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Archaeologists associated with Mexico’s National Institute of Archaeology and History (INAH) made a strange discovery earlier this month at the Templo Mayor, the temple complex at the center of Mexico City, formerly ancient capital of Tenochtitlan. The INAH archaeologists uncovered a ritual offering of starfish, about 160 in total, enveloping the skeleton of a jaguar, according to a recent video released by the institute. Like the majority of the offerings found at the Templo Mayor, the starfish were dedicated to the two-sided god Huehueteotl-Xiuhtecuhtli, who represents both water and fire, agriculture and war. The starfish were first discovered in 2019...

California has settled litigation against its inclusion of prayers to Aztec and Yoruba gods that were approved in the state's ethnic studies "model curriculum" this spring. The lawsuit alleged that children were expected to participate in these prayers or "face the social implications of declining to participate," a violation of their free exercise. The plaintiffs claim the California Constitution is stricter than the U.S. Constitution on separation of church and state. The settlement requires California to remove the “In Lak Ech Affirmation” and “Ashe Affirmation” from the online ESMC and notify "all school districts, charter schools and county offices of...

Over a year into the completion of San Diego State University’s racial healing garden, few students, scholars and staff appear to be spending time within its circumference. The $250,000 Native and Indigenous Healing Garden at the public university was built amid tensions regarding the Aztec warrior mascot, accused of racism, cultural appropriation and toxic masculinity. The healing garden is meant to honor Native Americans and the Aztec culture “at a time when we need to ‘heal’ over the issue of indigenous identities,” according to a 2018 Aztec Identity Task Force report. The garden was completed in March 2020. A grand...

The suit claims the state’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum and its in-classroom activities constitute state-sanctioned prayer, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution.A group of California taxpayers and school parents is asking the Superior Court of California for a restraining order to block the state’s public schools from using prayers to Aztec and Yoruba gods as a classroom activity. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7 before Superior Court Judge Eddie C. Sturgeon in San Diego. Californians for Equal Rights Foundation and school parents Eric Gonzales, Steve Houbeck and Jose Velazquez sued the...

One deity, Tezcatlipoca, was honored with human sacrificesA group of parents is asking California’s public school system to ban teachers from asking students to recite chants to Aztec gods, including one worshiped with human sacrifices. The parents also contend that the ethnic studies program that the state adopted earlier this year violates the U.S. Constitution. In Aztec tradition, an impersonator of Tezcatlipoca would be sacrificed with his heart removed to honor the deity. The model curriculum was described this week as “blatantly unconstitutional” by the Thomas More Society, which is representing the parents in the legal action against the state...

Parents of students in the California public school system have filed a lawsuit against the state's Department of Education in an attempt to remove a chant to Aztec gods that's part of a new ethnic studies curriculum. The lawsuit was filed Friday by the conservative legal firm Thomas More Society on behalf of the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, individual taxpayers and parents of current and former students after their Aug. 26 letter to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction demanding withdraw of the Aztec prayer from the curriculum went unanswered. The lawsuit says the “Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum” has...

Was the 1521 surrender of the great Indigenous empire to the Spanish crown a triumphant conquest, an existential tragedy—or even a genocide? The remains of a massive cypress tree sits inside a small plaza in Mexico City, surrounded by fencing and illuminated by four spotlights at night. An old sign explains its significance: “This is the tree where Hernán Cortés wept after being defeated by the Aztec defenders.” We Mexicans call it El Árbol de la Noche Triste, or The Tree of the Sad Night, and learn about it since grade school from government-issued history textbooks. The story goes something...

Human poop can reveal more than you might think, even when it's really, really old. In a new study of a Central American Maya civilization, samples of ancient feces have shown how the size of this community varied significantly in response to contemporary climate change. Researchers identified four distinct periods of population size shift as a reaction to particularly dry or particularly wet periods, which haven't all been documented before: 1350-950 BCE, 400-210 BCE, 90-280 CE, and 730-900 CE. In addition, the flattened poop piles show that the city of Itzan – which in the modern day would be in...

17 November, 2020 - 19:43 lizleafloorAztec Death Whistles Sound like Human Screams and May Have Been Used as Psychological WarfareRead Later PrintWhen odd, skull-shaped grave items were found by archaeologists decades ago at an Aztec temple in Mexico, they were assumed to be mere toys or ornaments, and were catalogued and stored in warehouses. However, years later, experts discovered they were creepy ‘death whistles’ that made piercing noises resembling a human scream, which the ancient Aztecs may have used during ceremonies, sacrifices, or during battles to strike fear into their enemies. The Aztec Death Whistles were Not Common Instruments Two...

