Latest news in Yorkshire: July 03, 2017 09:30:48 AM
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 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. The structure was mentioned in contemporary accounts.
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 would be, and the thing about the women and children is that you’d think they wouldn’t be going to war,” said Rodrigo Bolanos, a biological anthropologist investigating the find.
“Something is happening that we have no record of, and this is really new, a first in the Huey Tzompantli.”
Raul Barrera, one of the archaeologists working at the site alongside the huge Metropolitan Cathedral built over the Templo Mayor, said the skulls would have been set in the tower after they had stood on public display on the tzompantli.
Roughly six meters in diameter, the tower stood on the corner of the chapel of Huitzilopochtli, Aztec god of the sun, war and human sacrifice. Its base has yet to be unearthed.
There was no doubt that the tower was one of the skull edifices mentioned by Andres de Tapia, a Spanish soldier who accompanied Cortes in the 1521 conquest of Mexico, Barrera said.
In his account of the campaign, de Tapia said he counted tens of thousands of skulls at what became known as the Huey Tzompantli. Barrera said 676 skulls had been found, and that the number would rise as excavations went on.
The Aztecs and other Mesoamerican peoples performed ritualistic human sacrifices as offerings to the sun.
- Violent offender jailed for five years following Sheffield street robbery
- Discovery of key component of HIV virus
- Shining a light on dark nights
- Denaby Crossing
- Weapons seized from car in Doncaster
- Motorists urged to check vehicle doors are secure
- Register for priority services at Northern Powergrid
- Yorkshire Wildlife Park’s giraffe’s star in awareness campaign
- Wath-upon-Dearne Town Centre
- Raising awareness of mental health
- Readers Group at Wath-upon-Dearne
- Longley Park Open Day to be Held on Saturday
- Thurnscoe woman brought to heel over dog noise complaint
- Students experience life on the watch
- Barnsley Museums launch a claw-some new exhibition
- Second man charged in Rotherham incident
- Bolton-on-Dearne in South Yorkshire
- RAILWAY COLLISION NEAR WATH
- E-fit released in connection to distraction burglary
- Rotherham Show 2018 – something for everyone!
- Landlord pleads guilty to waste offence
- Hydrotherapy pool build underway
- Tutor makes a bald move
- Mexborough shops devastating arson attack
- Reported sexual assault and theft
- Wath Grammar School House of Sparta
- Special Olympics torch to run through Barnsley
- Have your say on report for Barnsley’s Pharmacy services
- Wath-upon-Dearne High Street – Coronation 1911
- Local Youth centres could be closed
- Man jailed for dumbbell assault
- College students run school sports day
- Unsung heroes honour at British Empire Medal presentation
- Bogus official calls in Rotherham
- wathupondearne Latest news in Yorkshire: October 16, 2018 02:01:05 PM
- Council to consult on budget proposals as pressures continue to grow
- Two more years in jail for Sheffield child abuser
- Officers appeal for witnesses to Wath-upon-Dearne assault
- Horse Racing In Rotherham
- Handbag theft in Rotherham