Fresh archeological discoveries have revealed an especially bloody story from the Spanish colonization of Mexico.
Among the ruins of Tecoaque, an Aztec-allied town, archeologists discovered the remains of women and children who appear to have been slaughtered and mutilated by Spanish colonialists. However, they suspect that this wasn’t just a random act of violence but a gesture of revenge in response to a catastrophe that occurred several months earlier.
In 1520, the town of Tecoaque sacrificed and cannibalized around 450 people, including Spanish men, women, and children, and dozens of foot soldiers from a mix of indigenous cultures. Their flesh was eaten and many of their bones were carved into trophies. When Hernán Cortés, one of the leading Spanish Conquistadors, heard about this slaughter, he ordered Gonzalo de Sandoval to seek a violent reprisal in early 1521.
Excavation of Aztec Town Reveals Evidence of Violent Encounters
TECOAQUE, MEXICO
The Guardian reports that a team of researchers led by archaeologists Enrique Martínez Vargas and Ana María Jarquín Pacheco of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History have found evidence of the 1521 Spanish attack on the town of Tecoaque, which is also known as Zultepec. In 1520, the residents of Tecoaque captured a convoy made up of Spanish men, women, and children and hundreds of their New World allies, held them prisoner, and sacrificed them over a period of about six months. In the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, the name Tecoaque translates to “the place where they ate them.” Vargas said the team members found the bones of Spaniards that had been carved into trophies, in addition to decapitated, dismembered, and burned Spanish remains bearing butchery marks. Traces of defensive works suggest the people of Tecoaque expected the Spanish to retaliate. And indeed, Hern
The place where they ate them : Horror of Aztec and Spanish conflict revealed
19 Jan, 2021 12:56 AM
4 minutes to read
The skeletons of sacrificed Spaniards are displyed inside a glass case at the museum of the Zultepec-Tecoaque archeological site in Tlaxcala state, Mexico. Photo / AP
The skeletons of sacrificed Spaniards are displyed inside a glass case at the museum of the Zultepec-Tecoaque archeological site in Tlaxcala state, Mexico. Photo / AP
AP
New research suggests Spanish conquistadors butchered at least a dozen women and their children in an Aztec-allied town where the inhabitants sacrificed and ate a detachment of Spaniards they had captured months earlier.