Massive Human Skull Rack Found at Aztec Temple

Archeologist have found, at the Templo Mayor Aztec in Mexico City, a massive ceremonial skull rack from the Aztec’s Empire, which appears to be the decapitated heads of enemies and warriors.

The victims were likely killed by priests standing on the towering temples that once stood nearby, said researchers.

The skull racks were used as a “technology of terror” to subjugate competitors, and they grew with the spoils of empire, as described by Ruben G. Mendoza in 2007’s “The Divine Gourd Tree.”

Gillespie stated archaeologists have discovered different tzompantli, which she stated could be higher translated as “head rack” as an alternative of “cranium rack” as a result of the heads have been put up for show whereas nonetheless recent.

The victims were mostly young men, but archaeologists also spotted women and children.

But archaeologists at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said Thursday that this one was different.

According to Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, one of the INAH archaeologists involved in the ongoing excavation, the skulls would belong to the Huey Tzompantli, the Great Tzompantli of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) which is estimated to have contained approximately 60,000 skulls.

A huge number of skulls were cemented together into a kind of frieze with lime, sand, and volcanic gravel, according to the archeologists.

Archaeologist Raul Barrera said that “there are 35 skulls that we can see, but there are many more” in underlying layers.

Dug up behind the capital’s colonial-era cathedral, the as yet partially uncovered skull rack was likely built between 1485 and 1502 and may have been about 112 feet (34 meters) long and 12 meters (40 foot) wide.

The skulls have all been arranged to look inwards toward the centre of the circle, but scientists do not know what was positioned at the centre.

Because the house under which the platform and tzompantli were found was historically significant itself, archaeologists had to work in narrow wells six beneath floor level, suspended on a platform on their stomachs.

Periodic excavations carried out since 1914 suggested a ceremonial site was located near the site. Barrera stated the situation match very nicely with the primary Spanish descriptions of the temple complicated.