Unsolved History: Aztec Temple of Blood (2004)

In this episode of Discovery's "Unsolved History" the dedication ceremony of the reconsecration of the double main temple of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1487 by emperor Ahuizotl is examined.  Of course, this is the Aztec religion that we are talking about, so that means human sacrifice, specifically something called "heart sacrifice."  The Spanish certainly inflated the number of people sacrificed during the  20 days of ritual to something close to 90,000.  However the Aztecs themselves in their sacred book now known as the CodexTellerinano actually have a mathematical glyph that indicates, that while the number is nowhere near that of the Spanish, the number of sacrificial victims is still staggeringly high.

This is the glyph

If you know how read these, the number comes to 20,000!  While human sacrifice is very old in Mexico, estimated to be around 10,000 years old, and the Aztecs did not invent heart sacrificed, they "inherited" it, they were known to employ it on a large scale.  It was one of the few real "beef" that conquered areas had with the mostly otherwise pastoral empire.  It is known, for example, that the king of the Totonacs in what is now called Veracruz complained to Cortez about it.  

From the episode, a replica of a victim

For heart sacrifice extremely sharp flint knives were used.  In modern times, it is amazing that many heart surgeons actually have switched to these flint knives because of there capability of such delicate work precisely because they are so sharp!  

A real sacrificial knife, with a Mixtec mosaic handle

Cortez, who managed to kill a large number of natives himself, found, in typical haughty Christian fashion, was shocked by the act.  He equated the patron god of the Aztecs Huiltzilopochtli to Satan, and even had La Malinche, his female Indian guide, give him a "mestizo" (half Nahuatl, half Spanish) word for the deity that he could send back to pope saying that the Natives themselves equated this god with Satan and were, in fact, devil worshippers.  Of course, there is NO WAY Mexican could even have known about Satan, but the Vatican was constantly looking for excuses and justification to invade lands in the New World and seize them, enslaving the population (see the myth of cannibals in the Caribbean).  

Tenochtitlan

After finally (at it took at least two years) conquering the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, Cortez deliberately desecrated and destroyed the temple complex of the city; pulling down the teocallis (God Houses) and using the material to erect a really Spanish looking semi-Gothic cathedral on the site (which is still there).  Ironically the person most directly in charge of excavating the site is Eduardo Matos Moctezuma bears the family modern family name of the house of Emperor Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin--that seems fitting.

This is what is left of the mighty teocalli

With the help of a heart surgeon, some flint knives and a gelatin body double, the episode was able to demonstrate that, scarily, the number of 20,000 given by the Aztecs, would have meant a sacrifice every two minutes at several alters.  They proved that it could well have been done!!

Did you know?  The Aztecs never actually called (or even still call) themselves that.  They are the Mexica (may-shi-ca), from which Mexico gets it's name.  Modern Nahuatl speakers in Mexico also call themselves Nahua, which just means "the people."