According to officials, the platform known as tzompantli in the Nahualt language of the Aztecs will hopefully shed a new light on how Aztecs rulers projected power by human sacrifice.
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Archaeologist Raul Barrera of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) was of the view that till now, they have found 35 skulls and there are many present inside.
So far the scientists at the dig have unearthed 35 skulls and some of these were mortared together in a rough circle, with the faces turned inwards to the empty space in the centre. All the skulls were arranged to look inward toward the center of the circle, but experts don’t know what was at the center.
Gillespie said archaeologists have found other tzompantli, which she said might be better translated as “head rack” instead of “skull rack” because the heads were put up for display while still fresh.
The Spaniards also wrote about, probably with shaking fingers, the Aztec’s gruesome skull racks. This is in modern Mexico City where the Museo del Templo Mayor now resides.
Periodic excavations carried out since 1914 steered a ceremonial website was situated close to the location. According to historical evidence, the Aztecs were in the habit of specially inviting friends and enemies to see the head racks, or tzompantli.
Members of the archaeological team working on wooden platforms in an excavation well. Their most recent find is a skull rack built between 1485 and 1502, coming in at a cool 40-feet (12-meters) by 112-feet (34-meters), packed full of human skulls.
Mostly belonging to young adult men, but also to women and children, several of the unearthed skulls feature holes on both sides, suggesting they belonged to a tzompantli. The priest will pull out the sacrifice’s still-beating heart, placing it in a bowl held by a statue of the god to be honored. The victim’s body would be thrown down a flight of steps descending the side of the pyramid on which the temple stood. During the reconsecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs boasted that they had slaughtered 80,400 prisoners over the course of four days, although this is believed to be an exaggeration.
“But it is very likely that this one is the main Tzompantli of Tenochtitlan (the Aztec capital located in what is now Mexico City)”.
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Featured image: Newly discovered skulls at the Templo Mayor complex in Mexico.
