Beyond the general idea of benefiting society and placating the divine, the polyvalent symbols and meanings of ancient religious sacrifices can be interpreted properly only after combining different disciplinary lenses. In this paper, we systematically scrutinize iconographic and ethnohistorical testimonies together with new skeletal and forensic evidence from across the Mesoamerican landscape in order to survey Mesoamerican heart sacrifices. Here we focus on three different heart-extraction procedures, two of which are characterized for the first time. Each reconstructed method (i.e., from below the chest cavity, between two left ribs, and through the sternal bone) provides novel cues regarding the array of ceremonial devices and native concepts of the human body as a cosmic model. Its partitioning and the liberation of vitalizing matter (namely, the heart and blood) fed specific sacred forces during divine cult and mythic reenactment. As for the Aztecs, we conclude that different trunk-opening procedures were practiced as part of ritual sequences that in each case enabled access to the Cosmic Sacred Mountain with its vivifying essences. In this context, native conceptions surrounding the distinctive heart-extraction techniques pose new proxies for analogous sacrificial practices in other parts of the world still awaiting systematic scrutiny.

中文翻译：

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打开的箱子和破碎的心

除了造福社会、安神的总体思路外，古代宗教祭祀的多元象征意义，只有结合不同学科的视角，才能得到恰当的诠释。在本文中，我们系统地审查了中美洲地区的肖像和民族历史证词以及新的骨骼和法医证据，以调查中美洲的心脏牺牲。在这里，我们专注于三种不同的心脏提取程序，其中两种是首次得到表征。每种重建方法（即，从胸腔下方，两根左肋骨之间，并通过胸骨）都提供了关于一系列仪式装置和人体作为宇宙模型的原生概念的新线索。它的分裂和活体的解脱（即，心脏和血液）在神圣崇拜和神话重演期间提供了特定的神圣力量。至于阿兹特克人，我们得出的结论是，不同的躯干打开程序是作为仪式序列的一部分进行的，在每种情况下都可以进入宇宙圣山及其充满活力的精华。在这种情况下，围绕独特的心脏提取技术的本土概念为世界其他地区的类似牺牲实践提供了新的代理，仍在等待系统的审查。