Skulls reveal human sacrifice secrets of Aztec city of Tenochtitlan
A vast array of skulls buried beneath the streets of modern Mexico City are revealing the grisly details of Aztec human sacrifice.
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More than 650 skulls and thousands of fragments were found near Templo Mayor, one of the main temples in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which later became Mexico City [Credit: Getty Images] |
The bodies were then decapitated and priests removed the skin and muscle from the corpses’ heads. Large holes were then carved into the sides of the skulls and placed onto a large wooden pole prior to being placed in the tzompantli, a huge rack of skulls in the front of the temple. Two towers of mortared skulls flanked the rack. Paintings and written descriptions from the early colonial period document the macabre scene.
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Aztec Manuscript The Codex Tovar, 1587 [Credit: WikiCommons] |
Experts are now analyzing the discovery in detail. Science reports that, given the scale of the racks and the skull towers, archaeologists now estimate that several thousand skulls were likely displayed at a time.
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Skulls, which were found during an excavation work, are seen in National Institute of Anthropology and History's laboratory in Mexico City, Mexico [Credit: Daniel Cardenas/Getty Images] |
Three-quarters of the skulls analyzed belonged to men, mostly aged between 20 and 35. Some 20 percent belonged to women and the remaining 5 percent were children. The victims are said to have been in “relatively good health” before they were sacrificed.
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The discovery has raised new questions about the culture of sacrifice in the Aztec Empire [Credit: Daniel Cardenas/Getty Images] |
Isotopic and DNA samples have also been taken from the tzompantli skulls, which could provide yet more insight into the practice of human sacrifice.
Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Mexica people, who became rulers of the Aztec empire. Spanish conquistadors were appalled by the tzompantli when they entered Tenochtitlan in 1519. Two years later, they destroyed the city and paved over its ruins, leaving the Aztec sacrificial remains below the streets of what became Mexico City.
John Verano, a professor of anthropology at Tulane University, who is not involved in the tzompantli project but is an expert on ancient Central American cultures, told Fox News that the Templo Mayor is of immense importance to archaeologists. “For a long time, many historians and anthropologists questioned whether the descriptions by Spanish eyewitnesses exaggerated the number of skulls on the skull rack, as well as the number of victims sacrificed by the Aztecs for the dedication of the Templo Mayor,” he explained, via email. “This discovery now makes these early accounts much more believable.”
Author: James Rogers | Source: Fox News [June 28, 2018]
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