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Julio Luévano Professor Arturo Yáñez HUM-221-A Final Project The Aztec Calendar The Aztec Sun Stone also called the Aztec Calendar. The Aztec Calendar is the calendar system that was used by the Aztecs as well as other Pre-Columbian civilizations of central Mexico. It is one of the Mesoamerican calendars that shared the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient Mesoamerica. The calendric year may have begun at some point in the distant past with the first appearance of the Pleiades asterismin in the east. However, due to the precession of the Earth’s axis, it fell out of favor to more constant reference point such as a solstice or equinox. The Aztec calendar has two independent systems. One calendar called the Xiuhpohualli and has 365 days. This calendar describes the days and rituals related to the seasons, and therefore might be called the agricultural year or the solar year. The other calendar has 260 days. In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, it is called the Tonalpohualli or the daycount. In the center of this sculpture it is located the face that could correspond to a significant mexica deity. The God of the mexicas, Tonatiuh, Sun could be the face that is located in the centre of this sculpture known as the Aztec Calendar. The fashioned monolith for more than thousand 500 years old, is the archaeological piece more representative and emblematic of the Aztec culture discovered to date. The God Tonatiuh was one of the most important deities for the Mexica, not only represents the Sun, within the Aztec cosmogony, but also embodied the exaltation of war as a renovator. According to archaeologist that have done some studies to this magnificent sculpture they interpreted as, “Symbolized the ideal of the Warrior, the perfection of the fighter, that soldier who appears triumphant in the celestial plane, which flees from the stars and eliminates the dark giving light and heat to his people”. The mexica culture expert archaeologist considered that the face carved in the center of the Aztec calendar could be the representation of Tonatiuh, his face is surrounded by the solar disk, such as in the original codices colonist that they had no influence. Tonatiuh has been embroiled in the controversy of the specialists since the face that appears in the center of the sun stone also called Cuauhxicalli could not belong to it. However, above and below the face appears engravings that represent the symbols of the four ages or Sun that could confirm the theory. This monolith is a monument that tells the story of Aztec time and manifestation of the five Suns. In its upper part displays the number 13-Shank (1479), which corresponds to the date in which the Aztecs placed the birth of the fifth Sun in Teotihuacan, and the reign of Axayacatl. On the stone of the Sun, which could be identified as the God Tonatiuh represented in the center of the monolith, showing his two hands, each with a bracelet, an eye and eyebrow, because nothing can be hidden. In addition, in each of them, their claws to catch a human heart and their language is represented as a Flint knife. According to studies done on this monument, archaeologists carried out a detailed analysis of the pigments in the face of the Aztec calendar stone and the results determined the presence of red nuances in yellow ochre as a symbolic and iconographic representation of the Sun, light and energy. The stone of the Sun is one of the most representative of the Aztec civilization monumental pieces, it is a disc of basalt stone of 3.60 meters in diameter and 122 inches thick, and with a weight of more than 24 tons and is proof of the great importance that the Aztecs gave to the time and the accuracy with which measured it. According to oral testimonies collected by Fray Diego Duran in his History of the Indies of New Spain, 42 years before the fall of Teotihuacan, began to carve the Aztec calendar or stone of the Sun. According to these testimonies it was the Emperor Axayacatl who sent it along with an enclosure to a place called Cuauhxicalco; this stone was carved by an artist called Tecpatl. The stone remained there until August of 1521 when, during the reign of Moctezuma, Hernán cuts ordered to remove the pagan idols. Over the next 38 years, the first colonial calendar remained outdoors next to the Plaza Mayor, today the socket. At the point, 1559, an Aztec 52year cycle was closed to Spaniards, fearing that the pagan rites they turn sent to bury the stone with carved down part. Two hundred and thirty one years later, on December 17, 1791, the stone of the Sun it is rediscovered to one side of the Plaza Mayor. The discovered was made when it was matching the floor of the Plaza Mayor and building pipelines for groundwater. The stone of the Sun turned the Cathedral temporarily. Six months later in August of 1791 the viceroy Revillagigedo decreed will take steps to ensure their perpetual preservation as part of the “precious monuments showing lights that illustrated the Indian nation in the moments prior to its conquest”. Its new location, outside of the tower west of the Metropolitan Cathedral, remained for almost a hundred years. It is also known that it had a use in horizontal, not