbers are relatively smaller and have branched of to a different language.
Excelente. La complejidad del tema y la poca información real crea la necesidad académica de ir un poco a palos de ciego y allanando polémicas y controversias lo que hace difícil comunicar hasta lo esencial del tema y en esta entrega se consigue muy bien. Cómo guía de turistas este vídeo me da herramientas y vocabulario para ser más informativo pero al mismo tiempo más conciso. Gracias.
I am mexican and the only thing I can say to you is: Congratulations!! Great article, I want to praise you for setting a tone that really gets deep (as far as possible ) in the aztec religion, all the nuances and data you provide really captures something that I found always is missing when people outside of Latin America talk about this kind of subjects (including the reduction of these religions to human sacrifices). A similar phenomenon occurs with latin american music: is always reduced to a “mariachi-meets-flamenco-sound” that little has to do with the actual music that has been made in this lands. I am not an expert at all at this subject so I actually learn a lot. And also… kudos for your pronunciation of the really hard names of the nahuatl’s gods!!! Really, really good 🙂
The fact that they thought the gods walked among them, and were sacrificed makes me wonder if that factored into the conversion to Christianity. Imagine you are an average Mexica peasant seeing so many humans sacrificed for the gods in your lifetime. Then you hear about a god that came to Earth as a human, and was sacrificed not for his sake but for humanity. That would be very powerful hearing about a god sacrificing themselves for a culture where human sacrifice was the norm.
A moment that really put the “human sacrifice is horrible” into perspective for me was while reading 1491 by Charles Mann when he compared the reported numbers of Aztec sacrifice (looked down upon by Europeans) and the reported state executions in Spain, France, and England in the same year. The raw numbers were eerily equivalent, and even the state-run aspect was similar. Possibly the motive was also similar: control of the masses, and pressure release. Public executions were hugely popular in Europe, as public sacrifice was in Mexico. Are they truly all that different?
Is there any good reason to call it “Templo Mayor” in English, if that wasn’t its original name, I think for consistency-sake it would be better to translate that term to English instead of keep mixing Spanish and English when discussing something that doesn’t has anything to do with Spanish language.
That comment about the Aztec gods being fluid is also applicable to Greek gods (not sure about the Norse gods) – as the progression of divinities unfold, they become more and more complex and become more all-encompassing e.g. look at Apollon, whose domain includes but is not limited to music, healing, sunlight, clarity, etc.
Thank you so much for this quality-content article! I really wanted to learn more about the Mesoamerican history and culture because I rarely find any information about their history and culture. It’s just fascinating that they also have the idea of 4 stages or periods like the 4 Yugas of Hinduism or the 4 stages of Men in Greek Mythology. I’m from Asia (Philippines) and I’m always enamored by Mexico and the whole South American continent, maybe because we were once part of the Spanish Empire. Thank you again for this educational article. ✨
I really like that you went into trying to understand why they sacrificed humans, instead of just focusing on how terrible it was. I would say probably most cultures throughout the world have practiced human sacrifice in some form at one point in history, but nobody did it as extensively as the Aztecs, and most had stopped by the time of the medieval period, so I’ve always found this a gruesome but very interesting topic, ’cause it’s looking into an aspect of human culture that we don’t often talk about.
Fascinating! I am very thankful that my 7th grade history teacher supplemented our textbook (world history) by screening the documentary 500 Nations. It included different Native American civilizations such as Cahokia, the Aztecs, and maybe also the Maya. (I don’t think we watched the whole thing.) That documentary referred to the Aztecs as the Mexica as well, and I believe it said that is where the name Mexico comes from. (Your article is the first time I have seen Mexica spelled out, so the connection makes more sense!) I don’t remember how much it got into the religion, though, other than talking about Quetzalcoatl and prophecies about him. Also, before I got to the end of the article I was thinking, “He should do a article on the Incas or the Maya,” so glad to see the poll!
