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In 1520 , autochthonic people in Zultépec in what is now Mexico captured a Spanish caravan of about 450 masses . Over the next eight months , they ritually sacrificed all of the captive and likely eat up them , archaeologist late discovered .
The Spanish retaliated viciously , with soldiers attacking the Ithiel Town and butchering one C in just one 24-hour interval . Spanish soldier Gonzalo de Sandoval led the attack under orders fromHernán Cortés , leader of Spain ’s encroachment of Mexico , and the dupe in Zultépec were mostly women and children , said researchers with Mexico ’s National Institute of Anthropology and History ( INAH ) .
People in Zultépec tried to hide the remains of murdered Spaniards in the town cisterns.
Many of the fair sex and children were slaughtered while obscure in their home or while examine to escape the carnage , INAH representatives enounce in a instruction . Their findings map more than three decades of work at the site where Zultépec once stood , revealing new details about the fierce acts committed on both position .
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Zultépec ’s occupant at the time were Acolhua , a Mesoamerican ethnic group and a sister acculturation to the Aztecs . Their captives from the van included European men , women and children ; Maya , Tlaxcaltec and Totonac people who were Spanish friend ; and Cuban people of African and Indigenous declivity , Mexico News Daily cover . After the caravan ’s seizure , the Acolhua sacrifice people to Xiuhtecuhtli according to dates on the Acolhua ritual calendar , the research worker say .
Women and children who tried to hide were murdered and mutilated, archaeologists learned from bones.
However , during the months when the caravan travelers were carry confined , the Acolhuas modified their buildings to host the " foreigner , " add wall and European - elan ovens , harmonise to the argument . But these comforts were curtly - lived , and the last of the captives was sacrifice in January or February of 1521 . Around this time , a mound near Zultépec became known locally as " Tecoaque , " or " where they were eat " in the Nahuatl language of fundamental Mexico , suggesting that the great unwashed in Zultépec feed the captives .
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Zultépec ’s habitant in all probability knew the Spaniards would before long retaliate , archaeological grounds hint . For instance , the resident physician stress to build up their metropolis by building fresh walls that blocked access to residential region . Acolhua people also seemingly tried to hide the bodies of the murdered captives ; when researchers inspected 22 of the townsfolk ’s cisterns , they found human bones that had been carved into trophies , along with caravan prisoners ' personal items , sculpture of Mesoamerican deities and remains of the caravan ’s pack animals .
Sandoval and his men attacked in March of that year , site manager Enrique Martínez Vargas said in the statement . On one stretch of route measure about 390 feet ( 120 meters ) long , archaeologist discover a dozen skeletons of adult female who ostensibly died while protect 10 child " between five and six years of age , " Vargas said . The positions of their bodies " paint a picture that the people were in full flight , " and were mow down and buried hurriedly where they flow , he said .
fair sex and children who tried to hide indoors " were in good turn cut up , as manifest by the retrieval of severed bones on the storey of the rooms , " Vargas said in the statement . Conquistadors also sunburn Zultépec ’s temples and behead sculptures of the Acolhua gods . The barbarism of the attack was intended as both revenge for the murdered prisoner and as a warning against next immunity to Spanish occupation and conquest , Vargas said .
Originally published on Live Science .
