Aztec calendar

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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 (Museo Nacional de Antropología), Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, D.F., Mexico.

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.Template:Ref (See heliacal rising.)

Each 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. Image:AztecSunStoneReplica.jpg

1 260 day cycle
- 1.1 Gallery of 20 day signs in the Aztec calendar
2 Note
3 See also
4 External links

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260 day cycle

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:

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.

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Gallery of 20 day signs in the Aztec calendar

Death, Snake, Lizard	Water, Rabbit, Deer	House, Wind, Alligator	Flower, Rain, Flint, Earthquake
Vulture, Eagle, Jaguar	Reed, Grass, Monkey, Dog

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Note

Template:Note Brad Schaefer (Yale University). Heliacal Rising: Definitions, Calculations, and some Specific Cases (Essays from Archaeoastronomy & Ethnoastronomy News, the Quarterly Bulletin of the Center for Archaeoastronomy, Number 25.)

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