What a fantastic article! Explaining the idea of human sacrifice is so much more useful than just demonizing it. We can understand the internal logic of something without actually doing it ourselves or even condoning it. But the whole presentation was so helpful. Thank you. (Lots of ideas that reminded me of Chinese thinking on similar subjects. The heart and head distinction Shen/Heart vs Zhi/Kidney. Tonali vs teyolia–different kinds of qi. Even the creation duo. But I think that is a division common to many systems, correct?) Anyway, thanks again.
Thank you for making this article! Personally, as a Mexican Catholic, I’ve always felt that Aztec Human Sacrifice is not unlike the Catholic human sacrifice of Christ. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood is not totally unlike the Aztec pozole. There s something about believing that God requires sacrifice and that we sacrifice the noblest thing we can. For the Aztec warriors, the noblest sacrifice is another human being. For the Catholic, it is the human God.
This article was very cool, I didn’t know most of this. I have volunteered at a refugee center and met a lot of indigenous ppl who spoke languages such as Nahuat – “Aztec” and Mayan languages. Spanish was often their second language. I wonder much of the Aztec folk religion lives on through the contemporary crafts and practices of the descendants.
Two things can be true at the same time: 1. There were beautiful, complex, fascinating, and good elements of Aztec religion. 2. There were horrific, awful, indisputably evil beliefs and practices in Aztec religion that had to be stopped and it was good that the Catholics stopped them. We lost a lot of history and culture with the extermination of the Aztec religion, but it would be all the more appalling if it’d been left intact, being practiced to this day.
I think it’s faulty to project our own western-influenced perceptions of life & death onto pre-Columbian Nahua people. To say human sacrifice was an institution of terror or control requires a lot of presumption about the beliefs and values of Nahua people. Many contemporary and historic cultures throughout the world see death very differently than we do. If you’ve ever been to or seen a funeral in a Mexican indigenous community, it’s more like a party than a somber, sorrowful event, similar to how Dia de Muertos is more of a celebration of death than something macabre. I’m not saying this as some kind of conclusive evidence to a point, but I think examples like this should be enough to dissuade anyone from jumping to conclusions too quickly about the function of human sacrifice in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. Death can’t be a terror mechanism when people aren’t terrified of it.
If it sounds barbaric that the Aztecs sacrificed a lot of people to their gods, it’s worth remembering that countless people in Europe faced the same fate in the name of the Christian god. The Aztecs weren’t necessarily more violent than any other human society, they just manifested their violence in other ways.
Beautiful article! Kudos on you for taking the time to memorize all of those name they are hard to pronounce even for people in Mexico and you nailed it let’s say by 85 to 90 %, you would talk about the book of mormon and how mormonism talks about these sacrifices been strictly associated with rituals performed by Judaism. And closely related to christianity even before the conquest.
i remember going to the old ruins in trips when i was in highchool and thinking it was boring, that it was just a place to walk a boring tour, but ive learnt to apreciate that culture a lot more through the years, specially those people that keep the nahuatl tongue alive. i do remember being amazed at the statues of the old gods tho, specially the serpent! theyre huge! we also saw some people playing tlachtli and it looked pretty tough!
One of the best articles I’ve seen about the topic! It still has a very westernized filter when talking about human sacrifice, even Carrasco’s work, the fact that he’s American shows how he can’t get rid of that filter. Try reading Mexican researchers, I know they have obviously been written in Spanish but hopefully there are translations (or even maybe try using Google Translate).
As always great article! One thing i disagree with is the idea of sacrefice being a method of threatening neighboring groups and the population of the empire into submission, with how common the sacrefice was i think it’s just hard for us to understand the perspective of the nahua on it, and we often come with our own cultural bias
Thank you for the balanced article. My intuition is that, considering that the human sacrifice was part of an expansionist empire’s state religion, practiced by elites and warriors, that it was most definitely a form of terror and social control. The explicit threat was that if you were conquered by the Mexica without terms, or ever got on their bad side, you’d end up sacrificed to their gods. I wouldn’t put too much stock in what their beliefs were: it’s better to look at actions instead. After all, propaganda is as old as humanity. As a counter-balance to this, I’d love a article about the folk religion of the everyday people of the Mexica and the broader Aztec League.
