Aztec Calendar - Sun Stone

The Aztec calendar was the calendar of the Aztec people of Pre-Columbian Mexico. It is
one of the Mesoamerican calendars, sharing the basic structure of calendars from
throughout ancient Mesoamerica. This calendar is recorded as a carving on the Aztec
Calendar Stone currently found in the National Museum of Anthropology and History
located within Chapultepec Park, Mexico City.

The calendar consisted of a 365 day calendar cycle and a 260 day ritual cycle. These two
cycles together formed a 52 year "century", sometimes called the "Calendar Round".The
calendric year began with the first appearance of the Pleiades asterism in the east
immediately before the dawn light.
Every month had its name, and the days of the month were numbered from one to twenty.
The days of the last month, Nemontemi, were numbered from one to five.The box at the
top of the stone contains the stone's year of creation, in this case 1479 CE.

The solar calendar of 365 days was inseparable from the Sacred Round, or Sacred
Almanac. The priests used this ritual calendar of 260 days called Tonalpohualli primarily
for divinatory purposes. The method of naming the individual days consisted in the
combination of twenty pictorial signs with the numbers one to thirteen. Each of the day
signs also bears an association with one of the four cardinal directions.The 20 day signs
are depicted in the calendar image to the right. They are arrayed in a circle surrounding
the central face.

The original Aztec Calendar is a 12', massive stone slab, carved in the middle of the 15th
century. Many renditions of it exist and have existed through the years and throughout
Mexico.

Historically, the Aztec name for the huge basaltic monolith is Cuauhxicalli Eagle Bowl,
but it is universally known as the Aztec Calendar or Sun Stone. It was during the reign of
the 6th Aztec monarch in 1479 that this stone was carved and dedicated to the principal
Aztec deity: the sun. The stone has both mythological and astronomical significance. It
weighs almost 25 tons, has a diameter of just under 12 feet, and a thickness of 3 feet.

On December 17th, 1790 the stone was discovered, buried in the "Zocalo" (the main
square) of Mexico City. The viceroy of New Spain at the time was don Joaquin de
Monserrat, Marquis of Cruillas. Afterwards it was embedded in the wall of the Western
tower of the metropolitan Cathedral, where it remained until 1885. At that time it was
transferred to the national Museum of Archaeology and History by order of the then
President of the Republic, General Porfirio Diaz.

The Center of the Disc - Tonatiuh

Tonatiuh's Face is the face of the sun, Lord of Heaven, around which takes place all daily
and periodic phenomena. The crown, nose-pendant, ear-rings and necklace are
magnificent, as must be the ornaments characteristic of this deity. The hair is blond, due
to the golden appearance of the sun. The wrinkles on the face show age and maturity.
And the tongue, stuck out is the form of an obsidian knife, indicates that the diety
demands to be fed with blood and human hearts.

Aztec vs. Mayan Calendar

The two calendars were was basically similar. The ritual day cycle was called
Tonalpohualli and was formed, as was the Mayan Tzolkin, by the concurrence of a cycle
of numerals 1 through 13 with a cycle of 20 day names, many of them similar to the day
names of the Maya.

Where the Aztec differed most significantly from the Maya was in their more primitive
number system and in their less precise way of recording dates. Normally, they noted
only the day on which an event occurred and the name of the current year. This is
ambiguous, since the same day, as designated in the way mentioned above, can occur
twice in a year. Moreover, years of the same name recur at 52-year intervals, and Spanish
colonial annals often disagree as to the length of time between two events.

Other discrepancies in the records are only partially explained by the fact that different
towns started their year with different months. The most widely accepted correlation of
the calendar of Tenochtitlan with the Christian Julian calendar is based on the entrance of
Cortes into that city on November 8, 1519, and on the surrender of Cuauhtemoc on
August 13, 1521. According to this correlation, the first date was a day 8 Wind, the ninth
day of the month Quecholli, in a year 1 Reed, the 13th year of a cycle.

The Mexicans, as all other Meso-Americans, believed in the periodic destruction and re-
creation of the world. The "Calendar Stone" in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia
(National Museum of Anthropology) in Mexico City depicts in its central panel the date 4
Ollin (movement), on which they anticipated that their current world would be destroyed
by earthquake, and within it the dates of previous holocausts: 4 Tiger, 4 Wind, 4 Rain,
and 4 Water.

The Aztec calendar kept two different aspects of time; tonalpohualli and xiuhpohualli.
Each of these systems had a different purpose. The tonalpohualliwas the 'counting of
days.' It originated by ancient peoples observing that the sun, crossed a certain zenith
point near the Mayan city of Copan, every 260 days. So this first system is arranged in a
260-day cycle. These 260 days were then broken up into 20 periods, with each period
containing 13 days, called trecenas. Each period was given the name of something that
was then shown by a hieroglyphic sign, and each trecena was given a number 1-13. Each
trecena is also thought to have a god or deity presiding over each of the trecena. They
kept these counts in tonalamatls, screenfold books made from bark paper. The Aztecs
used this as a religious calendar. Priests used the calendar to determine luck days for such
activities as sowing crops, building houses, and going to war.
The xiuhpohualli was the 'counting of the years.' This calendar was kept on a 365-day
solar count. This was also the agricultural and ceremonial calendar of the Aztec state. It
was divided into 18 periods, with each period containing 20 days, called veintenas. This
left five days that were not represented. These were called "nemontemi." These were the
five transition days between the old and the new year, and were considered days of
nothing. This was a time of festivals. People came to the festivals with their best clothes
on, and took part in singing and dancing. This is also when the priest would perform
sacrifices, most of these sacrifices were human, but others were preformed on animals
and fruit.

The solar year was the basis for the civil calendar by which the Mexicas (Aztecs)
determined the myriad ceremonies and rituals linked to agricultural cycles. The calendar
was made up of 18 months, each lasting 20 days. The months were divided into four five-
day weeks. The year was rounded out to 365 days by the addition of the five-day
nemontemi (empty days), an ominous period marked by the cessation of normal activities
and general abstinence. The correlation of dates in the Gregorian calendar is uncertain,
although most authors on the subject affix the beginning of the Aztec year to early
February. A variety of sources were consulted in developing the following chart of some
of the ritualistic activities associated with each month.

Many of the Aztecs' religious ceremonies, including frequent human sacrifices, were
performed at the Great Temple, located in the center of their capital city of Tenochtitlan.

Pyramids of Mesoamerica