Central part of Aztec Calendar Mexico is a land of ancient cultures, ever present in our daily life. History surrounds us. Digging for the subway stations of Mexico City unearthed treasures we little imagined. The Plaza de las Tres Culturas combines a pyramid, a colonial church and skyscrapers. We live among symbols of time, and measuring time has long been a preoccupation of our peoples. There is evidence, according to Jacques Soustelle, of humans as far back as 20,000 years ago in what is now central Mexico, though Normand Hammond places this figure closer to 11,000 years. They made stone javelin heads and killed mammoths. They were nomads. Agriculture probably began with squash around 6,500 BC. More foods were added until corn was cultivated by the fourth century BC; the nomadic groups formed peasant villages. About 1500 BC, the settlements began to grow into great population centers. Pottery was used for figures and artwork, not merely utilitarian objects. The Olmecs were the first peoples in Mesoamerica to attain the level of complexity we call civilization. Their legacy includes sculptures, carvings, ceremonial centers oriented astronomically and placed apart from the dwellings of the people, as well as the worship of some deities. They were not discovered until 1862, when José María Melgar found one of their characteristic giant heads in Hueyapan, Veracruz. And it was not until 1925, that Frans Blom and Oliver La Farge began a systematic exploration of the Mexican southeast. But archeologists are convinced that many of the cultural traits of Mesoamerica originate with these mysterious peoples who lived within our territory over a thousand years before Christ. They were first called Olmecs by Hermann Beyer in 1927. He chose this term, meaning Rubber Men, because the Aztecs referred to the Gulf coast as Olman, Land of Rubber. In the archeological sites of La Venta and Tres Zapotes, there are markings that correspond to the calendrical annotations later used by the Maya in their 260 day sacred calendar. But these antedate Mayan civilization by some 1,000 years. Jacques Soustelle believes that the long count, the 365 day calendar, may also have been developed toward the end of the Olmec period. By A.D. 300, their centers were abandoned, though no one knows why. It is the Maya, however, reaching their peak in Mexico and Central America around 250 – 900 A.D., who perfected this wonderfully complex system of calendars. Indeed, the above dates for the Classic period were chosen because they represent the range found in the many inscriptions and monuments the Maya used to record their history. We might bear in mind that the Old World was still using lunar calendars until Julius Caesar commissioned a solar one in 46 BC. The Maya were advanced astronomers and mathematicians, who depicted their numbers by bars and dots. They are the inventors of the zero and positional numeration. Their numerical system was based on 20, rather than our ten. It has been suggested that this derived from counting fingers and toes, as opposed to only fingers. They were the first people of the New World known to record their history through a very developed system of writing and measuring time. The Mesoamerican system for time measurement, which spanned many cultures and centuries, includes are two basic forms of calendrical cycles and a cumulative count from a single base in the past. Maya numbers from 1 to 20 The sacred, or ritual calendar, the tzolkin to the Maya, consisted of 260 days: 13 months of 20 days. The numbers and names are used in a progression so that they only coincide every 260 days. There has been much speculation as to the origin of this period. It has been suggested that it may be connected to the cycles of Mars and Venus, or the time between human conception and birth. It was used to calculate the exact times rituals must be performed for the gods, as well as for naming babies, reading omens and fortune telling. The solar calendar, or haab, consisted of 365 days: 18 months of 20 days each plus a period of five days that were so unlucky they were not even named. They were known as the uayeb, and anything undertaken during that period risked danger and even death. This calendar had to do with seasons and agriculture, the more mundane aspects of life. The sacred and the solar calendars proceeded simultaneously so that any day could be designated in either or both calendars. Since the two cycles are unequal in length, a day with both names the same only occurs every 52 years. This period was known as the Calendar Round, or the Bundle of Years. It was a period particularly to be feared, as the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica believed that the world could come to an end at such a time, much as many people today fear the end of the millennium. It was a very important period for both the Maya and the Aztecs. The Long Count, or cumulative count of days, seems to have fallen into disuse with the collapse of the Classic Maya period. Parts of it, however, such as the katun (20 years) and the baktun (400 years) were reported to missionary Diego de Landa shortly after the Conquest, in the mid 16th century. There is also evidence of a Great Cycle of 13 baktuns or 5,200 years, and there are annotations for periods measuring up to 64 million years. The long count began on a day which, by the estimations of Goodman-Martínez-Thompson, would be August 10th of the year 3114 BC. This was probably the first time a starting date was used in measuring time, as we now use the birth of Christ in our calendars. No one knows what this date commemorates. It was centuries before there is any evidence of the Maya, or even the Olmecs. glyph indicating the beginning of the long count The Maya, an intellectual and spiritual people, conceived time as a sacred journey. All time periods and their numbers were deities, who carried their allotted spans on their backs, and put them down to rest at night. This imagery and the association of time with the gods gave rise to many of the rituals and artwork of our indigenous peoples. The main cities of the Maya were also abandoned -again no one knows why- and their civilization went into decline, though descendants of this ethnic group remain in many parts of Mexico today. The Post Classic Period saw an influx of nomadic tribes and the rise of new cities. The Toltecs were among the most important of these groups until the arrival of the Mexica or Aztecs around A.D. 1300. These were poorly received and considered barbarians. But they cultivated their skill