I am mexica and gotta say thank you for your pronunciation of the Nahuatl words I know they aren’t the easiest 🤣🤌🏽 though we have our beliefs on the spirits/patrons/guides these were not gods to us, no gods. Our respect for nature is immense 👍🏽 My main guide and awakening guide is Quetzalcoatl which sets me in my own path of reconnecting. Tlaloc, Xochipilli and Chalchiuhtlicue are close favorites of mine but all equally respected! Also our “costumes” are regalia if you hear of people preforming “azteca danza” please refer to their outfits as regalia
I have a question. What is the purpose of crests atop human and animal god depictions of many religions around the world. Me so American gods pictures with crested or feathered heads. Egyptian gods depicted with crested head dress. Christian religious figures pictured with halo. Is there anything tying this all together?
It’s always been confusing to me, which of these cultures practiced which religion. In the books I’ve read they seemed to blend together and become one. It’s such a great opportunity for me to finally makes heads and tails of this. Thank you. As for the reasons behind the sacrifices, it would seem that they served a dual purpose: intimidating the opposition, and providing sustenance to the Sun by giving back what humans got from the gods. A kind of ‘recycling’ as you said. I’ve even read somewhere that people volunteered to be sacrificed on occasion, especially when times were tough, though how much of a voluntary decision that really was is up for debate.
It’s refreshing to see someone actually taking the time to master the pronunciation of the principal names and terms (the friendly criticism below notwithstanding, it doesn’t have to be perfect). It’s downright disheartening, the number of YT websites run by self-styled historians who show a complete ignorance of how to pronounce the most basic terminology of their areas of study.
I grew up not knowing a lot about the history of Mexico. I just coincided with my culture and a few beliefs. I’m at that point where I want to learn about where my last name is from. The. How they goes with the history of Mexico and then how far Mexican history goes up until mexica time before Spanish conquerors. Now I’m looking over Aztec religion and woah the way this religion looks at things such as reality is really fascinating to me. I feel like continuously digging
Great article but It was hard for me not to click something else due to the fact you have no background music playing. Your voice is kinda monotone so background music would be good for you. You speak clear and pronounce your words well so the background music at the right volume will boost your articles!
Small note on “costumes” worn during ritual ceremonies : Our understanding of ritual and costume is quite different than the Mesoamerican conception, and arguably differs from prevailing attitudes across cultures for much of human history. It is my understanding that the use of masks and ritual clothing were not simply pieces of a costume, but rather a means to make the divine present in the mundane world. When someone dressed up as a god, it was treated as if that god were present through the person dressing as them. They weren’t simply putting on costumes and going through a ceremony. The ritual was a means to make present (or re-present) gods and scenes from previous ages. You touched on this briefly, but I wanted to expand on it as it is often misunderstood and labeled as simple superstition. Also I imagine it was done for the sake of pronunciation, but many of the ending ‘L’ s in words like “Nahuatl” and “atlatl” are supposed to be pronounced, but you sort of “swallow” the L, if I am not mistaken.
I read that the Spanish war/conquest of the “Aztec” was really overglorified and it was more like a rebellion of the other tribes/city-states who were subjugated by Tenochtitlan than it was about the Spanish since Cortez only had like roughly over 500 troops however, when he marched on the city his army was over 100,000 of nearly all native warriors who rose up against Tenochtitlan.
Interesting article! If anyone is interested about Mexican indigenous philosophy, I’d point them towards Nezahualcoyotl who wrote philosophical poetry, many of which touch on the points of Aztec religion too. Thanks to the colonial Spanish penchant for book burning, there’s a lot of holes in our knowledge of Aztec thought but there’s definitely a lot of firsthand sources that survived too.
