As a retired history teacher, I was pretty excited to watch this episode of "Secrets of the Dead". That's because the show didn't just recap what you'd see in other documentaries but actually reinterprets history in an interesting way--showing that our perceptions about a historical event might not be correct. History books tell us that Cortes and his warriors conquered the Aztecs rather easily. The Spanish are seen as very ruthless and tough--the Aztecs very fierce but completely overwhelmed due to their superstitions and panic that set in when these Spaniards attacked. Most books say that the Aztecs treated the Spanish well and the Spanish simply destroyed them with their guns and horses (both of which these natives had never seen). However, in this show, the researchers excavate a burial ground from the era and they were startled with what they found. Instead of evidence supporting this surprise attack by Cortes, it appeared as if the Aztecs had ritually sacrificed some of Cortes' people first--including several women (and women are not usually included in history books). In other words, the Aztecs MIGHT have actually precipitated their eventual demise by killing some of the invaders. There's lots of room for debate--Cortes and his men might acted exactly the same towards the natives whether or not the men were sacrificed. In other words, as 'Conquistadors', they intended all along to slaughter and take over the Aztec empire. There's also a possibility that these dead Spaniards in the burial site were NOT from Cortes' party--but from rival Spaniards come to check up on him or from a group that Cortes left behind on his way back to the Aztec capital. Regardless, there is now a lot of room to doubt the traditional narrative--and the show seems to spend a lot of time trying to interpret why the Aztec's sacrificed the Europeans. The most striking interpretation of the bones appears to corroborate that the captives were not only sacrificed but eaten! Interesting and thought-provoking even if the exact chain of events is still rather murky.