Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of a human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice. Generally only high status prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labour.[349]
Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized offering, and such a sacrifice involved decapitation of the captive ruler in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the Maya death gods.[349] In AD 738, the vassal king K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá captured his overlord, Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil of Copán and a few days later he ritually decapitated him;[350] The decapitation of an enemy king may have been performed as part of a ritual ballgame reenacting the victory of the Maya Hero Twins over the gods of the underworld.[349] Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted in Classic period Maya art, and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured, being variously beaten, scalped, burnt or disembowelled.[351] The Hero Twins myth recounted in the Popol Vuh relates how one of each pair of twins was decapitated by their ballgame opponents.[352]
During the Postclassic period, the most common form of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the method used by the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico;[349] this usually took place in the courtyard of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid.[353] Depending upon the exact ritual, sometimes the corpse would be skinned by assistant priests, except for the hands and feet. The officiating priest would then remove his ritual attire and dress himself in the skin of the sacrificial victim before performing a ritual dance that symbolised the rebirth of life.[353] Archaeological investigations indicate that heart sacrifice was practised as early as the Classic period.[354]