From enormous towers made from severed heads to some of the earliest battles using chemical
warfare, here are 9 shocking archaeological sites.
9.
Aztec Skull Tower
When the Spanish conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, they were terrified of an
enormous tower of skulls, which was actually more humongous than previously thought.
The Catholic Spaniards were shocked at the barbarity of the Aztecs and did everything
they could to raze the city to the ground in 1521.
But underneath the Templo Mayor lies Huei Tzompantli, the circular tower made from sacrificed
human’s skulls all stacked and mortared together.
Dating back to the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the 16.4-foot-diameter (5 meters)
tower is dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war, sun, and human sacrifice.
Like several other Mesoamerican societies, the Aztecs temporarily displayed freshly severed
heads on skull racks called tzompantli, then transferred them to the tower, which was built
in three phases between 1486 and 1502.
First uncovered in 2015, archaeologists found 484 skulls but over the years the tally has
risen to over 600.
At first everyone thought they were the skulls of young men, mostly defeated warriors.
But researchers were a bit shocked to discover that it also contained the heads of women
and even young children- identified by their young teeth which raises more questions about
sacrifice in the Aztec Empire.
Biological anthropologist Rodrigo Bolanos reported that this is very strange, and it
is something “we have no record of.”
Team members Lorena Vallín and Raúl Barrera said that the skulls likely belonged to warriors
and sacrificial victims.
Carried out with the purpose of renewing nature, human sacrifices were a sacred daily ritual
in Mesoamerica.
Barrera says “They were all made sacred, turned into gifts for the gods or even personifications
of deities themselves.”
Based on contemporary accounts of the city’s capture by Cortés, researchers believe that
the Huei Tzompantli is one of seven similar structures that once stood in the area that
the conquistadors destroyed.
But clearly not well enough, because archaeologists were able to find the circular structure underground
in the Templo Mayor giving us a clearer picture of just how enormous this tower was and the
degree of sacrifice that went on in the city.
8.
St. George’s Church
In the tiny Czech town of Lukova, there’s an abandoned 14th-century church filled with
eerie white figurines nicknamed the “ghosts of St. George’s Church.”
The ghastly sculptures sit at the building’s pews, stand in the doorways, and are gathered
at the altar.
Built around 1352, St. George’s church sits atop a hill amid Lukova’s 708 residents.
After the roof caved in during a funeral in 1968, the church was abandoned and its congregation
began holding mass outdoors.
Believing the building was haunted or cursed, people simply avoided it and left it to decay.
The community eventually became interested in renovating the church, but couldn’t afford
to do so.
In 2012, local artist Jakub Hadrava created the 32 life-sized sculptures that currently
occupy the building in hopes of attracting visitors.
To sculpt the eerie figures, he created plaster casts of models draped in sheets.
The statues resemble the German Bohemians who once lived in the region, and who were
expelled from the Czech Republic after World War II.
Thanks to Hadrava’s creations, the church has become popular among tourists and is actually
receiving the funding it needs to carry out repairs and maintain the building.
And while most people are excited to see the inside, some have refused to enter, according
to caretaker Petr Koukl, who said the spooked individuals couldn’t get past peeking through
the doorway.
Would you be brave enough to go inside?
Do things like this scare you?
Let me know in the comments below!!
7.
Ashkelon Sewer
Archaeologists on Israel’s southern coast were forced to confront a disturbing reality
in 1988 when they discovered the bones of nearly 100 infants in a late Roman-early Byzantine
sewer, beneath an ancient bathhouse in the port city of Ashkelon.
In what was the largest infant mass grave ever found at the time, the newborn babies
were deposited into the pit shortly after death.
None lived to be more than a week old, yet they all appeared to be healthy, lacking any
signs of disease or deformities.
Seemingly discarded on purpose, the deceased infants shared a final resting place with
animal bones, pottery fragments, coins, and garbage.
Unlike a collection of infant burial jars from the same period found nearby, there were
no grave goods or other evidence of a respectable burial.
The horrifying mass grave reflects the Roman custom of abandoning unwanted babies called
“exposure.”
Because the Romans did not consider newborns to be fully human, they saw nothing wrong
with leaving an infant unattended and letting the gods decide their fate.
Infanticide was considered a parent’s right, according to forensic anthropologist Patricia
Smith, who told CVLT Nation that girls were killed disproportionately because they were
often viewed as burdens, while boys were valued as heirs and for their ability to support
their family in old age.
But strangely enough the bones at Ashkelon were mostly male -- but why?
