Aztec Dark Legacy Unearthed
We know that the human race often resorts to brutality. Either to show superiority to other members or for other grim purposes. Archeologists reconfirmed this knowledge with the discovery of a possible skull rack in an Aztec temple.
The skull rack seems to be the largest one of its kind, a dark legacy forged more than 500 years ago and the details reveal that rituals were performed most likely to please some fallen, twisted god.
The skull rack was discovered in the western region of the place previously known as the Templo Mayor complex in Tenochtitlan. It is believed to have been built somewhere in between 1485 and 1502 and could have been around 35 meters long and 15 meters wide.
The majority of the skulls belonged to young adult men, but some women and children were also involved in the rituals. The skulls had holes on both sides, which means they could have only belonged to the tzompantli. The tzompantli was a rack on which the sacrificed peoples’ skulls were placed in order to instill fear and awe in the hearts of those who beheld these horrors.
But the twisted minds of the Aztecs did not stop here. It seems as though the platform on which the rack stood was made of skulls, carefully placed together in a circle. The skulls face inward, gazing at the middle of the circle, yet scientists do not know what could be in there.
Raul Barrera, who works for Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, declared that only 35 skulls have been found so far. It is quite probable the more will be detected after further investigations.
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, another archeologist who is working for the same institution, also stated that the skulls might belong to the Huey Tzompantli, the Great Tzompantly of Tenochtilan. If that is true, then more skulls are on the way, since this “great” structure is expected to contain no more than 60 thousand skulls.
Moreover, Moctezuma believe that all these skulls can be enemies of the Aztecs who were “killed and beheaded in a show of might”. While this might have been almighty for the Aztec population of that time, it serves us a reminder of how far we have come and how the lack of empathy can turn humans into monsters.
Photo Credits wikimedia.org
