Another nail in the coffin for the "Noble savage" myth

The skeletons of two dozen children killed in an ancient mass sacrifice have been found in a tomb at a construction site in Mexico.

The find reveals new details about the ancient Toltec civilization and adds to an ongoing debate over ritualistic killing in historic Mesoamerica.

And then, Human Sacrifice Clues Found in European Stone Age Burials

Common Stone Age graves in Europe that include the remains of physically disabled people hint at ritual human sacrifice there, a new study says.

The research is based on unusual burial sites dating to between 26,000 and 8000 B.C.

Skeletons such as those of a teenage dwarf and a girl with malformed bones were found buried alongside able-bodied dead. This indicates that human sacrifices may have been an important ritual activity among ancient hunter-gatherer tribes...

...studies of well-preserved remains of Iron Age bodies found in Denmark bogs suggest that the young and disabled were often chosen for human sacrifice.

"Disabled people may have been selected because they were seen as different. These individuals may be feared, hated, or revered," Formicola said.