Mixtec ruler Eight Deer sacrificed

1115

In the Mixtec highlands of Oaxaca, the warrior-king Eight Deer Jaguar Claw, whose exploits are recorded in codex paintings, was defeated and ritually sacrificed by a coalition of rival city-states at Tilantongo. His death reshaped the political fabric of pre-Columbian southern Mexico. The codex narratives of his life form one of the most detailed biographical records of any individual in the pre-contact Americas, spanning decades of war and diplomacy.