as warriors, founded Mexico-Tenochtitlan, and conquered the peoples surrounding them. Between 1430 and 1500 they established a vast empire extending the length and breadth of Mexico. The Aztecs derived much of their religious ideology from the earlier cultures of Mesoamerica. This was particularly true during the final phase of their empire, when their foreign contacts broadened. Indeed, much confusion about the Aztecs is due to the fact their civilization was still in a process of assimilation and reorganization of these varied religious traditions when they in turn were conquered. The Aztecs or Mexica worshiped the gods by means a complex calendar of great ceremonies, which were held at the temples and were performed by a professional priesthood. They believed that the gods must be constantly appeased in order for the human race to survive. And the priests, who were the only ones able to interpret the complex calendar, had to determine the exact moment for offerings and sacrifices to the various gods. Hence, the calendrical system perfected by the Maya became central to their culture. The Aztecs changed the names of the days and months to their own language, and used a different notation for the dates. The nemontemi, was the name the Mexica gave to the empty days at the end of every year. During those five days, fires were put out, the people fasted and all work was suspended. On the fifth day, when the priests discovered astronomical proof that the world was not going to end, a victim was sacrificed and his heart was cut out. The new fire was ignited in his chest cavity and, from it, all of the fires for temples and homes were lit. The gods had been appeased yet again, and life could continue for another year. Sun Stone The great Aztec Calendar, or Sun Stone, which is now at the National Museum of Anthropology, is a depiction of the sun god Tonatiuh, surrounded by four panels honoring previous incarnations of the deity, and representing the previous ages of the world. They are bordered by the Aztec symbols for the months. The stone, 3.7 meters in diameter and weighing about 25 tons, was discovered in Mexico City in 1790. It is frequently used as a symbol of Mexico. And it brings us to the Mesoamerican creation myth. There are some variations, but in general the peoples of the region believed that there had been four worlds before ours. Each one is named after a date and came into being with the creation of a sun, and each ended with destruction of that sun together with humankind, by means of a catastrophe. According to one Aztec version, the first sun was called Four Jaguar (sometimes it is called Four Tiger). And the people living under that sun were destroyed by jaguars, the animal aspect of the god Tezcatlipoca. Four Wind was the next sun, and its people were destroyed by a magical hurricane that transformed them into monkeys (turkeys in some versions). Four Rain was ended by a rain of fire. And Four Water came to its close in a great flood. The Maya and the Aztecs both believed they were the people of the fifth sun. One Aztec version, reported by Miguel León-Portilla, tells that this sun was created in Teotihuacan. When all was still dark, the gods gathered there and asked who would take it upon himself to make light, to make days. Two gods offered themselves: Tecuziztécatl and Nanahuatzin. They offered sacrifices, but Tecuziztécatl was proud and made empty, showy offerings, while the other was more devout. When the time came for the gods to throw themselves into the fire, Tecuziztécatl held back and it was Nanahuatzin who became the sun. Tecuziztécatl was then shamed and threw himself on the fire second, becoming the moon. But these heavenly bodies were stationary in the sky. The rest of the gods consulted amongst themselves and, finally, all threw themselves on the fire and perished to give the fifth sun movement. This sun is called Four Movement and is the sun of movement, and the people living under it are the deserving ones, because they were worthy of the sacrifice of the gods. It will end, they believed, in earthquakes, possibly within the 21st century. The early civilizations of Mexico had a very close relationship with time. It was an important factor in their lives, not only in terms of seasons and agriculture, but closely bound to their spiritual life, and meticulously observed in omens and portents. One can hardly help comparing certain aspects of this preoccupation with the current interest in time awakened by the end of the millennium. Like the Maya, our cultures started counting time from a single day, the birth of Christ in our case, an unknown event in that of our Mesoamerican predecessors. We also share the idea that certain spans of time indicate a danger to humanity. To the Aztecs, fear and time were closely related. They believed that the gods must be periodically appeased, or mankind would perish. Today, 2000 years after the birth of Christ, many people the world over exhibit similar beliefs. Our technology, they say, will cause the downfall of the modern world. Prophets of doom abound, but others remain hopeful for humanity as the third millennium dawns and we stand on the threshold of a milestone in the sacred journey of time, so beautifully envisioned by the Maya. Some sources: Antología de Teotihuacan a los Aztecas, Miguel León Portilla editor, Lecturas Universitarias 11, UNAM, Mexico, 1983 Britannica CD 97 Hammond, Norman, Ancient Maya Civilization, Cambridge University Press, 1982 León-Portilla, Miguel, Los antiguos Mexicanos a través de sus crónicas y cantares, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Quinto Centario, México, 1988 Los Olmecas en Mesoamérica, John E. Clark Coordinator, El Equilibrista, Turner Libros, Mexico Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo, Vida y muerte en el Templo Mayor, Océano, Mexico, 1986 Soustelle, Jacques, Los Olmecas, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 1986 Thompkins, Peter, Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1976 Von Hagen, Victor W., Los Aztecas Hombre y Tribu, Editorial Diana, Mexico, 1967 Westheim, Paul, Arte Antiguo de México, Biblioteca Era, Mexico, 1991 Yucatan's Maya World Studies Center web site http://www.mayacalendar.com/mayacalendar/Home.html The Canadian Museum of Civilization web site http://www.civilization.ca/membrs/civiliz/maya/mmc06eng.html Aztec Calendar web site http://www.azteccalendar.com/index.html The Maya Civilization Page of Mexico Connect http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/ldumois/maya/mayanindex.html