Absurd and Disturbing Facts About Ancient People

Some ancient people practiced bizarre, unimaginable and unusual customs and traditions. Here’s a list of absurd and disturbing facts about the Spartans, Caribs, Incas and Aztecs and other Ancient people.

Spartans

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Here's a list of bizarre customs and traditions of Spartans...

• In the Spartan tradition, shortly after birth, the mother of the child bathed it in wine to determine whether the child was strong.
• If the newly born survived, he will be brought by his father to a special council called Gerousia to be examined and scrutinized. If the baby was found healthy and physically fit, it will be given back to the mother. But if found unhealthy or with physical defect, it will be thrown in the forest.
• All Spartan citizens are considered possession of the state. All Spartan boys, at the age of 7, must be trained in schools called ‘barracks’ up to the age of 20. They were trained and educated to become ultimate fighting machines. They were taught to be austere in everything and were trained to obey all orders.
• As a final test for every Spartan to be able to qualify as regular member of the army, he will be sent to the jungle (were numerous wild, carnivorous and deadly animals scattered) without any weapon or food for a specific number of days. Every Spartan soldier must serve in the army up to the age of 60.
• Every Spartan soldier was taught to fight until the last drop of his blood. To die in the battlefield is honorable but losing the battle and going home alive is certainly disgusting and the most shameful act a Spartan could commit.
• Quite bizarre but Spartan men were required to marry at age 30. Spartans have had a peculiar customs of marrying. The husband-to be must abduct a woman for marriage. The so-called ‘bridesmaid’ took charge of the captured girl. She first shaved her head to the scalp, then dressed her in a man’s cloak and sandals, and laid her down alone on a mattress in the dark. The bridegroom - first had dinner in the messes, then would slip in, undo her belt, lift her and carry her to the bed.
• Spartans are prohibited to engage in business and were obliged to use iron money which has no monetary value in other city-states of Greece. Foreigners in Sparta were driven away once a year so as not to encourage the Spartans of their ideas and attitudes.

Caribs

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Here's a list of weird and disturbing facts about Carib people...

• Caribs are the natives of the Caribbean, specifically Lesser Antilles. The word Caribbean was derived from the ‘Caribs’. These primitive people were known to practice cannibalism in the most unusual way. They are also known as Kalinago people.
• The Carib word ‘karibna’ meant “person” and was the origin of the English “cannibal”. Carib people were known to eat war enemies and believed to practice general cannibalism. The Kalinago would chew and spit out one mouthful of flesh of a very brave warrior so that he could take on his bravery.
• Another peculiar tradition of Carib people is the weird tradition of keeping bones of their ancestors in their houses. The practice is part of a belief that the ancestral spirits would always look after the bones and protect their descendants.
• According to Columbus, they found evidence of cannibalism everywhere in Guadeloupe. They’ve seen deteriorating bodies, limbs of human bodies hung up in houses and body parts roasted on fire.

Aztecs

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Here are some unusual and absurd facts about Aztecs...

• Human sacrifice was an important part of Aztec religion. Priest sacrificed victims by cutting open their chests and pulling out their hearts. Because of this absurd tradition, the Aztec people were hated so much by their neighboring tribes.
• After each and every ceremony, participants in the ritual would eat the flesh and drink the blood of the human sacrifice.
• In order to keep this inhumane practice of Aztecs, they waged war continuously to get captives for sacrifices. Every Aztec man served in the army and it is considered a sacred duty to capture enemies rather than to kill them.
• In 1487, at the dedication of the main temple in Tenochtitlan, some 20,000 people were put to death.
• Their chief god, Quetzalcoatl, taught the Aztecs many things and promised to return one day. When Hernando Cortez, a Spanish conquistador, arrived in Mexico in 1519, he was mistaken for Quetzalcoatl and so there were only few resistances.

Incas

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Learn some peculiar things about the Incas...

• One bizarre practiced of the Inca people is the practice of ‘cranial deformation’. They usually do this by wrapping tight cloth straps around the heads of newborn babies in order to alter the shape of their soft skulls into a more conical form; this cranial deformation was made to distinguish social classes of the communities, with only the nobility having cranial deformation.
• The Inca people of South America called themselves ‘Children of the Sun’ because the sun is considered their god. They created gold images of the sun and hung them on their temples. Inca people forced the people they conquered to worship their god.
• The very first emperor is believed to be the son of the sun. Inca emperor was regarded as the representative of their sun god and so he is considered unique and to be glorified as god also.
• The Inca people had a political socialist philosophy. All industries and the life of the people were controlled by the government. In return, the government provided protection and all the needs of the people.
• All products and other produce were divided between the government and the citizen. In the Inca community, everybody works and begging is strictly prohibited.

Romans

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• Same sex relationships among Roman soldiers were common.
• Gladiator fights were amongst the cruelest forms of entertainment the world had ever witnessed. This absurd entertainment was created by the Romans where trained slaves (gladiators) – unarmed or with minimal weapon and Roman soldiers – equipped with different types of weapon fight to the death.
• In addition to the very evident disadvantage position of the gladiators, Roman soldiers, already equipped with chariots, were also reinforced by huge carnivorous animals like tigers and lions. Fallen combatants were served as food for the lions and the tigers.

See also

Bizarre Culture of Primitive Tribes From Around the World

Bizarre Customs and Traditions From Around the World

Peculiar Marriage Rites Around the World in the Past

Peculiar Marriage Rites of Some Ethnic Groups