Posted on 08/21/2015 5:53:52 PM PDT by markomalley
Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History announced that archaeologists have found the macabre remains of human sacrifice left behind by Mexico's Aztec ancestors.
Known as a tzompantli, the archaeologists found a structure that consists of a rack of the skulls of human sacrificial victims that was once part of a temple complex in Tenochtitlan - the capital of the Aztecs that is now Mexico City.
he tzompantli was found on Calle Guatemala, a street that runs at the eastern end of the Metropolitan Cathedral in the modern city's central square.
According to El Universal - a Mexican daily - researchers found the human remains during excavations in February and March of this year. Archaeologist Raul Barrera Rodriguez is the INAE director of urban archeology and is in charge of the work at the site. He said of the find, "Very few tzompantlis have been found, which the historical records of the 16th century and archaeology known as very low, long structures on the tops of which are attached a series of wooden posts through are cross-bars that form niches for the skulls of the victims. The researchers believe that this tzompantli dates to at least 1485, some thirty years before the arrival of the Spanish.
Tzompantlis played a key role in the culture of the Aztecs and their ceremonial civic centers, along with two different ballgames and decapitations. These three elements appear to be closely associated in the archaeological records. One of the ballgames played by the Aztecs was inherited from their Maya neighbors from the south. In the game, players had to put a solid rubber ball through a stone ring without using their hands. The losers were frequently sacrificed to the Aztec gods, such as Tenoch: the namesake of the Aztec capital.
Published posthumously in 1562 in his classic account, “The True History of the Conquest of New Spain,” Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote of the Aztec practice of human sacrifice "We looked over toward the Great Pyramids and watched as [the Aztecs] ... dragged [our comrades] up the steps and prepared to sacrifice them…After they danced, they placed our comrades face up atop square, narrow stones erected for the sacrifices. Then, with obsidian knives, they sawed their breasts open, pulled out their still-beating hearts, and offered these to their idols."
While critics have questioned how Díaz del Castillo could have possibly seen the human sacrifice he describes four miles from the vantage point he had at the time in 1519, the presence of the grisly tzompantlis where Aztecs displayed their victims bears silent testimony to their brutal methods.
Real peaceful bunch....
Still around, they’re called ISIS now.
“Planificación Familiar”
Tlacaelel I (1397[1] – 1487) was the principal architect of the Aztec Triple Alliance and hence the Mexica (Aztec) empire.[2][3] He was the son of Emperor Huitzilihuitl and Queen Cacamacihuatl, nephew of Emperor Itzcoatl, and brother of Emperors Chimalpopoca and Moctezuma I.
During the reign of his uncle Itzcoatl, Tlacaelel was given the office of Tlacochcalcatl, but during the war against the Tepanecs in the late 1420s, he was promoted to first adviser to the ruler, a position called Cihuacoatl in Nahuatl, an office that Tlacaelel held during the reigns of four consecutive Tlatoque, until his death in 1487.
Tlacaelel recast or strengthened the concept of the Aztecs as a chosen people, elevated the tribal god/hero Huitzilopochtli to top of the pantheon of gods,[4] and increased militarism.[5] In tandem with this, Tlacaelel is said to have increased the level and prevalence of human sacrifice, particularly during a period of natural disasters that started in 1446 (according to Durán). Durán also states that it was during the reign of Moctezuma I, as an invention of Tlacaelel that the flower wars, in which the Aztecs fought Tlaxcala and other Nahuan city-states, were instigated.
To strengthen the Aztec nobility, he helped create and enforce sumptuary laws, prohibiting commoners from wearing certain adornments such as lip plugs, gold armbands, and cotton cloaks. He also instigated a policy of burning the books of conquered peoples with the aim of erasing all memories of a pre-Aztec past.[6][7]
When he dedicated the seventh reconstruction of the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan, Tlacaelel had brought his nation to the height of its power. The dedication took place in 1484 and was celebrated with the sacrifice of many war captives. After Tlacaelel's death in 1487, the Mexica Empire continued to expand north into the Gran Chichimeca and south toward the Maya lands.
Celebrate diversity.
Columbus’s fault.
Quetzalcoatl bump
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