The Aztec culture from Central Mexico usually is the one associated with human sacrifice, but that’s probably because Spanish chroniclers were there to witness it. The Maya were just as bloodthirsty when it came to feeding their gods. The Maya city-states fought frequently with one another and many enemy warriors were taken captive. These captives were usually enslaved or sacrificed. High-level captives such as nobles or kings were forced to play in the ceremonial ball game against their captors, re-enacting the battle they lost. After the game, the outcome of which was predetermined to reflect the battle it represented, the captives were ritually sacrificed.
The Maya Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork. Most of the great stone cities of the Maya were abandoned by A.D. 900, however, and since the 19th century scholars have debated what might have caused this dramatic decline.
