Ritual Violence and Related Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica cover

Published:01/06/2026Language:EnglishPages:438, Illustrated throughout in black & white and colour.BAR Number: S3263Series: BAR International Series

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Ritual Violence and Related Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica

Name: Ritual Violence and Related Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica
SKU: Ritual Violence and Related Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica
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Beyond the Maya

Edited by Vera Tiesler

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Description

Ancient Mesoamericans deemed ritual violence a crucial form of merit-making with the divine. Until recently, humans themselves were considered supreme “food staples”. Their bodies could vitalize the cosmos at the pulse of consecrated time intervals. Individuals were prepared and sacrificed in prescribed ways to liberate their animate essences, believed to be harboured mainly in a person’s heart and blood. Although ritualized violence is abundantly recorded in iconography and has been inferred from simultaneous multiple interments and deposits of articulated body segments, only the last two decades of scholarship have seen important strides towards layered, nuanced, and interdisciplinary explorations of sacrificial practices. This study examines old and new, archaeological, graphic, and forensic evidence across the Mesoamerican landscapes focusing on all types of violence and associated body processing – from community activity to political terror.

About the Editor

Vera Tiesler is based at the Autonomous University of Yucatan in Mérida, Mexico. Coming from an archaeological, artistic, and medical background, her academic interest lies in illuminating the human condition among ancient Mesoamericans by studying their mortuary remains.

List of Contributors: Raúl Barrera, Diana Bustos Ríos, Emilie Ana Carreón Blaine, Ximena Chávez Balderas, Jeremy D. Coltman, Annick Daneels, Stan Declercq, Francisco Estrada Belli, Jorge A. Gómez Valdés, Ángel González López, Guido Krempel, Luisa Mainou Cervantes, Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho, Yadira Martínez Calleja, Stephan Merk, Susan Milbrath, Virginia E. Miller, Mireya Montiel Mendoza, Diana K. Moreiras Reynaga, Luis Morett Alatorre, Guilhem Olivier, José F. Osorio León, Grégory Pereira, Francisco Pérez Ruiz, José Ricardo Ruíz Cazares, Judith L. Ruiz González, Andrew K. Scherer, Nicolaus Seefeld, Carlos Serrano Sánchez, Michael Spence, Travis W. Stanton, Luisa Straulino Mainou, Saburo Sugiyama, Karl A. Taube, Vera Tiesler, Lorena Vázquez Vallín.

Reviews

‘This work will surely appeal to all scholars of ancient Mesoamerica and the American hemisphere, whether academic interpreters of the broader topics addressed, or lab technicians and field archaeologists seeking answers and models for how best to advance the science of social violence and the ideology and political underpinnings of warfare.’ Professor Emeritus Rubén G. Mendoza, California State University Monterey Bay

‘This is a significant contribution to the field of ritual violence in the past, with a specific focus on Mesoamerica as a broad geographic cultural region. I love the collection of chapters with distinct approaches to individual topics contributing to the broader conversation. This volume contributes to the variable ways in which ritual violence can be inferred from archaeological contexts, utilizing a range of lines of evidence and corroborating sources.’ Dr. J. Marla Toyne, University of Central Florida

‘This volume is well organized, illustrated and methodologically demonstrated. I would have it in my collection and recommend to my students.’ Associate Professor-in-Residence Lisa M. Johnson, University of Nevada, Las Vegas