This Jan. 17, 2014, image released by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH), Friday, Feb. 14, 2014, shows canine skeletons unearthed by investigators in Mexico City.MEXICO CITY - Archaeologists say they have discovered "an exceptional" burial site under an apartment building in Mexico City containing the remains of 12 dogs, animals that had a major religious and symbolic significance to the Aztec peoples of central Mexico.
Experts with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, said in a statement Friday that this is the first time a group of dogs has been found buried together. They have been found accompanying human remains or as part of an offering in a monument.
Aztecs believed dogs could guide human souls into a new life after death on earth.
Archaeologist Rocio Sanchez says the dogs were buried in a small pit between 1350 a 1520 A.D., the heyday of the Aztec empire.