The Importance of Time

Image taken from:http://wikis.lib.ncsu.edu/images/6/61/Aztec_calendar_stone.jpg

Day 5:

On the 5th day of excavation, we discovered a large Aztec sun stone hidden deep into the ground.  We figure that this is one of the most important artifacts of the Aztecs because of the importance of time to them.

Every aspect of Aztec life was coordinated by two calendars.  The first was a solar calendar called xiuhtlapohualli.  This calendar was made of 18 months, with 20 days in each month and 5 useless days at the end of the year called nemontemi.  Each month was named for a god and incorporated a religious festival dedicated to that god.  This calendar was connected to the seasons, and told the Aztec when the right time to plant and harvest their crops, when the market days would be held.  Each year began with a festival dedicated to Tlaloc, the rain god.

The tonalpohulli was the second important calendar and was a ritual calendar based on a 160 day cycle.  This calendar was composed of 13 numbers and 20 signs that represent an animal, a natural element such as water or grass, or an abstract idea like movement.  They combined to create 260 individually named days.  People were named for the day on this calendar on which they were born.  This calendar determined when many of their religious rituals and sacrifices should be performed.

These two calendars combined to form a 3rd calendar called the xiuhnolpilli.  This cycle had a cycle of 52 years, the time needed for the two calendars to finish their cycles and restart on the same days.  The Aztec believed that at the end of each 52 year period  that there was a possibility for the world's destruction, if sacrifice and specific rituals were not carried out.  All fires were doused, statues made of wood or stone were thrown into the lakes, and houses were throughly cleaned.  In the evening, people climbed onto their rooftops and prayed that the world was not going to end.  Priests tried to kindle a flame on a freshly sacrificed human heart, and if they succeeded, the sun and the world would not be destroyed.  The flames were then used to light the fires of everyone's homes.