Religious scholars of this forum, have there human sacrifices similar to those practiced by the Ironborn in the real world? If so, what societies have practiced them?

[Mysecondaccount]

Have there been societies in the past that have deliberately drowned sacrificial victims like the "drowned priests" for the "drowned god"? If so, what societies practiced them, and what was the theological context to the ritualistic drownings?

[James Fenimore Cooper XXII]

Was it the Incas who were tossing virgins into lakes?

[Mister Smikes]

12 hours ago, Mysecondaccount said:

Have there been societies in the past that have deliberately drowned sacrificial victims like the "drowned priests" for the "drowned god"? If so, what societies practiced them, and what was the theological context to the ritualistic drownings?

Remind me:  when do the Ironborn use drowning as a form of human sacrifice?  As far as I recall, the Ironborn ritual is not a human sacrifice at all, but rather a highly-dangerous type of baptism.

[Lilac & Gooseberries]

In Antiquity the Guanches inCanary Islands were using that method.

2 minutes ago, Mister Smikes said:

Remind me:  when do the Ironborn use drowning as a form of human sacrifice?  As far as I recall, the Ironborn ritual is not a human sacrifice at all, but rather a highly-dangerous type of baptism.

They practice human sacrifice by drowning thralls and salt wives.

[Wizz-The-Smith]

A few from Wikipedia after a brief search...

Dionysius of Halicarnassus^[22] says that the ritual of the Argei, in which straw figures were tossed into the Tiber river, may have been a substitute for an original offering of elderly men.

The ancient Chinese are known to have made drowned sacrifices of men and women to the river god Hebo.

The Romans also had traditions that centered around ritual murder, but which they did not consider to be sacrifice. Such practices included burying unchaste Vestal Virgins alive and drowning hermaphroditic children.

The Maya held the belief that cenotes or limestone sinkholes were portals to the underworld and sacrificed human beings and tossed them down the cenote to please the water god Chaac. 

The Canary Islands used to sacrifice during the summer solstice, in Tenerife children were sacrificed by being thrown from a cliff into the sea.^[109] These children were brought from various parts of the island for the purpose of sacrifice. Likewise, when an aboriginal king died his subjects should also assume the sea, along with the embalmers who embalmed the Guanche mummies.

The Celts thought that different gods reportedly required different kinds of sacrifices. Victims meant for Esus were hanged or tied to a tree and flogged to death, Tollund Man being an example, those meant for Taranis immolated and those for Teutates drowned. There are many articles online debating whether or not the bog bodies found in Celtic Europe were human sacrifices. 

[Mister Smikes]

7 minutes ago, Lilac & Gooseberries said:

They practice human sacrifice by drowning thralls and salt wives.

I can't find this reference.  Only a reference to slitting the throat of thralls and giving their bodies to the sea.

[The Commentator]

The author likes to put his people through religious purification. The IB take the initiate through a near death experience but it’s not sacrifice. It’s not the same thing for Euron. He sacrifices his victims.

[LynnS]

The Aztecs sacrificed by drowning, among other things.

Human sacrifice in Aztec culture - Wikipedia

[Kolx]

On 4/4/2021 at 9:13 PM, James Fenimore Cooper XXII said:

Was it the Incas who were tossing virgins into lakes?

NO. Incas sacrificed children from conquered tribes/kingdoms on volcanos and mountains.

[Mister Smikes]

Since it seems no-one can find the relevant quote, it looks like the premise of this thread is wrong and that the Ironborn do not, as far as we know, practice human sacrifice through drowning.  

[Tucu]

4 hours ago, Mister Smikes said:

Since it seems no-one can find the relevant quote, it looks like the premise of this thread is wrong and that the Ironborn do not, as far as we know, practice human sacrifice through drowning.  

Victarion sacrifices the captured girls to both the Drowned God and R'hllor:

Quote

A great cry went up at his words. The captain answered with a nod, grim-faced, then called for the seven girls he had claimed to be brought on deck, the loveliest of all those found aboard the Willing Maiden. He kissed them each upon the cheeks and told them of the honor that awaited them, though they did not understand his words. Then he had them put aboard the fishing ketch that they had captured, cut her loose, and had her set afire.

"With this gift of innocence and beauty, we honor both the gods," he proclaimed, as the warships of the Iron Fleet rowed past the burning ketch. "Let these girls be reborn in light, undefiled by mortal lust, or let them descend to the Drowned God's watery halls, to feast and dance and laugh until the seas dry up."

Near the end, before the smoking ketch was swallowed by the sea, the cries of the seven sweetlings changed to joyous song, it seemed to Victarion Greyjoy. A great wind came up then, a wind that filled their sails and swept them north and east and north again, toward Meereen and its pyramids of many-colored bricks. On wings of song I fly to you, Daenerys, the iron captain thought.

Theon gives Septon Chayle to the Drowned God by throwing him into a well:

Quote

As for Chayle, he had to give someone to the Drowned God, his men expected it. "I bear you no ill will," he'd told the septon before they threw him down the well, "but you and your gods have no place here now."