More Details on "Sacred Tree" and Related (?) Burial

Associated Press in Mexico City

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 August 2012 06.05 EDT

Mexican archaeologists discover 'unprecedented' Aztec burial

Skeleton of young woman surrounded by hundreds of human bones found five metres beneath Templo Mayor in Mexico City

Mexican archaeologists say they have found an unprecedented human burial in which the skeleton of a young woman is surrounded by piles of 1,789 human bones in Mexico City's Templo Mayor.

Researchers found the burial about five metres (15ft) below the surface, next to the remains of what may have been a sacred tree at one edge of the plaza, the most sacred site of the Aztec capital. The National Institute of Anthropology and History said the find was the first of its kind, noting the Aztecs were not known to use mass sacrifice or the reburial of bones for the interment of a member of the ruling class.

University of Florida archaeologist Susan Gillespie, who was not involved in the project, called the find "unprecedented for the Aztec culture". She said on Tuesday that when the Mayas interred sacrifice victims with royal burials, but they were usually found as complete bodies. And, except for special circumstances, the Aztecs, unlike other pre-Hispanic cultures, usually cremated members of the elite during their rule from 1325 to the Spanish conquest in 1521.

"Although the bodies of sacrificial victims have been found in burials of elite persons in Mesoamerica going back to at least the preclassic period, funerary deposits for Aztec elites have only rarely been encountered," said Gillespie.

The institute said some of the bones showed what may be cut marks to the sternum or vertebrae, places where a ritual heart extraction might leave a mark, but added that it did not seem likely the dead were sacrificed on the spot to accompany the burial because their bones were found separated.
The researchers discovered the skulls of seven adults and three children in one pile, long bones including femurs in another grouping, and ribs in another.

The physical anthropologist Perla Ruiz, who was in charge of the dig, said that might suggest the bones were disinterred from previous burials and reburied with the woman. While some pre-Hispanic cultures disinterred bones as part of ancestor worship, it is not clear the Aztecs did.

The burial dates to about 1481-1486, based on the "stage" of temple buildings at which they were found. The Templo Mayor, like many sites, was rebuilt by successive generations, one stage atop another.

Another unusual finding was the sacred tree, actually a rather battered oak trunk found planted on a small, round platform near the burial at what would have been the edge of the temple complex. It may be a couple of decades older than the burial.

The Aztecs, like other pre-Hispanic cultures, venerated trees, believing they had spiritual importance.
Institute archaeologist Raúl Barrera said it may be related to the four sacred trees the Aztecs believed held up the sky, but Gillespie noted it could also have been a tree or trunk brought in for an annual ceremony.

"It seems to have been positioned there for a span of time, perhaps for a special ceremony or to create a particular vision of a sacred landscape, but then abandoned as uses of that limited sacred space changed over time," Gillespie said.

Barrera said the tree trunk appeared to have been split, perhaps intentionally.

Pre-Columbian "Sacred Tree" Burial Discovered in Mexico

A sacred tree burial, heh?  Interesting, very interesting.  Refer to our research on Sacred Places/Sacred Spaces at Goddesschess Discussion Group at Delphi Forums, for instance, for "vintage" discussions!

Article from Fox News Latino.

Pre-Columbian "sacred tree" found in Mexico

Published August 07, 2012

EFE

Mexican archaeologists discovered a pre-Columbian grave containing human skeletal remains along with relics of a "sacred tree" near the archaeological site of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan in the historical downtown area of Mexico City, the Mexican National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.

Found in the burial ground dating back more than 500 years were the complete skeleton of a woman and over a thousand human bones of children, young people and adults.

The discovery is "the only one of its kind" from the Mexica culture, the archaeologist heading INAH's Urban Archaeological Program, Raul Barrera Rodriguez, said.

Though other multiple burials have been found in the past, "this is the first where the skeleton of an adult is accompanied by bones and bone fragments from humans of different ages," Barrera said.

Apart from the grave, the specialists found a circular structure of red volcanic rock with a tree trunk in its center that, according to the archaeologists, "would be one of the sacred trees" associated with the god of war Huitzilopochtli, one of the chief figures in Mexica cosmogony and one of the deities to whom the Great Temple was dedicated.

The discoveries occurred in an area called Manuel Gamio Plaza in the course of building an access corridor to the archaeological site and to the museum of the Great Temple, the INAH said.

The skeletal remains were found at about 5 meters (16 feet) under street level, and were beneath a floor of basalt slabs laid at a stage of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan's construction between the years 1481 and 1486, so that the mass grave dates back to that time, Barrera said.

"The complete skeleton was found on the west side of the burial site, while the rest of the bones were placed around it, some of them grouped in small compositions, particularly in the case of ribs and femurs," Barrera said. EFE

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So, what does this mean?  Were the bones of others buried around the woman for a particular reason?  Were the bones buried at the same time as the woman was, or afterward?  Over a long time span or a short time span?  Who was the woman?  And is there a relationship to the remains of the Sacred Tree?