From February, 2009: Mexican mass grave may hold last Aztec warriors

[Judi Lynn]

Mexican mass grave may hold last Aztec warriors
By Mark Stevenson
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 12, 2009

MEXICO CITY — Archaeologists digging in a ruined pyramid in downtown Mexico City said Tuesday they’d found a mass grave that may hold the skeletal remains of the final Aztec holdouts who fought conquistador Hernan Cortes.

The unusual burial holds the carefully arrayed skeletons of at least 49 adults who were buried in the remains of a pyramid razed by the Spaniards during the 1521 conquest of the Aztec capital.

The pyramid complex, in the city’s Tlatelolco square, was the site of the last indigenous resistance to the Spaniards during a monthslong battle for the city.

Archaeologist Salvador Guilliem, the leader of the excavation for Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, said the fighters might have been killed during Cortes’ war or during one of the uprisings that continued after the conquest.

Guilliem said many burials have been found at the site with the remains of people who died during epidemics that swept the Aztec capital after the conquest and killed off much of the indigenous population.

But those burials were mostly hurried, haphazard affairs in which remains were jumbled together in pits regardless of age or gender.

The burial reported Tuesday is different. The dead had many of the characteristics of warriors: All were young men, most were tall and several showed broken bones that had mended.

More:
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/Feb/12/mexican-mass-grave-may-hold-last-aztec-warriors/