Late last week, Science magazine archaeology writer Lizzie Wade released a report on the shocking scale of human sacrifice among the Aztecs. For generations, students have wondered at the horrifying tales of priestly murder among the Aztecs: the removal of the heart, still beating, from a living person’s torso; the decapitation of the corpse; the creation of racks of skulls to be placed in the Tenochtitlan tzompantli. When the Spanish reached Tenochtitlan in 1519, they saw this barbarity, and promptly razed the tzompantli as well as the Templo Mayor (two enormous pyramids). Mexico City is now built on the site.
According to Wade:
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