Tzompantli

A () or skull rack was a type of wooden rack or palisade documented in several Mesoamerican civilizations, which was used for the public display of human skulls, typically those of war captives or other sacrificial victims. It is a scaffold-like construction of poles on which heads and skulls were placed after holes had been made in them. Many have been documented throughout Mesoamerica, and range from the Epiclassic () through early Post-Classic ().Mendoza (2007) pg 397 In 2017 archeologists announced the discovery of the Hueyi Tzompantli, with more than 650 skulls, in the archeological zone of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City.

Etymology

The name comes from the Classical Nahuatl language of the Aztecs but is also commonly applied to similar structures depicted in other civilizations. Its precise etymology is uncertain although its general interpretation is 'skull rack', 'wall of skulls', or 'skull banner'. It is most likely a compound of the Nahuatl words ('skull'; from or 'hair', 'scalp' and ('gourd' or 'container'), and ('banner'). That derivation has been ascribed to explain the depictions in several codices that associate these with banners; however, Nahuatl linguist Frances Karttunen has proposed that means merely 'row' or 'wall'.

Historical distribution

General information

It was most commonly erected as a linearly-arranged series of vertical posts connected by a series of horizontal crossbeams. The skulls were pierced or threaded laterally along these horizontal stakes. An alternate arrangement, more common in the Maya regions, was for the skulls to be impaled on top of one another along the vertical posts.

are known chiefly from their depiction in Late Postclassic (13th to 16th centuries) and post-Conquest (mid-16th to 17th centuries) codices, contemporary accounts of the conquistadores, and several other inscriptions. However, a -like structure, thought to be the first instance of such structures, has been excavated from the Proto-Classic Zapotec civilization at the La Coyotera, Oaxaca site, dated from around the 2nd century BCE to the 3rd century CE. The Zapotecs called this structure a , and it displayed 61 skulls.

are also noted in other Mesoamerican pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Toltec and Mixtec.

Toltec

At the Toltec capital of Tula exists the first indications in Central Mexico of a real fascination with skulls and skeletons. Tula flourished from the ninth until the thirteenth century. The site includes the decimated remains of a . The at Tula displayed multiple rows of stone carved skulls adorning the sides of a broad platform upon which the actual skulls of sacrificial victims were exhibited. The appeared during the final phases of civilization at Tula, which was destroyed around 1200.

Maya

Other examples are indicated from Maya civilization sites such as Uxmal and other Puuc region sites of the Yucatán, dating from around the late 9th-century decline of the Maya Classical Era. A particularly fine and intact inscription example survives at the extensive Chichen Itza site.

Human sacrifice on a large scale was introduced to the Maya by the Toltecs from the appearances of the by the Chichen Itza ball courts. Six ball court reliefs at Chichen Itza depict the decapitation of a ball player; it seems that the losers would be beheaded and would have their skulls placed on the .Coe (2011) pg. 195-196 (or 210 in the 2015 edition)

Aztec era

The word is Nahuatl and was used by the Aztecs to refer to the skull-racks found in many Aztec cities; The first and most prominent example is the (Great Skull-rack) located in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and described by the early conquistadors. There were at least five more skull racks in Tenochtitlan but by all accounts they were much smaller.

According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo's eye-witness account, the , written several decades after the event, after Hernán Cortés's expedition was forced to make their initial retreat from Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs erected a makeshift to display the severed heads of men and horses they had captured from the invaders. This is depicted in the twelfth book of the ''Florentine Codex''. This taunting is also depicted in an Aztec codex which relates the story, and the subsequent battles which led to the eventual capture of the city by the Spanish forces and their allies.

During the stay of Cortes's expedition in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (initially as guest-captives of the Emperor Moctezuma II, before the battle which would lead to the conquest), they reported a wooden altar adorned with the skulls from recent sacrifices. Within the complex of the Templo Mayor itself, a relief in stucco depicted these sacrifices; the remains of this relief have survived and may now be seen in the ruins in the Zócalo of present-day Mexico City.

Preparation of

Excavations at Templo Mayor in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan have revealed many skulls belonging to women and children, in addition to those of men, a demonstration of the diversity of the human sacrifices in Aztec culture. After displaying severed heads, many scholars have determined that limbs of Aztec victims would be cannibalized Fray Diego Durán confirms this, stating that skulls were delivered to temples after "the flesh had been eaten".Durán, Diego. ''Book of the gods and rites and the ancient calendar''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971. Print

Durán notes that the were periodically renovated. Regarding this, Durán states

When he skullsbecome old and deteriorated, they fell in pieces. When the palisade become old, however, it was renovated, and on its removal many kullsbroke. Others were removed to make room for more, so that there would be a place for those were to be killed later

Archeologist Eduardo Contreras believes that the tissue attached to skulls was removed prior to a pole being inserted through the side of the skulls. He bases these assumptions off of excavations of the Plaza de las Tres Culturas at Tlatelolco, Mexico City between 1960 and 1965.