Honestly it doesn’t sound unusually pantheistic, because most polytheistic religions had similar things going on. We don’t call ancient Egypt pantheistic, but that had deities that also had shifting or strange roles, were represented or were humans animals supernatural creatures and natural phenomena at the same time, and also merged with each other. I’m not sure if it’s Eurocentrism trying to make the Mexica more exotic, or exceptionalism trying to make them more distinct
Every single specialist of a certain pantheon says that the gods of other pantheons have a specific domain of power, while the one they study is not so clear. I have never encountered a polytheistic religion where any god had a specific, clearly distinguishable field of influence. Still, it was an engaging and interesting article and thank you for uploading.
I wrote a paper in college on the similarities between the aztec religion and christianity, their stories, practices, and symbols is glaringly obvious and very interesting. Even with human sacrifice, the reason the aztecs had no problem adopting jesus into their collection of god’s was because /he/ was a human sacrifice. The sacrifice of these yearly gods were seen as these gods walking among them, eventually sacrificed for the greater good of the people, like how jesus “died for our sins”. The virgin mary is also how polytheism lives on in latin america, she and the saints represent the women and other gods they were forced to leave behind. Blood, feathers, and hearts are all extremely important in both religions in many ways (storytelling, artwork, etc.)
a lot of people think cultures that practiced human sacrifice don’t value human life but actually it’s the opposite way around because it’s not that they didn’t value human life. It’s actually that they valued human life so much that a human sacrifice was the highest form of payment that they could give to their gods because in their world view they were paying back the blood debt that incurred at creation.
I think it was in Charles C Man’s 1493 that I read that Mexica religion was really more Panentheistic, as that the term they used for the Europeans did not indicate any belief that they were gods but rather by a generic term that says little more than that the otherwise difficult to classify being was still part of the universal divinity that pervades all things.
The other ages had other humanities and at the end of those ages, a couple which had upheld the primordial mission of humanity: creativity, given to them by the creative power Teotl, that for which we all exist, was saved so they could populate the next cycle of humanity. The Mexica were not the only people who believed this, other cultures speak of previous humanities having been destroyed by cataclysm and a select few being saved because of their virtue,
I hope you can make a article about “the indigenous rituals” of Mexico and Guatemala as you said many of the pre-colonial rituals and believes survived colonization by getting mixed with christian elements. Rituals such as “Limpias”, “Tiemperos”, wind and earth worshiping are still existing in Mexico and Guatemala nowadays.
Anyone else read Aztec by Gary Jennings? Its not a history book just a fun novel that is super entertaining. Think something along the lines of Shogun but even more violence and more graphic. Very similar elements of cultures clashing because it’s starts before the Spanish came and finally they come in toward the end or so
The way that their state religion seemingly adopted gods of conquered peoples reminds me of the Roman syncretic state religion before Christianity, and the way the people later blended Christianity with elements of their own religion reminds me of the formation processes of syncretic African religions in Brazil and the Caribbean. I don’t mean just on the fact there is syncretism, but the very process by which they seem to happen seems reminiscent to me. I wonder how much studies there are on the very processes of syncretization, and whether or not something like these two mechanics are two sides of the same coin and/or universal.
Great article! I’d never realized they had a whole metaphysics of human life forces; from all the pop culture and basic histories, you’d think all the sacrificial nourishment was believed to come from blood. But clearly it was more abstract! I’ve been reading Graeber and Wengrow “Dawn of Everything” and they spend some time reconstructing pre-imperial indigenous MesoAmerican religion, including the importance of psychedelics. Did you just not include anything on Aztec psychedelics in order to keep the article’s scope manageable, or are there reasons to think the psychedelics were no longer a big part of religion by the time of the Aztecs?
I think the oversimplification on western gods I feel is on the same level as the Aztec state religion ones. Im a practitioner of the old norse faith and Tor (Thor) is so much more than just a thunder god. Tor is the god of thunder, strength, he is the protector of humanity, he is the god who brings order from chaos and also a sorts of fertility god for men.
