Related Directory Categories
- Calendar (4)
Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Aztec calendar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 sun stone currently on exhibit in the National Museum of Anthropology and History located within Chapultepec Park, Mexico City.
The calendar consisted of a 365 day calendar cycle called xiuhpohualli(year count) and a 260 day ritual cycle called tonalpohualli (day count). 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.[1] (See heliacal rising.)
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.
Contents |
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 twenty day signs are depicted in the calendar image to the right. They are arrayed in a circle surrounding the central face:
- Cipactli (alligator, aquatic monster) (East)
- Éhecatl (wind, wind god) (North)
- Calli (house) (West)
- Cuetzpalin (lizard) (South)
- Cóatl (serpent, snake) (E)
- Miquiztli (death) (N)
- Mázatl (deer) (W)
- Tochtli (rabbit) (S)
- Atl (water) (E)
- Itzcuintli (dog) (N)
- Ozomatli (monkey) (W)
- Malinalli (dead grass) (S)
- Ácatl (reed) (E)
- Océlotl (ocelot, jaguar) (N)
- Quauhtli (eagle) (W)
- Cozcaquauhtli (king buzzard, vulture) (South)
- Ollin (motion, earthquake) (East)
- Técpatl (flint, flint knife) (North)
- Quiáhuitl (rain) (West)
- Xóchitl (flower) (South)
These day signs would be combined with numbers, for example: 1 Cipactli, 2 Eecatl, 3 Calli, and so on to 13 Acatle, which was followed by 1 Ocelotl, 2 Quauhtli, etc. There being no common factor to the numbers 13 and 20, a period of 13 x 20 days, or 260, would elapse before the sign 1 Cipactli would recur. This period of 260 days constituted the divinatory or ritual calendar, known as tonalpohualli. The tonalpohualli was subdivided in various ways; in some manuscripts (known as 'tonalamatl' or 'book of days') each of the twenty 13-day periods, or weeks, is shown separately, together with the figure of a god who was especially associated with the first day, but whose influence was supposed to extend over the whole "week". In some manuscripts the tonalpohualli is arranged on a different system: in five long horizontal rows of 52 days each. Each row, and each vertical column of five days, is provided with a presiding deity symbol, the influence of which must be assessed.