Matthew J. Walsh is Senior Researcher at the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Sean O'Neill is Research Counsel in the Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway.

Marianne Moen is Head of Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway.

Eva-Johanna Marie Lafuente Nilsson is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway.

Svein H. Gullbekk is Professor in the Section for Numismatics and Classical Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Norway.

Foreword 1. Introduction: Introducing Sacrificial Values Part I: Observing Sacrificial Logics and Social Values 2. Some Human Sacrifices in Mongolia and Their Rationales 3. CEO Dismissal as an Act of Human Sacrifice: Metaphor or Reality? 4. The Economy of Sacrifice: Christ, Coins and the Eucharist in the Middle Ages Part II: Reading Logics and Values From Archaeology 5. Competitive Violence and Ruling Elites in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia 6. Human Sacrifice in Ancient Near Eastern Societies 7. The Social Context of Human Sacrifice in Ancient Egypt 8. Funerary Dramas and Ritual Killing in the Slavic World: Written Sources and Archaeological Realities 9. From Brave Warriors to Innocent Children: Understanding the Foundations of Ritual Violence in the Moche Valley, North Coast of Peru, 200-1450 A.D. 10. Human Sacrifices at Huaca Pucllana in Lima, Peru 11. Making an Impact: Ritual Public Goods and the Emergence of Retainer Sacrifice in an Early State of Korea 12. Ritual Killings as Resource Complex in the Viking Age Funeral Ceremony Part III: Reading Transitions in Value Through Exegesis, Ethnology and Critical Synthesis 13. Sacrifice in Contemporary Vernacular and Ancient Ritual Texts 14. Aztec Sacrificial Celebrations as Entertainment? The Physiological and Social Psychological Rewards Attending Aztec Human Sacrifice 15. Human Sacrifice as Social Control Through Terror 16. From Sacrificed Humans to Self-Sacrificing Humans: A Longue-Durée Bio-Cultural Evolutionary Perspective on Human Sacrifice Index