Based on erotic pottery fragments and a sign found at the site that says “Enter and Enjoy,”
archaeologists believe that the bathhouse the sewer is situated beneath doubled as a
brothel in what was Ashkelon’s red light district.
Prostitution was common in Ancient Rome, and the babies were likely the unwanted children
of women who worked at the establishment.
Female sex workers were in higher demand than males, and if prostitutes decided whether
to keep their babies based on the assumption that their children might eventually follow
in their path, it could explain why there were more boys in the sewer.
6.
Headless Viking Burial Pit
In 2009, archaeologists discovered a burial pit filled with dozens of decapitated skeletons
of young men near the seaside town of Weymouth on the English Channel coast.
The massacred headless bodies were buried naked and in a tangled mess, with their heads
stacked neatly to the side.
Covered in telltale signs of violence, including deep cuts to the skull, jaw, and neck, it’s
clear that the group was taken captive and executed by a more powerful enemy a thousand
years ago, who struck multiple blows to the victims’ heads before hacking them off entirely.
Other injuries, including sliced fingers, show that the men tried to defend themselves
as they were mercilessly slaughtered.
Radiocarbon dating put their deaths between 910 to 1030 A.D., a time period marked by
frequent battle between the English and the Vikings.
But researchers were initially unsure who the brutally beheaded men were.
An analysis of teeth from 10 of the individuals revealed that they came from different parts
of Scandinavia, thus confirming their identity as Vikings, and that most of them died in
their teens or early 20s.
By examining climate-based isotope ratios, researchers ruled out the possibility that
the men came from England and identified Norway and Sweden as possible places of origin.
One of the deceased may have even come from north of the Arctic Circle.
While the English often lost battles against the Vikings, the gory discovery shows that
the intruding raiders were not always victorious.
5.
Aralkum Desert Ship Graveyard
The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest inland sea and was home to a thriving fishing
industry.
During the 1960s, the Soviet Union diverted the rivers feeding it to supply water for
cotton and rice fields, causing the sea to dry up and leaving behind a poisonous, salty
wasteland now called the Aralkum Desert.
Straddling the border of modern-day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the Aralkum Desert is littered
with rusting fishing boats that were deserted when the Aral Sea shrunk and its salt content
reached toxic levels, killing all of its marine life and leaving the entire fishing village
with nothing.
Today, the sea is a tenth of its former size, and its fishing industry is a distant memory
marked by the eerie decaying trawlers.
The abandoned ships are accompanied by derelict buildings that were formerly part of the once-bustling
harbor city of Moynaq and other busy seaside towns.
Along with the shrinking of the sea, the surrounding populations have also drastically reduced,
with most leaving for better opportunities.
The remaining residents are plagued by health problems from the toxic dust that blows around.
There’s a growing effort to revive the Aral Sea, which is once again being fed by the
rivers that were cut off from it.
Its salinity has decreased and fish have returned, but there’s no knowing whether the sea will
be restored to its former glory and submerge the depressing sight of rotting ships.
4.
Frozen Sacrificed Children
Around 500 years ago, three Inca children aged 15, seven, and six were chosen for the
gruesome “honor” of being sacrificed to the gods.
We still don’t know why certain people were chosen over others or what qualities they
had that made them the chosen ones.
As part of the ancient ritual, known as capacocha, the oldest spent around a year being prepared
for her death.
Dubbed the “Llullaillaco Maiden,” the teenage peasant lived under the guidance of
priestesses, increasingly ingesting alcohol and coca (the plant from which cocaine is
derived) and enjoying elite foods like maize and meat.
When it was time to die, the children received copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, possibly
to pacify them and make them more cooperative with their impending fate.
They were led nearly to the 22,110-foot (6,739 meters) summit of Volcán Llullaillaco in
what is now Argentina, where they died peacefully in the freezing weather.
In 1999, a team of researchers ventured high into the Andes and discovered the deceased
children, who were remarkably preserved thanks to the frigid high-altitude conditions.
Their hair, skin, and clothing were intact, bringing a human element to their deaths that
does not usually come with ancient remains.
Chewed coca leaves were found in the Llullaillaco Maiden’s mouth, and the lice in her hair
was still visible.
There were no signs of violence -- an otherwise common feature of capacocha sites -- indicating
that the kids were left in a drug-induced stupor, or were perhaps even unconscious,
and quietly slipped away.
Textiles, pottery, and gold, silver, and shell statues surrounded the trio.
Today, the mummies are on display at the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology in Argentina,
where guests can see them firsthand and attempt to wrap their minds around what happened.
3.
