(Photo = Yonhap News)-In Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, an additional’skeleton tower’ made up of human skulls during the period of the Asteca civilization centuries ago was unearthed.
The Ministry of Culture of Mexico and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced on the 12th (local time) that a tower made up of 119 skulls, including women and children, has been unearthed in downtown Mexico City.
It is part of a skeleton tower with a diameter of 4.7 m, which was first discovered five years ago, and a total of 603 remains have been identified, including the new one.
It is believed to be the remains of the Asteca Empire between 1486 and 1502, and was found near the main temple of Tenochtitlan, the former Asteca capital, in the center of Mexico City.
This bizarre tower, called’Chomphantley’, is believed to have been built as a sacrifice to a god with the intent to warn enemies by displaying the skulls of prisoners of war.
Among the skeletons were the skulls of women and children as well as young men who are supposed to be warriors.
Archaeologist Raul Barrera Rodriguez said, “It is not known how many of the skulls belong to the warriors, but some of them may have been used in rituals of sacrifice.”
In the Asteca civilization, there existed the custom of offering human beings as sacrifices to the sun god.
INAH also described Chomphantli as “a building of life, not death,” in that the meso-American donation was made for the continuation of life and the universe.
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