The stone skulls at the ruins of the Templo Mayor in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan represent the victims of human sacrifice. (Credit: Sailingstone Travel/Shutterstock) The traditional accounts of ...

suggesting that the ancient Aztecs might have intentionally used this effect during ceremonies and sacrifice rituals. The body of these whistles is decorated with a skull shape that could represent ...

National Museum of Art, Mexico City. Following the fall of Tenochtitlan, an Aztec poet composed a searing ... provided a source of prisoners to sacrifice to the gods. The fact that the Tlaxcallán ...

But in the forests of central Mexico, a single note from an Aztec whistle didn’t always indicate celebration — it meant death. “Death whistles,” or Aztec skull whistles, were short ...

Human sacrifice had existed as an integral part ... Although he is portrayed as the "invisible god," he is frequently depicted in Aztec art with black and yellow stripes painted across his face ...