archives@tulane.edu / For the Mexica (Aztec) Empire, religious life was not centered on sacrifice. This practice was part of a complex world vision shared with other -earlier and contemporary- Mesoamerican cultures. At the arrival of the Spaniards, sacrifice caught the attention of chroniclers, whose narratives were used to legitimize the conquest of the natives. During the excavations of the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan human and animal remains with evidence of sacrifice have been recovered. In this dissertation I propose that sacrifice must be understood as an offering of life performed in a ritual setting that implies the destruction of humans, animals, plants, and sometimes objects. For this reason, I analyze the bones of both humans and animals recovered in the West Plaza, at the foot of the Great Temple. My goal is to answer how the Mexica performed sacrifice, treated the bodies and with which purposes, through direct bone analysis and the reconstruction of ritual sequences (chaîne opératoire). Sometimes their bones were reused, changing their original meaning. In addition, fragments resulting from skulls modifications were utilized in consecration and termination rituals. I also analyze the biological profiles of the victims, characterized by their diversity. In the case of humans, these correspond to men, women and children, while the faunal remains belong only to exotic animals. Along with the bioarchaeological perspective, I analyze historical sources, as well as theories on the function of sacrifice among the Mexica. / 1 / Ximena M Chavez Balderas