A tower of human skulls unearthed beneath the heart of Mexico City has raised new questions about the culture of sacrifice in the Aztec Empire after crania of women and children surfaced among the hundreds embedded in the forbidding structure.
Archaeologists have found more than 650 skulls caked in lime and thousands of fragments in the cylindrical edifice near the site of the Templo Mayor, one of the main temples in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which later became Mexico City.
The discovery of hundreds of human skulls in Mexico tells us a great deal about the Aztecs attitudes towards their enemies and women pic.twitter.com/vLlq23X9an
— The Times of London (@thetimes) July 3, 2017
The tower is believed to form part of the Huey Tzompantli, a massive array of skulls that struck fear into the Spanish conquistadores when they captured the city under Hernan Cortes, and mentioned the structure in contemporary accounts.
A good reminder on the brutality of human history. The liberal fantasy is importing ethnic conflict will usher in harmony & universal love. https://t.co/WioM7I4tpK
— Kevin MacDonald (@TOOEdit) July 3, 2017
Historians relate how the severed heads of captured warriors adorned tzompantli, or skull racks, found in a number of Mesoamerican cultures before the Spanish conquest.
But the archaeological dig in the bowels of old Mexico City that began in 2015 suggests that picture was not complete.
“We were expecting just men, obviously young men, as warriors…