The sanguinary side of the ancient Mexican civilizations did not spare even the children.
24 skeletons belonging to children murdered in an ancient mass sacrifice have been accidentally discovered in a tomb at a construction site in Mexico near the town of Tula, 50 miles (80 km) north of Mexico City. Here was the site of the ancient capital of the Toltecs, one of the most advanced Mexican civilizations, which predated the Aztecs, and thrived in the X-XIIth centuries.
"The chamber contained 24 skeletons of children believed to have been sacrificed between A.D. 950 and 1150", according to Luis Gamboa, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History.
"All but one of the children were between 5 to 15 years of age, and they were likely killed as an offering to the Toltec rain god Tlaloc," Gamboa said.
Toltecs had been thought to be less bloodthirsty than other local civilizations but the number of the skeletons, their ritualistic placement, cut marks on bones and the figurine of Tlaloc nearby clearly depicts a human sacrifice made in order to ask for rain from the gods.
"You can see evidence of incisions, which make us think they possibly used sharp-edged instruments to decapitate them. The skeletons were each found in a seated position looking east to face the sunrise," Gamboa said.
"Several artifacts were also found around the bodies, some of which suggest that the children had been brought in from another region. In particular, some vessels that bore markings similar to those found in the southern region of the Basin of Mexico." he added.
Elaborate burials had been done for two infants, a fact suggested by the quality of vessels and accompanying artifacts, like turquoise that could have been harvested from the present-day southwestern US.
"This new discovery at Tula pushes back the evidence for a relationship between child sacrifice and the [appeasement] of the rain god Tlaloc at least 300 years. Evidence suggests the children sacrificed to Tlaloc were in very poor health when they died and that the sacrifices were not punitive. Children of young age and greater purity were more powerful mechanisms for the petitions of the living," said Traci Ardren, an archaeologist at University of Miami, not involved in the research.
"[Cultures during this] period in Central Mexico, especially the Aztecs, were profoundly influenced by the Toltecs, so the existence of Toltec child sacrifice is not at all surprising. Early Toltec influence was also pervasive in the highlands of what is now Guatemala, and Maya documents from the region refer to child sacrifice, although perhaps not on a grand scale." noted Robert Carmack, an anthropologist at the University of Albany.
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