Grisly ‘tower of skulls’ in Mexico reveals full horror of Aztec human sacrifice rituals

The Aztecs marched young, healthy victims to a temple where their hearts were cut out and skulls removed, in gruesome religious ceremonies.

New analysis of a ‘tower of skulls’ found beneath the streets of modern Mexico City suggests that the most gruesome accounts from conquistadors were actually true.

The Templo Mayor site saw priests remove the beating hearts of captives, then ‘deflesh’ the heads before carving holes into their sides and placing them in the ‘tzompantli’, a rack of skulls.

Archaeologists have found more than 650 skulls caked in lime in the temple to the god of war, sun and human sacrifice in the city, once the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

Founded in 1325, the city became the capital of the Aztec Empire in the 15th century, before it was captured by the Spanish in 1521.

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Cut marks show that they were decapitated in a ‘clean and uniform’ way, and that men, women and children in ‘relatively good health’ were sacrificed.

Further DNA analysis of the skulls should help researchers further understand the rituals, which took place until conquistadors arrived in 1519.

John Verano of Tulane University, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News, ‘For a long time, many historians and anthropologists questioned whether the descriptions by Spanish eyewitnesses exaggerated the number of skulls on the skull rack, as well as the number of victims sacrificed by the Aztecs for the dedication of the Templo Mayor.

‘This discovery now makes these early accounts much more believable.’