First, I am glad your pronunciation is closer to the classical Nahuatl. Most people butcher it so badly. The reason the Florentine codex is the largest primary source on the Aztecs is because it corresponds very well to the archaeology on the subject. Meaning we have physical evidence that it is correct. Also, there are writings put out by the Aztecs themselves. I am certain the codex Chimalpopoca was written by an Aztec. (It was anonymous but makes many cultural references that make me think it was a native person.) Likewise, “The Broken Spears: An Aztec account of the conquest” is a book published in English. There is probably more sources, though many of them are in Nahuatl/Spanish and do not have English translations, typically. It may have been better to explain the cyclic thing the Aztecs had as “ollin” and explain this concept before explaining the human sacrifice. People forget the Aztecs were civilization. They had zoos, the first public schools in the entire world that everyone from 8+ years were required to go, built an artificial island, and had entirely herbal medicine that was 60% effective, which was so high, even the scientists were shocked by it. All their cities and buildings were built without beasts of burden or the concept of a wheel. Similarly, their calendar is more accurate than Euro ones. In comparison, the Aztecs were far more successful than even Europe was at the time. People romanticize the Vikings, but ignore the achievements of the Aztecs who overshadow them quite a bit.
Recently watched one of the strangest things ever: an episode of the 70’s TV series Kung Fu in which Caine is stung by an scorpion, falls into a cave, and hallucinates an Aztec priest (and a beautiful Aztec woman) intent on convincing him to become a human sacrifice… Meanwhile, the child Caine in China is nearly killed by a rich kid intent on extracting information from him about the Great Beyond to inform his dying father… and he hallucinates about being trapped in a cave. Strange, to say the minimum.
Thank you for your high quality articles and your clear and pleasant presentation. You explain the interaction between the many Mexican gods. They all refer to a natural disaster that causes rain, storm, thunder, fire, earthquakes, mud, destruction, recreation, fertility to name the most important. But there is one big misunderstanding in the Mayan and Aztec history. The planet Venus is often mentioned but in fact absolutely unimportant for life on our planet. This planet is depicted with two different symbols. One of them is correct, but the other is a symbol of the planet Quetzalcoatl, a serpent in the sky that destructs our planet. And the famous sun stone is the most solid execution of this symbol that is also depicted on many cylinder seals from Sumer. Tonatiuh is one of the names for it which does not refer to the sun. The sun stone shows much additional information that is not understood. The outher circle explain that we have to deal with a cycle of natural disaster that are caused by this planet Tonatiuh or Nibiru as is mentioned in Sumer. That event occurred in the past but will occur again in the future. The pointer above Tonatiuh points at the east side of the constellation Pisces. In that direction we must look to find this so called invisible planet. And this stone is at least 20,000 years old. Its time to rethink history.
Norse gods like Thor do not follow the same system as Greek gods. In actual Norse mythology, Thor is not “the god of thunder” that’s purely a Marvel creation. Norse deities did not rule over specific domains but were loosely associated with some aspects, but that did not mean they ruled over those aspects.
The Aztec Creation Myth describes the sacrifice of the gods to become the sun, moon, and other natural phenomenon. Aztec sacrifice was just paying back the gods for their sacrifice in their eyes. There’s a fantastic documentary with a Mesoamerican art-style about the Aztec creation myth on Youtube, I’d recommend anyone watch it.
A common misconception: the face in the middle of the “Aztec” sun stone is not “Tonatiuh”. “Tonatiuh” is the embodiment of the sun Yes. Tonatiuh is the Sun of the Fifth Era that we are supposed to still be in right now. And so that sunstone is representing a variety of things, which include the conditions of the world. In the middle is actually the representation of Tlaltecuhtli (TECUHTLI) meaning Lord. However this deity is often portrayed with androgynous features — often a deity that was said & proven to be found under temples and sacred spaces. It was an androgynous deity that represented the Earth itself, with all it’s “masculine” & “feminine” features. It is said that after the time that Quetzalcoatl & Tezcatlipoca fought for control of the world — they came into an alliance to build a world of harmony where humans & creatures could thrive. The humans would be made of the bones of the underworld and the new Earth, under the new sun, would be made of Tlaltecuhtli— the sacred earth creature. In the story, the brother deities slayed the creature & created the earth out of Her/Him. The center of the sun stone is showing you the relation of the 4 suns to the present Earth/World. —D Moctezuma.
