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A mass ritual sacrifice of young nipper to a rain god in 15th - century Mexico coincide with a mortal drouth in the area , harmonise to new research .
The bony stay of at least 42 children , ages 2 to 7 , were hear at Templo Mayor , the most pregnant temple complex in Tenochtitlán , now Mexico City , in 1980 and 1981 .
A photograph of the skeletal remains at Templo Mayor.
The skeletons , which were facing up and had their limbs contract , were commit inside ashlar boxes on a layer of Baroness Dudevant . Some were adorned with finery such as necklace and had green Harlan Fisk Stone beads in their mouths .
Now , young enquiry has revealed that the sacrifices were probable an attempt to terminate a great drouth in the region by make offering to the pelting god Tláloc . The research was presented last week at the 9th Liberation through cognition meeting : " Water and Life " at Mexico ’s National College .
" At first , the Mexica state try on to palliate its issue by start the royal granaries to redistribute food for thought among the neediest class , while post out mass sacrifice of child in the Templo Mayor to tranquilize the fury of the tlaloque [ rain gnome who were assistant of Tláloc],”Leonardo López Luján , an archeologist and director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History ’s ( INAH ) Templo Mayor Project , articulate at the meeting . " For a clock time , it front the catastrophe this way of life , but the unreasonable length of the crisis made the state vulnerable , forcing it to allow the mass Book of Exodus of its people . "
To find out why the mass oblation was performed , INAH researchers studied geological information alongside entries in the Mexican Drought Atlas , which showed that a major drought occurred across key Mexico between 1452 and 1454 .
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The drought , which took shoes during the sovereignty of Moctezuma I and the expression of the Templo Mayor , decimated harvests , ravage populations in the region and pressure starving families to sell children to nearby towns in telephone exchange for food , according to López Luján .
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" Everything seems to designate that drouth in early summertime would have affected the germination , growth and efflorescence of flora prior to the canícula [ dog days of summer ] , while autumn frosts would have attacked corn before it had ripened , ” López Luján say . " Thus , the co-occurrence of both phenomenon would have destroy the harvest and led to occurrences of keep up famine . "
In an movement to ease the crisis , the give children ’s soundbox were sprinkled with blue paint , seashells and little birds and were surround by 11 sculpture made of volcanic rock .
The carving were made to resemble the face of Tláloc , the Aztec god of rain , weewee and fertility . In fact , the adornment of the child was probable an endeavor to make the children resemble rain dwarf , López Luján said .
