Tlatelolco (archaeological Site) - Discovery of Mass Grave

Discovery of Mass Grave

On 10 February 2009, INAH archaeologists announced the discovery of a mass grave containing forty-nine human skeletons, laid out in neat lines on their backs, with their arms crossed and wrapped in maguey leaves. The archaeologists located the skeletons in a 13-by-32-foot (four-by-10-meter) burial site as they took part in a search for a palace complex at the Tlatelolco site.

The remains found include those of forty-five young adults, two children, a teenager, and an elderly person wearing a ring that potentially signifies a higher status. Most of the young men were tall and several had broken bones that had healed, characteristics of warriors. At least 50 further bodies are expected to be located in the future. The grave contained both evidences of Aztec rituals such as offerings of incense and animal sacrifice, as well as Spanish elements such as buttons and a bit of glass.

Salvador Guilliem, head of the site for the governmental archaeology institute, expressed his astonishment at the find: "We were completely taken by surprise. We didn't expect to find this massive funeral complex". According to him, it was likely that the indigenous people buried in the grave died while fighting the invading Spanish or were killed by diseases, such as hemorrhagic fever epidemic, responsible for wiping out a large proportion of the native population in 1545 and 1576. The site differs from most other Spanish conquest-era graves in the area, because of the manner in which the bodies were buried. The burial was similar to Christian customs of the time, as opposed to the thousands of graves found in other Aztec cities where bodies were thrown in without care. Guilliem added: "It is a mass grave, but they were very carefully buried." Susan Gillespie of the University of Florida suggested an alternative theory that the men could have been held prisoners by the Spanish for some time and executed later.