The Aztec House of Darkness: Sacrifice and Divination at the Templo Mayor

from Tenochtitlan: The Aztec Capital That Shocked the Spanish — Fexingo History · host Fexingo

Ep 173: Lucas and Luna explore the Aztec 'House of Darkness' — the mysterious Tlacochcalco inside the Templo Mayor complex. We unpack the ritual journey of war captives, the role of obsidian mirrors in divination by priests called tonalpouhque, and the controversial claim by archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma that the House of Darkness was where the Mexica 'created' their gods through human sacrifice. We draw on evidence from the Florentine Codex, the excavations beneath Mexico City's Zócalo, and recent interpretations of Aztec cosmology to ask: was sacrifice the engine of the universe or a tool of imperial control? Includes the story of the Coyolxauhqui stone and the tzompantli rack. #Tlacochcalco #HouseOfDarkness #TemploMayor #AztecSacrifice #Tenochtitlan #Mexica #Huitzilopochtli #Coyolxauhqui #tonalpouhque #obsidianmirror #FlorentineCodex #EduardoMatosMoctezuma #tzompantli #cuauhxicalli #Nahuatl #Mesoamerica #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jul 24, 2026

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The Aztec House of Darkness: Sacrifice and Divination at the Templo Mayor

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