“We found there were 136,000 skulls”

The Aztec empire extended across much of what today is the Valley of Mexico from 1428 to the Spanish Conquest in 1521. When the conquistadors first entered the Aztec capital of Tehnochtitlan, they documented numerous examples of brutal rituals that left blood-soaked buildings and thousands of human skulls. One such find was an array of thousands of skulls that appeared to have been designed as decoration, perhaps as a signal to Aztec enemies of their ruthlessness. While known from historical records, only recently have archaeologists discovered what may be the cache of human skulls referred to by the conquistadors in their writings.

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Archaeologists unearth a 500-year-old tower of skulls — and another gruesome Aztec mystery

By Cleve R. Wootson, Jr.

The Washington Post

July 4, 2017