February 4, 2013

"Experts are puzzled by the unexpected find of such a large number of skulls at what appears to have been a small, unremarkable shrine...."

"The heads were carefully deposited in rows or in small mounds, mostly facing east toward the rising sun, sometime between 660 and 860 A.D., a period when the nearby city-state of Teotihuacan had already declined but the Aztec empire, founded in 1325, was still centuries in the future."
[Georgia State University archaeologist Christopher] Morehart said some of the skulls were found with finger bones inserted into the eye sockets. “It was common enough that it was intentionally placed there in the eye socket,” Morehart said, though the ritual significance of that remains unclear.

31 comments:

Brew Master said...

All cultures are moraly equal!

Damn shame that these noble savages were slaughtered by the evil white man. They could teach us so much about our inner natural man.

Charlie Currie said...

Societies come and go...some are just a little more interesting.

Cheers

David said...

Not a gentle folk, the Aztecs.

Charlie Currie said...

Damn shame these noble savages weren't even around when their white cousins showed up.

Cheers

Brew Master said...

From the Popol Vuh:

"Heart of Heaven blew mist into their eyes so that they could only see what was close, thus checking their desires to become gods."

Maybe they were blinding them symbolically to counteract decline brought on by hubris?

Chuck66 said...

Maybe they were 3 Stooge fans?

Wince said...

...skulls were found with finger bones inserted into the eye sockets.

To undestand, try psilocybin and repeat the ancient Aztec chant: Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

...between 150 and 200 adult skulls or their equivalent... were carefully deposited in rows or in small mounds, mostly facing east toward the rising sun.

“I won’t even subject you to the horrors of our Three Stooges ward.” – Dr. Hibbert, "The Simpsons".

edutcher said...

Apparently, this was an ongoing feature of pre-Columbian Mexico.

No wonder the Conquistadores, coming from a Spain where the Inquisition was going hot and heavy (cue Mel Brooks and the Chorus Nuns), were horrified and outraged.

And, yes, Christianity was needed there.

Larry J said...

Morehart said some of the skulls were found with finger bones inserted into the eye sockets. “It was common enough that it was intentionally placed there in the eye socket,” Morehart said, though the ritual significance of that remains unclear.

Maybe they'd watched the ancient equivalent of a Sean Penn movie and gouged out their eyes.

Charlie Currie said...

The horrors of the Inquisition, like all human endeavor, depends on where you are standing.

Life is tribal, filled with winners and losers...baboons and orangutangs.

Cheers

Anthony said...

I blogged about this earlier. I'd never seen something like this before. It appears to me that they were decapitated after death which would usually indicate war trophys, but then why place them so carefully in rows and facing the same direction? The fingers-in-the-eyes is new to me, too, although it appears to not have been the norm.

Just. . .weird.

Paddy O said...

"And, yes, Christianity was needed there."

The trouble was that the Christianity they brought had lost its saltiness. So, the oppressors just changed titles and liturgies.

There were some who brought what was good, like de las Casas, but greed in the guise of faith is like Matthew 12:43-45.

Michael said...

Love Mexico and its fascination, love affair, with death. It is bred in the bone.

Balfegor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Balfegor said...

Damn shame that these noble savages were slaughtered by the evil white man. They could teach us so much about our inner natural man.

Fortunately for the Conquistadors, many of these cultures were. The Spanish allied with them -- or at least, people like them -- to topple the Aztecs. Their strategy was in many respects similar to that employed by the British in India, just more brutal (since they were, after all, 15th and 16th century Spaniards rather than 17th and 18th century Englishmen).

Rusty said...

Pre-columbian native americans were a bloodthirsty bunch?
Just a guess.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

My guess is they were planted in fertile soil in the hope they'd sprout into new humans.

Nomennovum said...

History is much more interesting than Leftists make it out to be. This is why we are so ignorant as a nation these days. What kid wants to pay attention to anything some teacher says in socialist -- er, social -- studies?

Nomennovum said...

No pics of the skulls in the Washington Post article, naturally. That would simply be too inflammatory.

Levi Starks said...

Well the fingers in the eye socket isn't that hard to understand,
Clearly the sculls were those of conservative natives, who died as a result of well intended liberals poking them in the eye with their finger.

Rusty said...

Early Stooges.

Rusty said...

Oh. Sorry EDH

AlanKH said...

Human sacrific was how the Aztecs kept their unemployment figures artificially low. Don't tell the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Balfegor said...

Re: AlanKH:

Human sacrific was how the Aztecs kept their unemployment figures artificially low. Don't tell the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Oh, they considered that already, don't you know?

buwaya said...

Any reader of the chronicle of Bernal Diaz will come to the conclusion that human sacrifice and cannibalism were standard practices all over the region, in towns and temples of all sizes, and among many different peoples. The usual story in Diaz (and it gets monotonous, the conquest was completed very laboriously, it was not just the epic of Tenochtitlan) is for bands of Spaniards to march from town to town - hundreds of towns - demand provisions and tribute, sometimes fight the natives (hundreds of times), free the prisoners being fatted up for the feast, and pull down the temples showing signs of gruesome sacrifice. The conquistadors were very busy people.

n.n said...

AlanKH:

Americans practice human sacrifice. Our secular cult calls it abortion or reproductive rights; but, make no mistake, it is the same offering made by the Aztecs.

It is an indulgence purchased from mortal gods in exchange for a woman, and man's, liberty and dignity. The price is to support men and women who suffer from delusions of grandeur and their desire to consolidate wealth and power under their control. The reward is a promise of peace of mind through rationalization. This is how they are controlled.

Scott M said...

Caliban did it to send Daemon a message.

buwaya said...

The display of skulls in racks was typical. The Spanish found this sort of display quite often. The skull displays in Tenochtitlan were tremendous.
Some other practices were apparently so gruesome that even Bernal Diaz does not go into details.

kentuckyliz said...

But white Europeans are the only evil people in the world, and therefore the only suitable targets for race-angry college educated thug rampage killers.

ampersand said...

These practices were not limited to Central America. The Cahokians
(near St. Louis) were also sacrificing humans.

mikee said...

I was channel surfing once, back in the days when my remote control was still a novelty, when I clicked away from a commercial and into a newscast where I heard the words, "There is tonight no explanation why the skulls were buried in the hospital's front yard."

I clicked away as quickly as possible, and have never known nor wanted to know, the truth behind that short news broadcast sentence.