saucy archaeological discovery have revealed an especially bloody story from theSpanish colonization of Mexico .
Among the ruins of Tecoaque , an Aztec - ally town , archeologist discovered the corpse of women and children who appear to have been slaughtered and mutilate by Spanish colonialists . However , they suspect that this was n’t just a random act of force but a gesture of revenge in response to a catastrophe that occurred several month earlier .
In 1520 , the town of Tecoaquesacrificed and cannibalizedaround 450 multitude , including Spanish man , women , and youngster , and dozens of groundwork soldiers from a mix of indigenous cultures . Their flesh was eaten and many of their castanets were carved into trophy . When Hernán Cortés , one of the leading Spanish Conquistadors , heard about this trouncing , he order Gonzalo de Sandoval to try a trigger-happy reprisal in former 1521 .
This story was recently pieced together by Mexico’sNational Institute of Anthropology and History(INHA ) using new archeological grounds and historical accounts , such as True account of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Third Letter of Relationship by Hernán Cortés . The late excavations at Tecoaque — which mean “ the place where they ate them ” in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs — has revealed over 25,000 artifacts and the investigations are ongoing .
It appears that the population of the town sharp increased after they had enamour the sacrifices , most likely as people from the border area had deluge in to take part in the sacrificial ceremonies . The excavations also show that Tecoaque set out to beef up itself around this sentence by building walls around the Ithiel Town .
Enrique Martínez Vargas , an archeologist from the INHA , read this suggest the indweller of Tecoaque know a counter - attack was on the apparent horizon . alas for them , their defensive measure were no friction match for de Sandoval ’s force .
“ Some warriors who were stay in the town handle to flee , but women and children stay , who were the main dupe , ” Vargas explicate in apress release .
“ A 120 - meter stretch of the route verifies this , with the find of a 12 skeleton of distaff soul who seem to have been ' protecting ' the remains of ten infant between five and six years of years , ” he bestow . “The woman and fry who were keep safe in their rooms , were in turn mutilated , as evidenced by the recovery of severed bones on the level of the rooms . The temple were also burn and the carving of idol , decapitate ; This is how this site was destroyed , which represented a immunity for Cortés , ” Vargas proceed .
Later that year , in August 1521 , the leader of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán had been captured and Aztec Empire was squelch . Mexico had fallen to Cortés and became part of the Spanish Empire .
