Over 130 human skulls, thought to be the remains of human sacrifices, have been discovered in a remote Mexican field, far from known ritual centres. Dated to c.AD 660-869, they were found during excavations led by Christopher Morehart of Georgia State University, who was investigating ancient agricultural practices near Lake Xaltocan. The skulls, all adult [...]
Book Review: Tenochtitlan – Capital of the Aztec Empire
March 23, 2013
Filed Under: Books, Mexico, South America
Tenochtitlan José Luis de Rojas University Press of Florida ISBN 978-0-8130-4220-6 Besides Ancient Egypt, no civilisation has been examined and scrutinised more than the Aztecs. Human Sacrifice, vicious and bloody wars, magnificent architecture and a spectacular downfall have brought the Aztec empire eternal fame. In this informative and stimulating book, José Luis de Rojas brings [...]
Sacrificial skulls at Templo Mayor
Archaeologists have discovered 50 human skulls and over 250 jawbones dating back over 500 years near a sacrificial stone at the main Aztec temple in Mexico City. Located within the sacred precinct of Tenochtitlan, the old Aztec capital, the remains represent the largest number of skulls found in a single deposit at Templo Mayor. Forty-five [...]
Bones to unpick
Construction work in the ruins of Tenochtitlan in Mexico City has uncovered a unique burial at the foot of the Aztec capital’s main temple: the skeleton of a young woman, surrounded by a jumble of almost 2,000 human bones. Lying beneath a slab floor associated with the fifth phase of building at Templo Mayor (AD [...]
Pedal power
In a rather more earthbound initiative, Google Maps staff in Mexico have pedalled tricycles mounted with cameras around 30 pre-Hispanic sites to create 360˚ photo tours of famous monuments including Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza, and Palenque. Recorded with the cooperation of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the sites can be visited virtually through [...]
Cutting-edge research
Archaeologists studying 31 obsidian knives from Cantona, a pre-Hispanic site in Mexico, have discovered minute traces of 2,000-year-old human blood, skin, and hair on the blades – the first direct evidence of such tools being used for human sacrifice. Previously researchers had relied on cut marks on the bones of presumed victims to reconstruct how [...]
Mexico: Potted History
We know, from hieroglyphic references and illustrations, that the ancient Maya and their gods enjoyed a smoke. But physical evidence is rare. Now residue from a 1,300-year-old pot has provided the first traces of tobacco to be found in a Mayan container. The small clay vessel comes from the Mirador Basin in Southern Campeche, Mexico, [...]
Mexico: Moche monkey business
A gold monkey-head pendant has been returned to Peru thanks to the intervention of the country’s ambassador Luis Valdivieso. The artefact, which had been housed by the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe, was made by the Moche people. Renowned for their elaborate gold work, the Moche inhabited the north coast of Peru in [...]
Mexico: Mexican pyramid’s first offering
Archaeologists investigating the core of the Pyramid of the Sun, at Teotihuacan on the outskirts of Mexico City, have discovered the ceremonial offering placed at the heart of Mexico’s tallest pyramid, deposited when construction first began in about AD 50. Laid on the pyramid’s rubble base, the offerings included obsidian knives and projectile heads, 11 [...]
Book review: Reading Maya Art: A hieroglyphic guide to ancient Maya painting and sculpture
Two decades have passed since the American archaeologist and anthropologist Michael Coe published Breaking the Maya Code (1992). This told the dramatic contemporary story of how the Maya glyphs of Central America were successfully deciphered during the 1970s and 1980s – mainly by North American scholars following a pioneering suggestion in the early 1950s by [...]
Ancient Maya marketplace
Archaeologists and soil scientists have come up with the novel theory that the open areas conventionally described as ’ritual plazas’ in Mayan cities of the Classic era (AD 300 to 900) could really be outdoor markets. This idea challenges the notion that the Maya had a centralised food distribution system whereby foodstuffs were controlled by the [...]
Brian Fagan Digs Deeper
Robots roam at Teotihuacan, Mexico Robots for exploring deep under pyramids are a new fashion in archaeology. One revealed a hidden door and a chamber in the Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt. Now, Mexico’s National Institute of Archaeology and History has unleashed a locally designed, camera-equipped remote controlled vehicle under the Temple of [...]
Viva La Revolucion!
Viva La Revolucion! is a wonderfully engaging title featuring recipes from Mexico’s best chefs. Cook-books are certainly all the rage at Christmas, but why pick one for an archaeology magazine? Quite simply because author Fiona Dunlop appreciates the strong cultural element of food and she makes that connection in this book. Thus, in introductory narratives to each [...]
Aztec Fractions
A study from science magazine has revealed that previously unknown Aztec symbols infact units of land holdings in pre-columbian Mexico
New Thinking on Mayan child Sacrifice
Archaeologists from the University of Yucatan have found evidence for child sacridice being used to appease the gods
Oldest Writing Discovered on Boulder
The oldest known writing in the Americas has been discovered dating to 900 BC
Oldest American Footprints
Mexican footprints may hold the key to discovering the origins of human populations in the Americas
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