![]() Large and small human sacrifices would be made throughout the year to coincide with important calendar dates, he explains, to dedicate temples, to reverse drought and famine, and more. “It was a deeply serious and important thing for them,” says Verano. Why did they carry out such brutal ceremonies? John Verano, an anthropology professor at Tulane University, explains the practice held spiritual significance for the Aztecs. While it's true that the Spanish undoubtedly inflated their figures-Spanish historian Fray Diego de Durán reported that 80,400 men, women and children were sacrificed for the inauguration of the Templo Mayor under a previous Aztec emperor-evidence is mounting that the gruesome scenes illustrated in Spanish texts, and preserved in temple murals and stone carvings, are true. But in 20, archeologists working at the Templo Mayor excavation site in Mexico City discovered proof of widespread human sacrifice among the Aztecs-none other than the very skull towers and skull racks that conquistadors had described in their accounts. Reading these accounts hundreds of years later, many historians dismissed the 16th-century reports as wildly exaggerated propaganda meant to justify the murder of Aztec emperor Moctezuma, the ruthless destruction of Tenochtitlán and the enslavement of its people. They then tossed the victims’ lifeless bodies down the steps of the towering Templo Mayor.Īndrés de Tapia, a conquistador, described two rounded towers flanking the Templo Mayor made entirely of human skulls, and between them, a towering wooden rack displaying thousands more skulls with bored holes on either side to allow the skulls to slide onto the wooden poles. Aztec priests, using razor-sharp obsidian blades, sliced open the chests of sacrificial victims and offered their still-beating hearts to the gods. When the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men arrived in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán in 1521, they described witnessing a grisly ceremony. ![]() An Atztec human sacrifice atop the Mesoamerican temple pyramid. Lintel 26, the third in the series, is in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, in Mexico City. Lintels 24 and 25, removed at Maudslay’s request at the end of the nineteenth century, are on permanent display in the British Museum’s Mexican Gallery. The lintel has traces of Maya blue, turquoise and red pigment. The text on the left of the panel contains the name and titles of Lady K’abal Xook. The last glyph represents the Emblem Glyph (that is, the city name in Maya hierolglyphs) of Yaxchilán. The first two glyphs in the text at the top of the lintel indicate the event and the date on which it took place, 24 October, AD 709 (5 Eb, 15 Mak in the Maya calendar). Blood let from her tongue falls on the bark paper lined bowl on the floor. Scrolls of blood can be seen around her mouth. The ruler holds a flaming torch over his wife, who is pulling a rope, probably studded with obsidian blades, through her tongue. The scene represents a bloodletting ritual performed by the ruler of Yaxchilán, Itzamnaaj Bahlam (or Shield Jaguar, 681-742), and his wife, Lady K’abal Xook. This limestone lintel, considered one of the masterpieces of Maya art, is one of a series of three panels from Structure 23 at Yaxchilán, where it was set above the left (south-east) doorway. Yaxchilan Lintel 24 at The British Museum Beeswax adhesive survives around the eye sockets. ![]() In the mouths the resin is coloured red with hematite. Two resins are used as adhesive: pine resin and Bursera resin (copal). The teeth in the two open mouths are made from conch shell (Strombus). Made of cedro wood (Cedrela odorata) and covered with mosaic made of turquoise and red thorny oyster shell (Spondylus princeps). Pectoral, in the form of a double-headed serpent. ![]() Aztec Turquoise Serpent Mosaic in the British Museum The display includes stunning objects, including highly-prized turquoise mosaic, dating from the Mixtec-Aztec culture of AD 1400–1521, and stone sculptures of Huastec female deities from AD 900-1450. Early Mexican civilization is explored in Room 27, along with the Classic Veracruz and Huastec cultures and the Maya city states of the first millennium AD. This is how the British Museum describes Room 27 – the Mexico Room:ĭistinctive regional cultures flourished in Mexico from prehistoric times, until its contact with Europe during the sixteenth century. For anyone interested in learning more about Mexico, its history and culture a visit to the British Museum is a good start – assuming a visit to Mexico’s own renowned museums is not on the cards.
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