Bones Unearthed! by Kerrie Logan Hollihan

Author:Kerrie Logan Hollihan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2021-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

HUMAN OFFERINGS HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE . . .

Throughout this book, you have read about examples of bony burials discovered deep beneath the feet of modern people. King Richard III was entombed under a parking lot in England. Bones have been found in the basements of medical schools.

And in Mexico City, another bony burial came to light in 2015. What archaeologists found confirmed a five-hundred-year-old rumor. A sinister story of human sacrifice that had stuck around since Spain’s conquistadores invaded Mesoamerica.

The rumor grew from old narratives written by Spanish priests. They came with Spain’s armies to force Spain’s ways on a people who already ran an empire of their own. These people were the Aztecs.

Half a century after the Spanish destroyed the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán (ten-oke-teet-LAHN), a Spanish priest, Father Diego Durán, wrote a history of the Aztecs. His book, now known as The Durán Codex, came complete with color images. One depicted a gruesome sight: tzompantli (tsom-PANT-lee), racks of human skulls.

Were they real? Or did the Spanish make them up in order to justify their own slaughter of others?

About 1325 CE the Aztecs established Tenochtitlán on an island in what is modern-day Mexico City. They built the grandest empire in Mesoamerica—ancient Mexico and Central America. Only the Incas in South America rivaled the Aztecs with their power and glory.

The Aztecs, who called themselves Mexica (MAY-hee-kah), worshipped gods and goddesses and sought their blessings. Like real people, the deities required nourishment to stay alive. It came in the form of blood, human blood. In return, the gods, among them the sun and war god, Huitzilopochtli (WEET-zee-lo-POKED-lee), and the rain god, Tlaloc (TLA-lok), shined and rained blessings on the Aztec people.

It made sense to the Aztecs to offer blood sacrifices to their gods. Prisoners of war, criminals, and ordinary women and men all qualified.

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