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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on August 21, 2015, 02:15:07 pm

Title: Massive Aztec human skull rack found in Mexico City
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 21, 2015, 02:15:07 pm

Massive Aztec human skull rack found in Mexico City
Reuters  12 hours ago


(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/lcTlNH78_kRYnviFenzSOw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTI5NTtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz00NTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2015-08-21T004819Z_2_LYNXNPEB7K01B_RTROPTP_2_MEXICO-ARCHAEOLOGY.JPG)
Raul Barrera, an archaeologist from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), speaks to the media as a picture of a skull that was discovered at the ruins of the Templo Mayor Aztec complex is seen above him, during a news conference at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City August 20, 2015. REUTERS/Henry Romero



MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists have discovered a massive ceremonial skull rack from the heyday of the Aztec empire in the heart of Mexico City, a find that could shed new light on how its rulers projected power by human sacrifice, the team said on Thursday.

The skull rack, known as a tzompantli in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, was used to display the bleached white craniums of sacrificed warriors from rival kingdoms, likely killed by priests atop towering temples that once stood nearby.


(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/ibrAvrxqgcfWECiAoyjtrw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTI4NDtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz00NTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2015-08-21T004819Z_2_LYNXNPEB7K01D_RTROPTP_2_MEXICO-ARCHAEOLOGY.JPG)
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, an archaeologist from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) points to a drawing of the Templo Mayor Aztec complex, during a news conference at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City August 20, 2015. REUTERS/Henry Romero


Dug up behind the capital's colonial-era cathedral, the as yet partially uncovered skull rack was likely built between 1485 and 1502 and may have been about 112 feet (34 meters) long and 12 meters (40 foot) wide, lead archeologist Raul Barrera said.

Hundreds of skulls would have been arranged neatly on the wooden poles of the racks, which served to inspire fear and awe.

"The tzompantli had a very specific symbolism," Barrera told reporters. "With more study, we expect to learn that many of these skulls belong to (Aztec) enemies, who were captured, sacrificed and decapitated in order to be displayed there."



(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/nUe9.t4nFCihxCed188GEw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQ1MDtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz0zNTI-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2015-08-21T004819Z_2_LYNXNPEB7K01C_RTROPTP_2_MEXICO-ARCHAEOLOGY.JPG)
Raul Barrera, an archaeologist from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), speaks to the media as a picture of a skull that was discovered at the ruins of the Templo Mayor Aztec complex is seen above him, during a news conference at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City August 20, 2015. REUTERS/Henry Romero


The warlike and deeply religious Aztecs ruled a sprawling empire that at its height stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean before the Spanish conquest of 1519-1521.

(Reporting by Carlos Carrillo; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Bernard Orr)


http://news.yahoo.com/massive-aztec-human-skull-rack-found-mexico-city-003946320.html (http://news.yahoo.com/massive-aztec-human-skull-rack-found-mexico-city-003946320.html)

Title: Mexico finds main skull rack at Aztec temple complex
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 21, 2015, 03:03:54 pm

Mexico finds main skull rack at Aztec temple complex
Associated Press
By MARK STEVENSON  14 hours ago


(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/.ZIuM2c5uk4K5skNxpW_Mw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE0Mzg7aWw9cGxhbmU7cHlvZmY9MDtxPTc1O3c9OTYw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/279768365b1daf257f0f6a7067000cf2.jpg)
In this May 30, 2015 photo released by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), skulls are partially unearthed at the Templo Mayor Aztec ruin site in Mexico City. INAH archeologists believe they have found the site's main trophy rack of sacrificed human skulls, known as "tzompantli," where Aztecs displayed the severed heads of sacrificial victims on wooden poles pushed through the sides of the skull, but that this one is different. Part of the platform where the heads are displayed is made of rows of skulls mortared together roughly in a circle, but experts don't know what was at the center of the circle. (Hector Montano/INAH via AP)



MEXICO CITY (AP) — Archaeologists have found the main trophy rack of sacrificed human skulls at Mexico City's Templo Mayor Aztec ruin site, scientists said Thursday.

Racks known as "tzompantli" were where the Aztecs displayed the severed heads of sacrifice victims on wooden poles pushed through the sides of the skull. The poles were suspended horizontally on vertical posts.

Eduardo Matos, an archaeologist at the National Institute of Anthropology and History, suggested the skull rack in Mexico City "was a show of might" by the Aztecs. Friends and even enemies were invited into the city, precisely to be cowed by the grisly display of heads in various stages of decomposition.

Paintings and written descriptions from the early colonial period showed descriptions of such racks. But institute archaeologists said the newest discovery was different.

Part of the platform where the heads were displayed was made of rows of skulls mortared together roughly in a circle, around a seemingly empty space in the middle. All the skulls were arranged to look inward toward the center of the circle, but experts don't know what was at the center.

Archaeologist Raul Barrera said that "there are 35 skulls that we can see, but there are many more" in underlying layers. "As we continue to dig the number is going to rise a lot."

Barrera noted that one Spanish writer soon after the conquest described mortared-together skulls, but none had been found before.

University of Florida archaeologist Susan Gillespie, who was not involved in the project, wrote that "I do not personally know of other instances of literal skulls becoming architectural material to be mortared together to make a structure."

The find was made between February and June on the western side of what was once the Templo Mayor complex.

The platform was partly excavated under the floor of a three-story colonial era house. Because the house was historically valuable, archaeologists often worked in narrow excavation wells six feet (two meters) under the floor level suspended on their stomachs on a wooden platform.

Periodic excavations carried out since 1914 suggested a ceremonial site was located near the site. Barrera said the location fit very well with the first Spanish descriptions of the temple complex.

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.

But experts had long been searching for the main one.

"They've been looking for the big one for some time, and this one does seem much bigger than the already excavated one," Gillespie wrote. "This find both confirms long-held suspicions about the sacrificial landscape of the ceremonial precinct, that there must have been a much bigger tzompantli to curate the many heads of sacrificial victims" as a kind of public record or accounting of sacrifices.


http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-finds-main-skull-rack-aztec-temple-complex-202602696.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-finds-main-skull-rack-aztec-temple-complex-202602696.html)

Title: Re: Massive Aztec human skull rack found in Mexico City
Post by: Unorthodox on August 22, 2015, 08:20:18 am

Whoa. 


So, I'm confused, where is the rack?  On the side of this circle of skull stairs/floor/wtf or in the center? 

Title: Re: Massive Aztec human skull rack found in Mexico City
Post by: Unorthodox on August 22, 2015, 08:38:36 am

Quote

According to Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, one of the INAH archaeologists involved in the ongoing excavation, the skulls would belong to the Huey Tzompantli, the Great Tzompantli of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) which is estimated to have contained approximately 60,000 skulls.

“We believe we have found the Huey Tzompantli. Many of these skulls could be enemies of the Aztecs who were captured, killed and beheaded in a show of might,” Matos Moctezuma said in a statement.

60000?!?!?!?!  Of which, they've found 35 to date. 

It would take something in the neighborhood of 18000 square feet to display that (just average width/height, not calculating depth).  They've just scratched the surface.

I'm also curious with the mandibles clearly visible.  How the hell did they keep them on?