'Most disturbing archaeological discovery' saw scientists find Aztec tower of human skulls

Thinking of decorating your home with some historically inspired centrepieces? Here's a few ideas for you.

You could add a Victorian fire place to your home, a Roman statue, or a pile of Aztec skulls pilled neatly into a cute little tower. OK, maybe let's not take home décor ideas from the Aztecs, unless it's Halloween.

You might be thinking that a tower of skulls is a little far-fetched even for the Aztecs, but nope, apparently, it's not. Archaeologists have discovered the remains (or at least their heads) of a whopping 119 people at the Aztec 'tower of skulls' under Mexico City.

You might be thinking, big tower of human heads, rings a bell. Well, something like that sticks with you, and you would be right in thinking you've probably heard about it before.

It wasn't just young men's skulls found in the tower (Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The gruesome tower was first discovered back in 2015, revealed to be made of hundreds of heads.

But now, thanks to a new excavation, experts have located a new eastern section of the tower, which is home to another 119 men, women, and children's skulls.

While it's not known for sure who these people were, it's believed that many belonged to captured enemy warriors, while the rest of them, assumably the women and children, are remains of those who were sacrificed to the gods.

While modern religions simply pray to their god(s), it would seem ancient civilisations were much more brutal, demanding blood sacrifices, or something equally as brutal.

The most shocking part of the discovery that had historians baffled was the inclusion of women and children's skulls.

Archaeologists were just expecting to find the skulls of young men, which would match up with them being warriors. However, they hadn't anticipated finding the skulls of women and children too.

Up till 2020, according to the BBC, archaeologists had found 676 skulls in total. But with this latest find, that total count has now increased, and they're yet to get to the base of the tower.

Finds like this do raise questions; who were these people, why women and children, are there more sites like this, and is someone being paid to count the skulls?

Experts believe the structure forms part of what's known as the Huey Tzompantli, a 200 ft skull structure that would have been part of the chapel of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of the sun, war, and human sacrifice.

Over on Reddit, users have taken to the r/AskReddit sub to come up with their own theories on why the giant skull tower was built.

Reddit user 'dontwalkunderladders' came up with a theory that perhaps the skulls are from victims of a plague, and goes on to compare it to the French catacombs. Other users backed this up, stating that it could have been for decorating purposes.

Although, I couldn't imagine an Aztec estate agent saying 'here with have a nice lounge, with a warn atmospheric fireplace, and oh look, here's our giant pit of death, decorated with skulls' - I'm sticking with the human sacrifice theory.

No matter what this giant tower of skulls was actually for, one thing is for sure: as the excavations continue, we're likely to start seeing the body count rise.