(Florentine Codex, Page I, F,
6r)
Sacrificial methods
The sacrifice of Aztec captives is one of the most gruesome practices to some people by todays standards. It may seem to be that way but to the Aztecs this was a very serious ceremony that was to the normal.
The captives were dragged up the Templo Mayor steps and were laid across the sacrificial stone where four priests took hold of the captives feet and arms holding him firmly so he couldn't escape. Then a fifth priest with a sharp obsidian blade in hand would slice open the captive's chest and would take out the captive's heart. Some have even witnessed the heart still beating. Then after having ripping out the heart the priest would offer it to the God. The hearts were placed in a vessel called a Choc Mool, much like the one below that was dedicated to Tlaloc, The God of Rain and Fertility.(Lopez Lujan 2000)
Then after being placed in the vessel the heart would be burned to hopefully satisfied the gods and the world would continue. When the priests had finished with the victim they would throw them down the temple steps. The temple steps had that steep incline for just this purpose.
Next the Quaquacuiltin would take the deceased back to the captive's calpulli compound where the family would divide the body up and cook it in a stew with chilies.
It is said that the warrior that captured the victim didn't actually partake in eating him because he was a substitute to the gods for all the sins he had committed in war.
“After having torn their hearts from them and poured the blood into a gourd vessel, which the master of the slain man himself received, they started the body rolling down the pyramid steps. It came to rest upon a small square below. There some old men, whom they called Quaquacuiltin, laid hold of it and carried it to their tribal temple, where they dismembered it and divided it up in order to eat it"(Díaz del Castillo 1963)