This is a really scholarly and fair analysis, while also interesting, so I thank you, and I subscribed! Also, as another person here with Mexican ancestry, it is nice for our history not to be dismissed as it often is. I will start Nahuatl classes in November, and I hope other Mexicanos will consider this too.
Tonalli and Teyolia sounds like yet another version of ‘soul’. The experience of butchering any animal (chicken, turkey, goat – preferable something you will eat after) may provide some insight into the rationale behind sacrifice of any type. It is a very remarkable experience that anyone who consumes meat should have at least once.
i think their fluidity of a deity being an energy and also is another is very similar to what I think the hindus also believe e.g. Ganesh is Shiva and Shiva is Parvati who is also Laxshmi and Saraswati let alone her angry forms and they can be worshipped individually or collectively. Hope I stated it correctly.
12:10 Loose interpretation: ‘That’s why you see paintings of Aztec warriors grabbing their enemy’s hair, their seat of power.’ OR, the warrior is grabbing the other by the hair because that’s one of the easiest way to control your opponent is by grabbing the other’s hair. This one of the main reasons why it is so fashionable for more “combatty” militaries to expect their members to have very short haircuts. That and because it’s uniformity/squared away looking, hair keeps heat in (not good for people who work very hard), and it is much easier to maintain hygiene in thr field with short hair.
Fascinating. I feel this is the law of this land…. These were the contracts signed with these deities in this part of the world…. They’re teachings are the ones one should take heed of while in their home. Always remain respectful… They are God’s. If they wanted us dead, we would have been ages ago…. they have a … Keen interest in humans and humanity… And yes they are very much real….
As a Mexican, I feel it’s quite important to note the context of the Aztec World as a part of the reasoning behind the brutal rites. Central Mexico is a very harsh land to thrive with constant droughts, floods and earthquakes where nothing was certain unless divine conditions were met, hence the Cyclic Calendar and constant expansions… Inventions like the Chinampas attest to the need of alternatives over regular slash and burn agriculture, while Gods and Monsters such as Iztlacoliuhqui and the Cipactli are literal maniphestations of extreme Cold and Seismic Movements… The Spaniards didn’t help at all…
First of all, thank you, this is one of the best insight of the Mexicas I have ever seen, all their life was religious based, so thank you. Also; there’s some obscure knowledge in the symbol “Atl-Tlachenolli” which I have found to be one of the main religious concept for Mexica, merging fire-water, war-agriculture, Huitzillopochtli-Tlaloc, also known as the war-drum, which I concibe as a heart preparing (or being) for the sacred war. It’s what its found in the mouth of the eagle in Huitzilopochtlis foundation symbol, instead of the snake that is mostly accepted. Greetings!
The reduction of Ares and Thor to one-dimensional gods of a single domain ignores their broader aspects. Ares also symbolizes “maleness, fertility, Springtime, disease, and, thunder”, as well as inflicted death. So, ‘Ares”, the “Royal Man”, or aristocrat, is not completely separate from Thor, or, even from Zeus, for that matter. That being said, I appreciate your articles and attention to detail. And, I realize how hard it is to speak coherently about irrational topics like gods.
David Carrasco has made me think about how I view my own Mexican-American heritage. I’ve described it as “my ancestors conquered and slaughtered my ancestors with the help of my ancestors because my ancestors were tyrannizing my ancestors.” I also see Tezcatlipoca everywhere today, manifesting as social media.
