Divine Combat, Warrior Merchants, and Ritual Sacrifice in the Mesoamerican Epiclassic AD 750–1050

The Mesoamerican Epiclassic ushered in a widespread pattern of social and political reconfigurations that set the stage for the proliferation of the warring states of the Early Postclassic (AD 900-1250). Highland central Mexico experienced the decline of its economic and political fortunes centered on the paramount polity of Teotihuacan. Around the same time, the southern Maya lowlands saw the disappearance of the ancient form of divine rule identified with the k'ul ajaw political system. By contrast, other Terminal Classic centers from central Mexico and the Gulf and Maya regions proliferated and flourished. Period public art and iconography document an upsurge in depicting social violence and the emergence of a complex military culture and militarization that surpassed similar depictions from the Mesoamerican Classic period. Increased scrutiny of monumental art, architecture, and muralism at Chichén Itzá, Yucatan, reveals that such art is dominated by individuals, including females, animals, and warrior merchants engaged in acts of ritualized combat and sacrifice. The murals, as such, provide the basis for contextualizing sacrificial rites and practices of individuals, ancestors, animals, and animated cohorts. Accordingly, such acts are often centered on reenacting regenerative divine and animated forces. Participation in such complex devotional practices necessarily culminated in the ultimate act of both human and animal sacrifice. This study’s findings are predicated on the textual analysis of the murals from Chichén Itzá and, by extension, deposits identified with animal and human sacrifice from Teotihuacan.