Nahuatl - Aztec Language and Writing

The Aztecs were an elite solidierly empire found in Central Mexico at the beginning of the 16th Century C.E.  Aztecs originated in northern Mexico, but soon found fertile, settled land in the Valley of Mexico at 14th Century C.E., a place already divided by city states.  It was here, in the marshes of Lake Texcoco, that the Aztecs built their new city, Tenochtitlan.

Nahuatl is the language that the Aztec spoke, a language spoken by the majority of Central Mexico, as well as large parts of MesoAmerica.  The language itself resembles Mixtec (1200 C.E.-1600 C.E.) for in both, dots are used for numbers less than twenty, styles for compound signs are similar, and both used heavily painted scenes with short texts for narratives instead of longer texts.

Nahuatl writing was used mainly for three things:  to write the names of people and places, to record (mathematical) calculations and, it's core function, to mark calendrical dates, most importantly the Tonalpuhualli.  In addition to calendrical and numeric signs, logograms (a grapheme which represents a word or a morpheme) were used to mark down historical events or to write down personal names and names of places.  Only pictorial representations of events have been found for the Nahuatl writing system; none have been found with long texts to record history.

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Tonatiuh

Tonatiuh, the skull represented at the centre of the Aztec Calendar, was a Sun god.  Responsible for supporting the universe, Tonatiuh was considered the fifth sun in a line of four other suns that had been created for the same purpose and each having died at the end of their own cosmic era.

Tonatiuh was in charge of the Aztec Heaven called Tollan - a place where only women who died during childbirth and dead warriors would be allowed entry.

To sustain Tonatiuh is his movement across the sky as well as attempt to thwart the 'end of days' scenarios and ruthless demons they believed would be unleashed on Earth, the Aztecs felt an obligation to regularly 'feed' the Sun god through human sacrifice.  The end of a 52 year cycle (Round) involved a nation-wide cleansing ritual.  All fires were to be extinguished and there was to be the opened chest of a sacrificial victim in which a fire would be built, to show the symbolic rekindling of the Sun.

On the Aztec Calendar, on either side of Tonatiuh's face there are bird-like claws, clutching human hearts.  His 'tongue', actually a sacrificial flint knife, was the only kind used to slash open the chest of the sacrificial warriors during the ritualistic murders.  These features symbolized Tonatiuh's adamance and insistence on human sacrifice.

Differences between Aztec & Mayan Calendars

The Aztec and Maya civilizations shared many things in common, including religion, social hierarchy and the use of "Calendar Rounds"-an intricate system of calendars used to mark their days.

Both calendars were created based on a number system using 20 instead of 10.  Although the calendars were very similar, the Aztecs only used two calendars unlike the Mayans who used three, as well as never combining the two to create Long Count dates.

There were two calendars the Aztecs used - both focusing on seperate aspects of time, and each for a different purpose.  The Solar Calendar (260 day cycle broken into 20 periods of 13 days) was used to determine the best ways to plant, harvest, build or go to war.  The other calendar, Counting of Years (360 days divided into 18 periods of 20 days) was considered sacred.  The five days left over were used for self-reflection, festivals and when human sacrifices were made.  The days would only align every 52 years due to the different number of days in each calendar.

The Mayans used a complex system of three seperate calendars: the Tun-Uc, the Haab and the Tzolk'in.  The Tun-Uc was the shortest, broken into four cycles of seven days and followed the simple cycle of the moon.  The Haab, used for planting, harvesting and other important events, had 18 months of 20 days, including an additional month for the five 'extra days'.  The 'evil' of these days was counteracted by rituals, festivals and sacrifices.  The Tzolk'in was a sacred calendar, based on the movement of the Pleiades (a cluster of seven stars in the constellation of Taurus).

The 'Calendar Round', a combination of the Tzolk'in and the Haab, were used to produce a cycle of 18,980 days.  From this combination, Long Count dates were calculated.  Under this system, December 21, 2012 will mark the end of the Long Count cycle.

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