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MEXICO CITY – New questions arise as 650 skulls found in Aztec Empire after hundreds of embedded crania of women and children surfaced.
Lorena Vazquez, an archaeologist from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), recently found more than 650 skulls and fragments in the cylindrical edifice near Templo Mayor. This was one of the main temples in the Aztec capital Tenochitlan that later became Mexico City in Mexico.
Photo by: Henry Romero/Reuters
These Skull Struck Fear into the Spanish Conquistadores
Historians relate how the severed head of captured warriors adorned tzompantli, or skull racks, found in a number of Mesoamerican cultures before the Spanish Conquest. This tower is believed to form part of the Huey Tzompantli, a massive array of skulls.This structure has been mentioned in contemporary accounts as well.
Photo by: Henry Romero/Reuters
According to the archaeological dig and Rodrigo Bolanos, a biological anthropologist investigating the find, they figured they would only find skulls and bones of young men, as warriors would be, but they were wrong. They found several women and children’s skulls and fragments as well which would point to them going to war to and we find that very unusual.
The Aztecs and other Mesoamerican peoples performed ritualistic human sacrifices as offerings to the sun.
The tower stood, roughly six meters in diameter, on the corner of the chapel of Huitzilopochtli, Aztec god of the sun, war and human sacrifice and the base has yet to be unearthed. de Tapia said he counted tens of thousands of skulls at what became known as the Huey Tzompantli. 676 skulls had been found so far Barrera said, and the number would rise as excavations went on.
Photo by: Henry Romero/Reuters
