The skeletal remains of a boy lie at the Aztec ruins of the Templo Mayor in downtown Mexico City
A grave containing the bones of 24 children has been discovered at the pre-Aztec civilization’s capital city of Tula.
It was noticed that all the bodies were laid down in the same position facing east around a shrine to the god Tlaloc and that this was something collectively done in a single ritual.
The buried bones of pre-Hispanic Mexican children
Child Sacrifice:
Tlaloc was the Aztec’s God of rain who demanded human sacrifices. The Aztec’s believed that the rain would not come and the crops would not yield unless children were sacrificed. The belief held that sacrificed children would become the servants of God Tlaloc and bring about more rain.
Tlaloc, as shown in the late 16th century Codex Rios
The new evidence suggests that the Toltects may have the same beliefs. It was previously known that the Toltecs ritually slaughtered adults, the bones of children found in Tula are the first evidence of child sacrifice.
Source: Discovery
