Ancient arrowheads reveal the gory practices of Maya 'life force' rituals.

Daily Mail ^ | 21 October 2015 | Sarah Griffiths

[GreyFriar]

Traces of blood discovered on ancient arrowheads in Guatemala prove the Maya took part in bloody ceremonies to communicate with their gods.

Bloodletting ceremonies involved piercing the earlobes, tongues and even genitals of willing participants and using the spilled blood to 'feed' their deities.

The arrows were collected from five sites in the central American region, including a temple at Zacpetén where it's thought bloodletting ceremonies took place around 500 years ago.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks TXnMA, will ping later.

[Cronos]

Not really. The Spaniards and Portuguese did some killing, but 95% of all deaths among natives was due to germs brought over from Europe -- read "Guns, germs and steel" for more detail

The English settlers didn't have to kill so many because most were killed by germs which spread faster and earlier than the Europeans who followed them

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks TXnMA.

[null and void]

Blood based glues are also used in the plywood industry.

Oh????

Pig blood perhaps?

That would mean no muslim can ever be certain that any building in America is halal!

[null and void]

Still, there were capable of making some intricate pieces:

[Ditter]

I have found 100s of arrowheads in south Texas. I dug them out of the dirt myself, no fakes, all real. I never considered they might still have traces of blood on them. ( hard to believe)

I know there are people who can make them and I would never buy an arrowhead for that reason.

[Dusty Road]

Some of my work using stone, bone and antler.

[blam]

Can they out-savage the Muslims?

[TXnMA]

"Still, there [sic] were capable of making some intricate pieces:"

~~~~~~~~~~

My point, [no pun intended] exactly,

The items pictured in the posted article are so far below the quality of even routine, utility Mayan knapping, (much less that of "ceremonial" pieces) that many of us can't help but suspect the site was "salted" by some "modern" person.

...and, then, there are what we modern lithic technologists and knappers call "Mayan show-off masterpieces", like the ones you posted.

I consider myself good enough to be able to closely replicate 'most any lithic piece found in North America -- but I don't have access to sufficient, primo knappable material [or super-glue] (nor does my vocabulary contain adequate cuss-words) to get me through trying to replicate one of those gems! '-)

[TXnMA]

Compare your work, and the Mayan pieces posted by null and void with these pieces from the posted article:

They look like they were "edge-crunched" by a seven-year-old -- to copy just the outline of real, functional projectile points.

I rest my case.

[Texan5]

You are totally correct-to paint either group of as innocent people coming ashore on boats and skipping off to save everyone, or following unicorns through the forest looks beyond naïve-the Spaniards didn’t bring their armor and horses over to make Natives’ lives better-they came to rape and pillage. Indians didn’t step up the sacrifices, gather warriors, sharpen weapons and hide treasure to please guests-they wanted the “guests” dead...

The Mayans were indeed done as the big dog in MesoAmerica by the time the Spanish came-just like the Olmecs, Toltecs, and all the other groups who came before them-raided, fought wars for dominance and were dominated in their turn-it doesn’t look any different than what went on at some given time in Europe, Asia, Africa or anywhere else-archaeological digs have found plain evidence of it all over the place, and carted it to museums for everyone to look at.

As someone descended from both Spaniards and Native Americans-and an avid student of non-revisionist history-it seems to me that the Spaniards learned torture and mayhem when they were part of the Roman Empire-as did the French- and just happened to have been a bit more advanced in their techniques than the Natives when the two societies met and clashed-those were brutal times, and people acted accordingly-I don’t see any of their interactions fit into present day morals or motives of any kind-they had few restrictions and even less restraint...

If there was a culture that did not practice blood-letting, human sacrifice and torture at some point in antiquity, no one has found it yet-so no peace loving hippies appear to have been part of human history...

[Texan5]

The pagans today are muslim terrorists-not latino Catholics.

Mojados are coming here illegally, for sure, and need to be sent back, yesterday-but like most of us, they are all mixed up with the Spanish over 500 years-and in parts of Central and South America, they are all mixed up with Germans-Nazis and other escapees after WWII-they are illegal invaders, but they haven’t been “Indians” or pagan for a really, really long time...

[353FMG]

Until those cruel conquistadores stopped those cultural practices.

[ApplegateRanch]

Shhh! Don’t tell the vegans. LOL