vertical position as exhibits today, and functioned as a platform of gladiatorial sacrifice, even has a cavity that served as the depositary of hearts and blood of the defeated warriors. In addition, it is known to be performed sacrifices to the God Tonatiuh but it is difficult to specify how many sacrifices were done, above all by the colonial influence which in its eagerness to disqualify local culture probably exaggerated the estimated number, said archaeologists. On June 27, 1964 the monolith was moved to the National Museum of Anthropology, there stood in the Aztec room sustained on a marble base where it can still be admired. There are many interpretations on the stone of the Sun symbols explanations that gives the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in the room where it is displayed is: “In the Center is the image of the Fifth Sun Nahui Olin or four movement and the face of Tonatiuh, the Sun God, with the particularity that it is represented with the lower half of the face stark and the upper incarnate, symbolizing life and death.In turn, in each of the corners of the sign Olin is the name of the other four Suns: Nahui, Ocelotl (for jaguar), Nahui Atl (for water), Nahui Quiahuitl (for rain) and Nahui Ehecatl (for wind). According to nahua mythology of The post-classic the world, as we know it today, has gone through different eras of creation and destruction. They related each one with a Sun in particular. In one version of the myth, the last era was destroyed by a great flood. The Fifth Sun, which according to the Nahua is the current era, will end by large earthquakes. The rest of the iconographic elements that decorate the stone of the Sun are distributed from concentric circles. The 20 signs of days, which combined with 13 numerals were a cycle of 260 days, also called Tonalpohhualli appear around the Center. Then solar signs and finally the Representation of two snakes of fire that surrounds the disk and whose heads Are, face to face, at the base of the image appear” About 176 sites with archaeological evidence, which include several petroglyphs shaped amphibians, or aquatic animals including snakes, turtles, lizards and frogs, have been found in the mount Tlaloc and registered by the National Institute of Anthropology and History. According to the Institute, the mountain, known as a “sacred place of pilgrimage”, “tetzacualco”, or astronomical observatory, was the scene of a series of rituals related to the Lord of Thunder, rain, and maintenance of good harvests. Mount Tlaloc was the largest ceremonial center built on a mountain during Aztec Empire and represented the Tlalocan or paradise of Tlaloc, who is no longer visible today. Mount Tlaloc also made observations and astronomical and calendrical computations, which marked the start of the solar year to the Mexica. The Institute explained that in the sacred geography of the Mexica, the hills near the great Tenochtitlan marked the four cardinal points or the four directions of the sacred deities. Mount Tlaloc was associated with other snow-capped mountains such as Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, Nevado de Toluca, and La Malinche. In addition, this Institute explained that in the Tlaloc people can see an astronomical phenomenon that marked the beginning of the year for the Mexica on February 12, and that between February 7 and 11 the Sun can be seen on the Summit of the Pico de Orizaba (Citlaltepetl) and La Malinche. Those five days were known as nemonteni or days “barrens” or “sobrados” by the Aztecs. So, has a marker in the landscape with an error of one day every hundred thousand years, allowing to adjust the calendar, said the archaeologists. The Temple of the mountain was destroyed in 1539 by order of Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who said that in this were carrying out acts of idolatry and to rebuild it were needed to raise 360 trucks dump six cubic meters of stone, and another 40 trucks of tezontle. In conclusion, a few hundred years have passed since the Aztec Calendar returned to the imagination of men. One of the issues that the monument will always be one or more of its symbols is the story of the space it has occupied since returning to light. The Aztec Calendar has formed part of the history of the most amazing pre-Columbian civilizations. It seems that this wonderful monument has always held a certain centrality within the symbolic universe of the society that has guarded. The current Mexican currency in all denominations carries some element symbolic of the Aztec Calendar. Mexico and its society has well defined and how proud Mexican are to identify themselves to the world with the Aztec Calendar as their own symbol. The Mexican Football Federation has the Aztec calendar as its logo. No doubt, the Mexican culture it has been transcended borders and can be recognized thanks to the Aztec calendar and the Aztec civilization. References: National Museum of Anthropology: www.mna.inah.gob.mx History of Aztec culture: www.historiademexico.com.mx/calendario-azteca.html The Aztecs, BBC documentary dubbed into Spanish: www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/2009/05/historia-de-la-cultura-mexica-azteca.html Museum of the Templo Mayor: www.templomayor.inah.gob.mx