Early Chemical Warfare
After capturing Antioch in 256 A.D., the Sasanians laid siege to the Roman city of Dura-Europos,
an important trading center of the ancient world in what is now Syria.
The invading Persians dug several tunnels beneath the city’s outer wall while the
Romans countered their efforts by excavating tunnels to intercept the enemy.
Nineteen Roman soldiers and one Persian soldier died in the skirmish.
Archaeologists were perplexed about the extreme imbalance of casualties when they first excavated
the site during the 1930s.
Why only 1 Persian vs 19?
While the mystery technically remains unsolved, fresh insight from a 2010 study suggests that
these Romans were among history’s first chemical warfare victims.
Treating the battle site like a crime scene, archaeologist Simon James reexamined existing
records and noticed that the soldiers’ dead bodies were stacked at the intersection of
the Roman and Sasanian tunnels.
It appears as though the Persians used the corpses as a barricade, enabling them to light
the enemy’s section on fire while remaining safely on the other side.
Residue samples and sulfur crystals from within the tunnels further indicate that the Sasanians
heard the Romans approaching and threw highly flammable sulfur and pitch into the blaze,
inundating the opponent with a choking gas that turned to sulfuric acid in their lungs
and suffocated them to death.
Meanwhile, the off-putting fumes probably caused any Roman soldiers waiting to enter
the tunnel to think twice.
Once the fire burned out, the Persians retrieved the freshly-dead bodies, added them to the
growing pile of corpses, and collapsed the Roman tunnel.
Because the team that originally excavated the site filled the tunnels back in, it’s
unlikely that experts will ever prove this theory, but all signs point toward chemical
warfare being the catalyst that secured a Sasanian victory.
2.
Burlington Bunker
A 35-acre (14.2 hectares) underground property in England known as the Burlington Bunker
was kept a complete secret from the public until its declassification in 2004.
Unbeknownst to even the local population, it sat 100 feet (30.5 meters) beneath the
churches, homes, and cobblestone streets of the quaint market town of Corsham in Wiltshire.
Built in 1955 during the Cold War era and designed to enable government employees to
continue working in the event of a nuclear attack, the shelter was bomb-proof, radiation-proof,
and poison gas-proof.
The Burlington Bunker was equipped to accommodate up to 4,000 Central Government employees at
any given time and for up to three months with no outside contact.
It was supplied with water from a nearby underground reservoir and even had a treatment facility
to make the water drinkable.
Designed for both working and living, the Burlington Bunker contained kitchens, offices,
laundry facilities, supply rooms, cafeterias, and a hospital.
There was also a television studio that would enable the government to broadcast public
messages if the need arose.
A pneumatic tube system facilitated correspondence within the complex, which was also home to
England’s second-largest phone exchange for 30 years.
Measuring over a mile (1.6 km) long, the bunker had over 60 miles (97 km) of roads and a secret
rail line connecting it to the main railway.
But the facility was never used, and by the time it finally closed, it was being run by
just four Ministry of Defence (MoD) employees.
As it sits frozen in time, its future remains uncertain, with some fighting to preserve
it while others believe it should be repurposed.
Hey if the world ever ends, you know where to go!!
1.
Mass Child Sacrifice
Between 2011 and 2019, archaeologists unearthed the remains of 269 children and three adults
from the Chimú culture at the Huanchaquito-Las Llamas site in northeastern Peru.
The individuals died over 500 years ago, sometime between 1400 and 1450, in the largest known
child sacrifice ever found.
Local pizzeria owner Michael Spano alerted archaeologist Gabriel Prieto after human bones
began emerging in a vacant lot near his home.
Excavations ensued, and Prieto quickly noticed that the graves were unlike typical Chimú
culture burials.
Instead of being positioned upright according to custom, they were laid on their backs or
curled up on their sides, and many had cut marks on their sternum and ribs.
While pottery and other grave goods were conspicuously absent, the children were buried alongside
llamas and alpacas, which were extremely valuable to the Chimú people as
a food source and for transportation.
Like the children, the animals were killed via a cut across the sternum.
The Chimú culture is shrouded in mystery, complicating researchers’ ability to determine
precisely what happened on the horrifying day when the children were massacred.
With no written records left behind, archaeologists must rely on physical evidence and observations
that the Spanish recorded after arriving in the region.
And until the mass grave was discovered, there were no signs that the Chimú sacrificed children.
Experts suspect that an altered climate, including higher seas, heavy rains, and severe effects
of El Nino, may have ravaged the civilization’s economic and political stability, causing
the Chimú to sacrifice some of their most valuable assets, namely children and animals,
in a desperate plea for relief from the gods.
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