Aztecs butchered, ate Spanish invaders The Tecuaque archeological site near Mexico City has yielded the skeletal remains of 550 victims who apparently had their hearts ripped out by Aztec priests in ritual offerings, and were dismembered or had their bones boiled or scraped clean.
This is a surprising finding because it documents and support accounts of Aztecs capturing and killing a caravan of Spanish conquistadors and local men, women and children traveling with them in revenge for the murder of Cacamatzin, king of the Aztec empire's No. 2 city of Texcoco.
Archaeologists say the discovery proves some Aztecs did resist the conquistadors led by explorer Hernan Cortes, even though history books say most welcomed the Conquistador horsemen in the belief they were returning Aztec gods.
Director of the dig at Calpulalpan in Tlaxcala state, near Texcoco, Enrique Martinez says,
"This is the first place that has so much evidence there was resistance to the conquest. It shows it wasn't all submission. There was a fight."
Martinez added,
"It was a continuous sacrifice over six months. While the prisoners were listening to their companions being sacrificed, the next ones were being selected. You can only imagine what it was like for the last ones, who were left six months before being chosen, their anguish."
The captives were kept in cages for months while Aztec priests from what is now Mexico City selected a few each day at dawn, held them down on a sacrificial slab, cut out their hearts and offered them up to various Aztec gods.
Forensic analysis on the remains have shown knife cuts and even teeth marks on the bones show which ones had meat stripped off to be eaten. Some pregnant women in the group had their unborn babies stabbed inside their bellies as part of the ritual.
Tecuaque, the name of the site and town, in indigenous Nahuatl, means "where people were eaten," and was named fittingly by Cortes before he sent his forces to wipe out the Aztecs.