...he Aztecs, as is well known, practiced human sacrifice. They placed their victims on a sort of altar atop a temple, sliced open their chests, and extracted their still-beating hearts. Hard cheese on the slicees, of course, but at least they died in the knowledge that their sacrifice was in a good cause. For the Aztec priests did not perform this grisly ritual wantonly. They did it in order to appease the sun god Huitzilopochtli who was constantly at war with darkness. If they omitted the ritual, the darkness would extinguish the sun. How did they know? Simple. They performed...

In modern minds, the term “human sacrifice” conjures up macabre satanic rituals performed by bloodthirsty barbarians. In the ancient Americas, however, cultures now considered to be highly influential and civilized saw human sacrifice as a necessary part of everyday life. Whether it was to appease the gods or ensure success in battle and agriculture, for the following peoples, the lines between sacrifice and simple survival were often blurred. The Mayans are mostly known for their contributions to astronomy, calendar-making, and mathematics, or for the impressive amount of architecture and artwork that they left behind. They are also believed to be...

The New York Times officially announced its new 1619 Project to “to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.” Constantly now, Americans are called upon to reflect on European villains and indigenous victims. However, the story of European civilization reaching the North American continent did not begin with the first arrival of slave ships at Jamestown in 1619.Let’s take a brief recess from the 1619 Project to explore another project....

Spain's government has refused a demand from Mexico's new president that it apologise for conquering the country five hundred years ago. Firing the first shots in what threatens to become a diplomatic row, the Left-wing Mexican leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Monday that he had sent letters to Spain’s King Felipe VI and Pope Francis urging them to apologize for crimes committed against the indigenous peoples of what is today Mexico. “There were massacres and oppression. The so-called conquest was waged with the sword and the cross. They built their churches on top of the temples,” Mr López...

In the 1990s, archeologists in Mexico City unearthed a 500-year-old skeleton near an ancient Aztec temple—a victim of human sacrifice. A grisly discovery, yes, but perhaps even more chilling was what the beheaded skeleton was holding: two small whistles, one in the shape of a skull. When a researcher blew into one of the tiny instruments, the horrifying sounds that emerged immediately captivated imaginations. One scholar described the noise as “a shriek of death.” The dreadful, high-pitched sound of the whistle is perhaps most comparable to a human scream. “There are different air streams generated within the structure of these...

Aztec human sacrifices were far more widespread and grisly that previously thought, archaeologists have revealed. In 2015 archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found a gruesome 'trophy rack' near the site of the Templo Mayor, one of the main temples in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which later became Mexico City. Now, they say the find was just the tip of the iceberg, and that the 'skull tower' was just a small part of a massive display of skulls known as Huey Tzompantli that was the size of a basketball court.

Full Title: The full horror of the Aztec 'skull tower' revealed: Archaeologists say THOUSANDS of human sacrifices had their still-beating hearts cut out before their heads were severed and added to a monument the size of a basketball court Aztec human sacrifices were far more widespread and grisly that previously thought, archaeologists have revealed. In 2015 archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found a gruesome 'trophy rack' near the site of the Templo Mayor, one of the main temples in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which later became Mexico City. Now, they say the find was just...

The full horror of the Aztec 'skull tower' revealed: Archaeologists say THOUSANDS of human sacrifices had their still-beating hearts cut out before their heads were severed and added to a monument the size of a basketball court Archaeologists previously found 650 skulls in Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which became Mexico City New research shows find was just a small part of massive array of what was once thousands of skulls New details of the gory rituals have also been revealed, which include turning skulls into masks Aztec human sacrifices were far more widespread and grisly that previously thought, archaeologists have revealed....

Aztec human sacrifices were far more widespread and grisly that previously thought, archaeologists have revealed. In 2015 archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found a gruesome 'trophy rack' near the site of the Templo Mayor, one of the main temples in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which later became Mexico City. Now, they say the find was just the tip of the iceberg, and that the 'skull tower' was just a small part of a massive display of skulls known as Huey Tzompantli that was the size of a basketball court.

New research published today in the journal Science Advances overturns more than a century of thought about the source of turquoise used by ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica, the vast region that extends from Central Mexico to Central America. For more than 150 years, scholars have argued that the Aztec and Mixtec civilizations, which revered the precious, blue-green mineral, acquired it through import from the American Southwest. However, extensive geochemical analyses reveal that the true geologic source of Aztec and Mixtec turquoise lies within Mesoamerica. Geochemist Alyson Thibodeau, assistant professor of earth sciences at Dickinson College, and a team of researchers...

Forget small nomadic tribes and pristine jungle: the southern Amazon was likely covered in a network of large villages and ceremonial centers before Columbus. Geoglyphs in the southern Amazon are evidence of a once-thriving population. Photograph courtesy of University of Exeter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Before Spanish invaders conquered South America, sparse groups of nomadic people clustered around the Amazon River, leaving the surrounding rain forest pristine and untouched. Or did they? New research suggests a very different story—an Amazonian region peppered with rain forest villages, ceremonial earthworks, and a much larger population than previously thought. The research, funded in part by the...