Discovery of hundreds of human sacrifice skulls uncovers secrets of ancient Aztec city

Archaeologists hope to learn more about where the slaughtered captives came from

Tom Embury-Dennis
@tomemburyd
5 hours ago

Hundreds of skulls discovered buried beneath the streets of Mexico City are revealing chilling details about Aztec human sacrifices.

In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors wrote of an enormous rack of skulls – called the tzompantli – in the ancient city of Tenochtitlan. Despite the written record, modern historians continued to doubt its existence.

But since 2015, archaeologists have been excavating remains of the tzompantli, and a small tower made of skulls next to it, beneath a colonial-era house north of Mexico City’s cathedral, Science reports.

The priests then laid the body face up and, using blades sharper than modern-day surgical steel, decapitated the body with a cut between two vertebrae in the neck.

More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/aztec-skulls-human-sacrifices-mexico-city-mexicas-tzompantli-tenochtitlan-a8421511.html