It’s why I made my youtube website to explain many aspects of it. Whether Nahuatl or Nahua culture. To correct some things: Azteca is used by Fernando Tezozomoc in Cronica Mexicayotl in the 16th to describe our ancestors living in Aztlan. If you read the nahuatl text florentine codex from Sahagun, it’s from nahuas since there’s a lot of sahagun didn’t translate or wrote things differently in Spanish. Ometeotl is a “modern” god. Nahuatl pronunciation needs work.
I think your interpretation was incredibly professional, but that you got lost on the Jim Jones analogy. Grateful nonetheless. But also, you did leave out the incredible works of interpretive expansion concerning the astronomic calendar cosmology, which fed the whole civilization up to the conquest. The priesthood was absorbed in stargazing, and the consumption of hallucinogens, and astronomy, and the astrology based on their calendar cosmologies, which was the crux of the annual ceremonial rituals. Your interpretation is accurate. However, I can personally barley take anymore after so many years of study, that I am only bound to tell you that the reestablishment of the 260-day Astrological Tonalpoualli is the only thing of any value to me. The astrology is of paramount importance with regards to it’s ancestral rectification, and its alliance with other astrological systems all over the ancient world. The Aztec Calendar demanded a correction date every 52-years of 12 or 13 days in order to keep it in step with the seasons. I have already witnessed a great amount of success with this “corrected system” and can predict the date of a persons ‘tonalli’ on either side of the November 1975 (12-day Correction Day Period). Pure astrology is where it is going for me, and it seems that the lesson of ancient Mexico is one of growing, and moving forward with maturity, towards a social ripeness that recognizes right and wrong, without personal pride, and a greater sense of humility and cooperation with regards to one’s own existence and the world wide community.
Bearing in mind i am NOT a scholar on this subject… if i recall correctly, there was a lot of weather disruption and change going on during that last part of the Aztec empire… naturally when your lake is drying up, and your rain is ceasing, and the weather is being odd… wouldnt you INCREASE the number of sacrifices? secondly… if you want young warriors to sacrifice… you need war. if you dont want to run out of warriors you would prefer to sacrifice OTHER people’s warriors, and keep your own- also invoking the support of the Gods to your own warriors… so.. isnt it more likely that making war on your enemies and conquering others was … more likely to gain sacrifices… that you need because your weather is being weird?
For some time now I’ve had this idea about an alternate history where the Vikings successfully colonize North America and split the cotenant between Christian kingdoms to the north and the last surviving pagan kingdom to the south. In this timeline the southern pagan kingdom becomes strong allies with the Nahuas due to the relative similarity between their two religions and their common enemy. While yes there are numerous differences, the similarities are almost unbelievable given these two people had no contact. Both believe in the importance of sacrifice and both believe the world is divided into several ages. While the Nahuas may have been more pantheist than the Norse, the fact that they were anything other than monotheist would have brought them together. I imagine they would have kept each other afloat, keeping the other from being conquered while the Christian world would have begrudgingly allowed them to exist while trading with them
Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying that it’s not a good idea to strip divine beings down to titles like “God of War” or “God of Thunder.” As a Hellenic Polytheist, nothing aggravates me more than the reductive and simplistic categories people place on my Gods. I agree with what you said about the Aztec deities being complicated, and I think Greek and Norse Gods are equally so. Also, if you’re focusing on Indigenous religions, would you ever be interested in exploring the Taíno?
Mexicans, the direct descendants of the Mexica (much like how the Jews are to the ancient Judeans) also have that famous coat-of-arms that actually tells a story of that one time Huitzilopochtli did a solid for the ancient Mexica, helping them found Tenochtitlan. Hands down, one of the most badass coats-of-arms.
Babylon comes to mind ..man kind created these big monuments toward the heaven..and was stopped because there was nothing they couldn’t do ..all the pyramids it makes sense now about the tower of Babylon ..it wasn’t just one town or one place ..it meant world wide ..confusion and separation of knowledge and languages ..makes sense