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AZTEC CALENDER
BY: ANTHONY CABRERA
Period. 3 pre-calculus
HISTORY
The Aztecs, or Mexica as they called themselves, were the elite
of a militaristic empire focused in Central Mexico when the
Spanish conquistadores landed in America at the beginning of
the 16th century CE. The Aztecs originated in the semi-arid
environments of northern Mexico as one of the many barbarian
or "Chichimec" tribes. They arrived at the fertile Valley of Mexico
most likely during the 14th century CE, and found the land
already settled and divided by city states. They built their city at
the marshes of Lake Texcoco, and quickly adopted much of the
culture and language of their new neighbors.
WHAT IS THE AZTEC
CALENDER?
• The Aztec calendar is the CALENDAR system that was used by the
AZTECS as well as other PRECOLUMBIAN peoples of central
MEXICO. It is one of the MESOAMERICAN CALENDARS, sharing
the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient
MESOAMERICA. It’s recognized as the world's most accurate
calendar, more so than the Gregorian system (based on the Julian
calendar) that we use today.
HOW MANY AZTEC
CALENDERS ARE THERE?
•
There were actually two Aztec Calendars and they were both based on the
MAYAN CALENDARS. One of them, called the Xiuhpohualli Calendar
consisted of 365 days and was used for farming and normal daily life. The
other, known as The Tonalpohualli, had 260 days and was used for worship
and observing rituals. This calendar, the name means 'day count' in English,
is the one described first.
The Tonalpohualli - the Aztec
Sacred Calendar
•
Each day has both a number and a symbol and both are needed to define
the date. The numbers run from 1 to 13 and there are 20 different symbols.
Day one is defined by number 1 and symbol 1. Day two is defined by
number 2 and symbol 2. This continues until day 13 which is defined by
number 13 and symbol 13. Day 14 is defined by number 1 and symbol 14,
day 15 by number 2 and symbol 15. Day 20 is defined by number 7 and
symbol 20. Day 21 by number 8 and symbol 1. As 13 is not a factor of 20
the same pair do not re-occur for 260 days and then a new sacred year
starts.
The Xiuhpohualli - The
Aztec Seasonal Calendar?
• This calendar defines a year of 18 months, each of 20 days, and
five extra days, 365 days in total. These extra days were
considered unlucky and so very little was done on them. Each year
had a name and number combination as did the days in the The
Tonalpohualli but this time there were only 52 such combinations
before repeating. This series was known as a 'bundle'.
DAY SIGNS
• Day signs
• The set of day signs used in central Mexico is identical to
that used by Mixtecs, and to a lesser degree similar to
those of other Mesoamerican calendars.
• Each of the day signs also bears an association with one
of the four cardinal directions.