The was the central found in Tenochtitlan. The skull rack here served as a reminder of the Aztec's ongoing Flowery Wars. An important aspect of Aztec warfare was the capture of enemy warriors to serve as sacrificial victims, which is evident from the number of warriors found sacrificed around Aztec structures. One conquistador, Andrés de Tapia, was given the task of counting the skulls on the at Tenochtitlan and estimated that there were 136,000 skulls on it. However, based on numbers given by Taipa and Fray Diego Durán, Bernard Ortiz de Montellano has calculated that there were at most 60,000 skulls on the of Tenochtitlan. The consisted of a massive masonry platform composed of “thirty long steps” measuring fully 60 meters in length by 30 meters wide at its summit. Atop of the aforementioned platform was erected an equally formidable wooden palisade and scaffolding consisting of between 60 and 70 massive uprights or timbers woven together with an impressive constellation of horizontal cross beams upon which were suspended the tens of thousands of decapitated human heads once impaled thereon. Regarding this, Bernal Díaz de Castillo states:

Various scholarly interpretations of the cosmological importance of 's placement have emerged. l Eduardo Matos Moctezuma claims that a central was placed north of the Templo Mayor. Moctezuma notes that no corresponding shrine was found south. Moctezuma also notes that Mexica views of the universe, which divide the universe into a horizontal and vertical plane, claim that the northern sector of the horizontal plane corresponds to Mictlampa, or the land of the dead. On the other hand, Rubén G. Mendoza contends that the was placed on an east–west axis between the Templo Mayor and a principal ball court. The Hueyi Tzompantli would have been aligned with the marker within the Templo Mayor dividing one half for Tlāloc and the other half for . Mendoza argues that as the sun traveled through the sky, it would have ascended into the "vault of the heavens", represented by the .

Modern archeological evidence has found that this large palisade was flanked by two circular towers made out of skulls and mortar.

Historical depictions

There are numerous depictions of in Aztec codices, dating from around the time or shortly after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, such as the '' Durán Codex'', ''Ramírez Codex'', and ''Codex Borgia''. The ''Codex Mendoza'' contains multiple depictions of . The Frontispiece of the ''Codex Mendoza'' depicts a holding single skull next to an eagle perched on a cactus. A similar depiction of a is used to represent the town of Tzompanco in the ''Codex Mendoza''. Folio 45v of the Codex Borgia depicts a platform adorned with skulls.

Recent excavations

Archaeologists affiliated with the National Institute of Anthropology and History have taken part in a series of excavations since 2015 that have resulted in the finding of . These excavations took place near the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral and included the finding of one tower. These excavations have revealed that women and children were sacrificed, although men made up 75% of the sacrificial victims.

Association and meaning

Apart from their use to display the skulls of ritualistically-executed war captives, often occur in the contexts of Mesoamerican ball courts, which were widespread throughout the region's civilizations and sites. The game was 'played for keeps' ending with the losing team being sacrificed. The captain of the winning team was tasked with taking the head of the losing team's captain to be displayed on a . In these contexts it appears that the was used to display the losers' heads of this often highly ritualised game. Not all games resulted in this outcome, however, and for those that did it is surmised that these participants were often notable captives. An alternative theory is that it was the captain of the winning team who lost his head, but there is little evidence that this was the case. Still, it is acknowledged that in Mesoamerican culture to be sacrificed was to be honored with feeding the gods. Tula, the former Toltec capital, has a well-preserved inscription on its ball court.

The association with ball courts is also reflected in the ''Popol Vuh'', the famous religious, mythological and cultural account of the K'iche' Maya. When Hun Hunahpu, father of the Maya Hero Twins, was killed by the lords of the Underworld (Xibalba), his head was hung in a gourd tree next to a ball court. The gourd tree is a clear representation of a , and the image of skulls in trees as if they were fruits is also a common indicator of a and the associations with some of the game's metaphorical interpretations.

Gallery

File:The tzompantli or Skull Platform.JPG, Detail of at Chichen Itza
File:Tzompantli Est 4.JPG, found at Monument Four of Calixtlahuaca
File:Tzompantli in the Florentine Codex.png, The Twelfth Book of the ''Florentine Codex'' shows the heads of captured Spanish soldiers and their horses displayed on a in front of the Temple of Huitzilopochtli.
File:Tzompantli (Templo Mayor) - Ciudad de México.jpg, An excavated from the Templo Mayor in modern-day Mexico City
File:Tzompantli Detail.jpg, Replica of a in the in Mexico City
File:Tzompantli.jpg, at the Museum of the Templo Mayor.
File:Tzompantli in Codex Borgia.png, as depicted in ''Codex Borgia''
File:Tzompantli in Codex Vaticanus 3778.png, in ''Codex Vaticanus'' 3778, a facsimile of the ''Codex Ríos''
File:Tzompantli in Codex Mendoza.jpg, A simplified represents the town of Tzompanco in the ''Codex Mendoza''

Contemporary uses

have been the subject of multiple artworks created during the twentieth century. Jose Chavez Morado depicted in a 1961 painting. George O. Jackson, as part of his ''Essence of Mexico'' project, photographed various representations of skulls, which he refers to as (the Spanish word for 'skulls'); Jackson refers to groups of these photos as . were also the subject of murals created for the festival Mextonia, which celebrates Mexican culture and occurs in Estonia, by the art collective Nueve Arte Urbano. The featured an exhibit titled , which featured works made by various artists depicting skulls.

See also

* Skull Chapel, Czermna
* Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini
* Sedlec Ossuary
* Capela dos Ossos
* Skull Tower
* Headhunting
* Tzompantli band

References

Bibliography

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* {{cite book , last=Diaz del Castillo , first=Bernal , translator=J. M. Cohen , title=Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España , trans-title=The Conquest of New Spain , publisher=Penguin Group , location=New York , year=1963 , isbn=978-0140441239 , url=https://archive.org/details/conquestofnewspa00diaz

Aztec society
Human head and neck
Human trophy collecting
Maya society
Mesoamerican warfare
Mesoamerica
Cannibalism in North America