Police discovered 150 skulls at a “crime scene” in Mexico. It turns out the victims, mostly ladies, were ritually decapitated over 1,000 years ago.

When Mexican police found a pile of about 150 skulls in a cave near the Guatemalan border, they thought they had been taking a look at a criminal offense scene, and took the bones to the state capital.

It turns out it was a very cold case.

It took a decade of exams and evaluation to find out the skulls had been from sacrificial victims killed between A.D. 900 and 1200, the National Institute of Anthropology and History stated Wednesday.

"Believing they had been taking a look at against the law scene, investigators collected the bones and started examining them in Tuxtla Gutierrez," the state capital, the institute, referred to as INAH, said in a press release.

The police in 2012 weren't being silly; the border area around the city of Frontera Comalapa in southern Chiapas state has long been stricken by violence and immigrant trafficking. And pre-Hispanic skull piles in Mexico often present a gap bashed by way of either side of each cranium, and had been often present in ceremonial plazas, not caves.

But experts stated Wednesday the victims in the cave had in all probability been ritually decapitated and the skulls put on show on a type of trophy rack often known as a "tzompantli." Spanish conquistadores wrote about seeing such racks in the 1520s, and a few Spaniards' heads even wound up on them.

Whereas usually strung on wood poles using holes bashed by way of them - the common practice among the many Aztecs and other cultures - consultants say the cave skulls may have rested atop poles, somewhat than being strung on them.

Interestingly, there have been more females than males among the victims, and none of them had any enamel.

In light of the cave expertise, archaeologist Javier Montes de Paz mentioned people ought to in all probability name archaeologists, not police.

"When individuals discover one thing that might be in an archaeological context, don't touch it and notify local authorities or straight the INAH," he mentioned.

In 2015, archaeologists discovered the main trophy rack of sacrificed human skulls at Mexico Metropolis's Templo Mayor Aztec damage site.

That same 12 months, artifacts discovered at the Zultepec-Tecoaque wreck website revealed proof from when tons of of people in a Spanish-led convoy have been captured, sacrificed and apparently eaten.

A 2016 examine discovered that in societies the place social hierarchies were taking shape, ritual human sacrifices targeted poor people, helping the powerful management the decrease courses and keep them in their place.

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