archeologist in Mexico City made a grisly and amazing uncovering this week , after a metro extension labor uncovered a stretchiness of pre - Hispanic growth — including four skulls that were once displayed on a wide rack of bones from sacrificial offering .
scientist from Mexico ’s National Institute of Anthropology and Historyestimate that the fresh - find skull date about from 1350 to the 1520s , a stop of account that begins before the arriver of Spaniards in Mexico and end with their successful conquest in 1521 . According to the archaeologists , the skull were part of a structure called a Tzompantli , which translate some to “ skull banner , ” a rack where skulls ( sometimes many thousands of them ) get from ritual sacrifice victims would be stored and displayed .
The find unveil two manful skulls , one distaff skull , and one hound skull — which is the most surprising , as tzompantli were traditionally made only from human skull . Only a few departure from that rule have ever been discovered , include horse skulls that were racked alongside their Spanish riders in the other 1500s .
image : DSA - INAH .
PhysOrgspeculates that the skull rack might have included non - ritual victims , too , including woman and dogs , that were consider important guardians on the journey into the hereafter . Along with the skull , the archeological site squad also uncovered sculpture , home sites , and more traditional burial :
Image : DSA - INAH .
This is far from the first time subway dig has hit human corpse — although it might be the skittish . In October , burrow diggers working on London ’s modish subway expansiondiscovered 20 skullsof masses who might have die during the Boudicca rising in AD 60 , when Gaelic tribes rose up against Roman line of work . In the same calendar month , construction workers build an crude line in Saskatchewanuncovered the corpse of humanswho far predate Europeans in North America .
It ’s strange to intend that our cognition of the ancient past bet for the most part on accidental discoveries like these , precipitate byroadway construction projectsand subway digs . Who knows what else we ’ll retrieve lay to rest below our feet in the decades to add up , as we hungrily expand the web of subterranean infrastructure outside the boundaries of today ’s cities ? [ PhysOrg ]
Beneath the Streets , Lost Cities
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