When they first came in contact with the Aztecs during the 16th century , Spanish conquistadors were juggle by the civilization ’s riches but terrify by its brutality . Located in what is today Mexico City , the capital letter city of Tenochtitlán was overabundant with warfare and bloodshed , which rulers celebrate by building temples to deities like Huitzilopochtli , the Aztec god of the Sun , state of war , and human ritual killing . harmonise to Spanish accounts , near Tenochtitlán ’s Templo Mayor ( " main synagogue " ) was a towering array of human skull . Now , Reuters reportsthat archaeologist have discovered a 20 - ft edifice made from bone — including those from cleaning lady and children — that was probable once part of the legendary structure .
archeologist discovered the tugboat ’s remains on the edge of Templo Mayor . Known as the Huey Tzompantli ( " skull rack " in Nahuatl , the Aztec language ) , the bone tower reportedly once contained ten-spot of M of skulls . So far , scientists have discovered more than 650 limestone - encrusted skulls and thousands of bone fragment , and they expect to unearth even more . They were surprised , however , to find that the tug was n’t simply constructed from kill soldiers ' remains : clappers from women and children were also present . While there ’s grounds that women and childrenwere also sacrificed , their front in this linguistic context was unexpected .
" We were wait just military man , obviously young men , as warriors would be , and the affair about the woman and children is that you ’d think they would n’t be going to warfare , " Rodrigo Bolanos , a biologic anthropologist associate with the project , told Reuters . " Something is happening that we have no record book of , and this is really new , a first in the Huey Tzompantli . "
The heads were belike publically display before being set in the tabernacle ’s tower . There , they serve as an minacious reminder of the Aztec ’s might — that is , until Hernán Cortés and his soldierscaptured and destroyedTenochtitlán in 1521 .
[ h / tReuters ]
