Linked Data Explorer
Aztec calendar
- "The original sun stone, also called the Aztec calendar, is on display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It weighs 25 tons and has a diameter of eleven feet. The Aztec calendar is the calendar system that was used by the Aztecs as well as other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico. It is one of several from throughout ancient Mesoamerica that shared similar basic structures of the calendar. This calendar set out the mathematical formulas according to which the whole universe was organized and which governed the actions of men and Gods alike. The calendar is actually two: the Xiupohualli (the year count with 365 days used as the agricultural calendar, since it is based on the sun) and the Tonalpohualli (the day count with 260 days, considered to be the sacred calendar.), or the count of destiny. These two cycles together formed a 52 year "century," sometimes called the "calendar round." The calendar had to be consulted through the priests before people engaged in any activity, whether it was farming, warfare, religion or commerce. In addition to the count of the days, the calendar also has astronomical data such as the phases of the moon and Venus, and the years of Mercury and Mars. The calendar also mentions the four eras of humanity known as "suns" before our own: all ended in cataclysm. The sun that is now ours, the fifth one, Nahui Ollin ("four earthquake") is supposed to end by cataclysmic earthquakes. The Aztecs attributed the invention of the calendar to the God Quetzalcoatl."