When was aztec calendar made

The circular front panel, which has a huge diameter of around These represent a selection of native animals, like crocodiles, jaguars and eagles; natural elements, including wind, water and rain; some rudimentary markers of civilization, such as houses; shared features of humanity, including movement and death.

At the very center is the haunting face of a deity or a monster. Although there are debates about who or what is depicted, most commentators believe that it shows the sun god Tonatiuh, one of the most important deities in the Aztec pantheon.

What makes the image particularly ominous is that the figure is shown baring its dagger-like tongue and clutching a human heart in its claws. This is thought to represent a demand for blood through human sacrifice. Although it was previously thought that the monolith was carved in the late 15th century, new evidence and research have led scholars to different conclusions.

It was found that a glyph in the central disk represented the name of the Aztec ruler, Moctezuma II, who ruled between and Although the Aztec Empire expanded to its peak under the reign of Moctezuma, it also eventually fell victim to the conquistadores , who took over the capital now Mexico City after the ruler himself was killed. The Spanish conquerors stated that the Sun Stone had been carved seven years before their invasion, in , although given that they also claimed it took 10, men to drag the rock, their records should not be relied upon for accuracy.

When the Aztec empire was conquered by the Spanish in , the conquistadores feared that their new subjects would continue practicing their terrifying religious rituals. In an attempt to put an end to the human sacrifices and sun worship, the Spaniards buried the Sun Stone upside down in the main square of what is now Mexico City. Over the centuries, the monolith became a ruin.

Traces of paint have been discovered in the pores of the stone, showing that it was once brightly colored. Any hint of paint has been rubbed off over the course of time. Beaten by the wind, rain, and the bullets of American soldiers, the stone was gradually eroded, until it was rehoused at the National Museum in The Sun Stone has left a great legacy, not only in history and academia, but also in popular culture.

In , the Calendar once again came into the spotlight as conspiracy theorists claimed that it foretold the imminent end of the world.

The next calendar the Aztecs followed was the vague year calendar that consisted of a day calendar broken up into 18 day months with five days left over. The day god and number of the first day of the vague year named vague years.

So if the beginning of the vague year fell on day god 2 Reed, then that would be the name of the vague year. Carving from the Aztec period of dedicated to the fifth sun, the era that the Aztecs believed they lived in according to the Aztec calender. The calendar is best represented by two calendar wheels , one that lists each day god in the day cycle and the other wheel shows each of the vague year days. Spun around together, it takes 52 years for a repeating of a vague year and day god together.

This year cycle was important to the Aztecs as they revered as a time of change that could make the current events more or less difficult depending on the signifying god days and their correlation to other celestial events.

The final calendar was the Aztec long calendar that tracked each year bundle of calendar cycles. The Aztecs used the long count calendar to track the patterns of civilization and celestial movements to determine the future outlook of an upcoming generational cycle.

The Gregorian calendar established in has 97 leap years in every It turns out that the Aztec calculation of an average The Sun Stone was hand-carved in the year period from to Because the double calendar determined the timing of sacrifices, the sacrificial stone was decorated with calendar marking. A glyph on the outer rim marks the date Reed, probably its creation date in the ritual calendar. Nearer the center, a circle of glyphs representing the 20 day names surrounds the face of the sun god.

When Mexico opened its modern, new National Museum of Anthropology in , the Sun Stone was given the central place of honor among , works of artistic and cultural relevance. American epigrapher and archaeologist David Stuart, who typically specializes in Maya hieroglyphs , has suggested that it may well be a deified image of the Mexica ruler Motecuhzoma II.

A hieroglyph at the top of the stone names Motecuhzoma II, interpreted by most scholars as a dedicatory inscription to the ruler who commissioned the artifact.

Stuart notes that there are other Aztec representations of ruling kings in the guise of gods, and he suggests that the central face is a fused image of both Motecuhzoma and his patron deity Huitzilopochtli. Scholars surmise that the basalt was quarried somewhere in the southern basin of Mexico, at least kilometers miles south of Tenochtitlan. Scholars suggest that it may have been used as an eagle vessel, a repository for human hearts quauhxicalli , or as a base for the final sacrifice of a gladiatorial combatant temalacatl.

After the conquest, the Spanish moved the stone a few hundred meters south of the precinct, in a position facing upward and near the Templo Mayor and the Viceregal Palace. Sometime between , the religious officials in Mexico City decided the image was a bad influence on their citizens, and the stone was buried facing down, hidden within the sacred precinct of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

The Sun Stone was rediscovered in December , by workmen who conducted leveling and repaving work on Mexico City's main plaza. The stone was pulled to a vertical position, where it was first examined by archaeologists. It stayed there for six months exposed to the weather, until June of , when it was moved into the cathedral. In , the disk was moved to the early Museo Nacional, where it was held in the monolithic gallery--that journey was said to have required 15 days and pesos.

In it was transferred to the new Museo Nacional de Anthropologia in Chapultepec Park, that journey only taking 1 hour, 15 minutes. Edited and updated by K. Kris Hirst. Berdan FF. Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory. New York: Cambridge University Press. Boone EH, and Collins R. The Petroglyphic Prayers on the.