Pyramid Ages the Aztecs

The Plaza de las Tres Culturas, in Mexico City, is so named because it showcases the new, the old, and the very old. As shown above, modern offices of the Mexican foreign ministry (upper right) not only neighbor the 17th-century Templo de Santiago church (center), but ruins of Aztec temples built hundreds of years before that (foreground left).

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Last month, Mexican archaeologists unearthed the ruins (36 feet tall!) of an 800-year-old pyramid that suggests the ancient Aztec city of Tlatelolco is at least a century older than previously believed. "The (Aztec) timeline is going to need to be revised," archaeologist Patricia Ledesma said at the site on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Fifteen years ago, a different pyramid finding dated Tlatelolco to 1325. But the newly found pyramid is 100 to 200 years older. The scientists also found a sculpture of a god (representing either Tlaloc, a rain god, or Tezcatlipoca, god of the sky) and five skulls.

Check out Reuters 48-second video clip of the ruins.

(Flickr, via schizoform)