Aztec Skull Tower Reveals Big New Mystery About Ancient Culture

In 2015, researchers unearthed a huge 'tower' made by the ancient Aztecs out of human skulls. The skulls would, per everything we know about the Aztecs, be ones that had belonged to warrior men from opposing groups who died young as sacrificial victims. Over the past couple years, though, archaeologists have discovered something they didn't expect to find in the tower: skulls belonging to women and children, ushering a big new mystery about what, exactly, the skull tower was for.

The skull tower was discovered underground in Mexico City near the Templo Mayor, and it is composed of more than 650 human skulls embedded within lime. The Aztecs are well known for the sacrificial nature of their culture, having engaged in human sacrifice to the sun, primarily of captured warriors — indeed, the Aztecs were known for going to war with nearby people with the intention of capturing just enough warriors to satisfy their present sacrificial needs.

The discovery of skulls that belonged to women and children pose a big mystery for researchers; there's no explanation for why these skulls are located in the skull tower. Talking about this to Reuters, biological anthropologist Rodrigo Bolanos said:

We were expecting just men, obviously young men, as warriors would be, and the thing about the women and children is that you'd think they wouldn't be going to war. Something is happening that we have no record of, and this is really new, a first in the Huey Tzompantli.

The prospect of discovering something new about the civilization is an exciting one, though answers aren't very forthcoming. Excavation of the skull tower has been ongoing for many months and the bottom hasn't yet been uncovered. Whether a full excavation and analysis of the skull tower will bring any answers to satisfy the mystery is anyone's guess.