The Aztecs had an excellent understanding of astronomy, the study of the movements of the stars and planets. They mapped the movements of these heavenly bodies and realized the clear relationship between these movements and the passage of time.
The Aztec calendar was far more complex than the calendar used today. In fact, they had two calendars that followed separate cycles. One calendar covered 365 days. It had 18 months that lasted 20 days each, with a five-day period at the end to even out the year. The five-day period was believed to be highly unlucky, and it was expected that disasters would occur during this evil time.
The Rabbit in the Moon
When they looked at the moon, Europeans thought they could see a person's face—the "man in the moon." The Aztecs saw something completely different—a rabbit.
According to an Aztec legend, when the moon first appeared, it was as bright as the sun. The gods wanted to make a clear distinction between night and day, so one of them threw a rabbit against the moon to make it darker. The rabbit struck hard, and its body left a permanent mark. The face of the moon was bruised and the dark, rabbit-shaped mark has remained for all time.
Water, rabbit, deer, and skull (death). Each name had a specific glyph that appeared on the calendar. On the second wheel were the numbers 1 to 13. When the two wheels moved together, each day name appeared next to a number. The numbers continued to repeat until the 20 day names and 13 numbers reached 260 days, marking the complete religious calendar.
Once every 52 years, the 260-day calendar and the 365-day calendar ended on the same day and then started again. Thus, the Aztecs divided time by groups of 52 years. This time grouping would be similar to the modern concept of centuries.
The Calendar Stone
The Aztecs who lived in Tenochtitlan had no need for a calendar hung on the wall. they had the calendar Stone—a carved, circular stone calendar that weighed 24 tons and measures 12 feet across and 3 feet thick. it was carved from a single piece of basalt rock.
The calendar Stone was buried under rubble when the Spanish conquered tenoch-titlan. it remained hidden for 250 years. then, in 1790, workers making repairs to the cathedral in mexico city found the stone. it is now kept in mexico city's National museum of Anthropology.
The stone is not really a calendar, but a visual image of the Aztecs' view of the cosmos and time. in the stone's center is the face of tlaltecuhtli, the earth goddess. She is looking up through the solar disk (the stone would have been placed flat on the ground). She is associated with the fifth creation or age, which goes by the calendar name four motion. Surrounding tlaltecuhtli are the signs associated with the four creations that came before the current one.
The earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli is at the center of this massive calendar stone, which illustrates the Aztec conception of time and space.
The carvings on the stone are highly detailed. they feature the 20 animals associated with the days of the month in the 260-day calendar. the stone also shows serpents and scenes of the four worlds said to have existed before present-day earth. the intricate artwork of the stone is even more amazing considering the fact that the Aztecs had only stone tools.
World History
