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There was some discussion about the Aztec sun disk, and one person wasn't too interested (I know). Nevertheless, I'd like to add some things. The Aztec sun disk in NOT the Aztec calendar. It's name used to be Teoilhuicatlaluaztli-ollin tonamalchiotl = 'The great and venerable mechanism of the universe', but it is now called Cuauhxicalli = 'Eagle's bowl'. It's more of a mythological historical device to help the memory.
The center is the Sun god; surrounding it are the four destructions (first and hurricane and rain and flood); flanking the sun are the two astrologers, man and wife, who invented the calendar. Part of that are the four points of the year: two solstices and two equinoxes. Surrounding all that and counterclockwise are 20 signs for the days. Surrounding that are the squares with points: 5 x 10 x 4 = 200 days and the 8 big pointers make 60 + 200 = 260 days of the lunar reckoning (Metzli pohualli). For the solar reckoning (Tonal pohualli) there are 105 left going around that band; thus 105 + 260 = 365, with 5 of them as kernals of maize representing the intercalary days at the end of the year.
In the outer band there is a fire symbol, which represents the destruction of the world by the sun every 52 years, a time for sacrifice. There are pleats that bind two 52-year cycles into an age. The outside band is formed of two downward serpents (2 xiu-coatl 'fire-serpent').
This Aztec sun disk has no counterpart disk by the Mayans, but the Mayan calendar is similar to the Aztec calendar in time periods and far better developed.
Decades ago I got this from a book by John T. Short: The North Americans of antiquity, New York, 1880, Harper & Bros. I have much more on this. Carl

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linguist, Polish ancestry, Algonquianist, Chinese language, editor

Where's the previous discussion? I'm interested, and I wouldn't mind taking a look at it. The Mayan calendar was certainly more elaborate than the Mexica version (acounting as it did for longer periods of time) but no less elegant in my estimation. Both seem to have derived from a common ancestor, although I can't recall if that was Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec or whoever.
I wrote 'was' up there. I should probably write 'is'. 9 Ehecatl ~ 1 Ocelotl ~ 9 Tlacaxipehualiztli has a lot more going for it that Friday 9th March if you ask me. Not that you did.

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"For as long as the world shall endure, the honour and the glory of Mexico-Tenochtitlan must never be forgotten."
- Chimalpahin Quautlehuanitzin

War arrow,
In London, UK, could you go find that 1880 book in some good library? Failing that, please e-mail me (cmasthay@juno.com) your regular mailing address, and I'll photocopy my few full-bodied pages and send it to you for futher contemplation. One cannot assume that the iconography truly matches someone's nineteenth-century interpretation, but it's better than nothing!
I should add that the 'movement' ollin "A" symbol is in the disk too.
Carl

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linguist, Polish ancestry, Algonquianist, Chinese language, editor

these are a couple of posts from the two spirits thread, the first is a response to anniecha about my avatar.

the second is a post that i thought would help explain the workings of the aztec calendar.
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Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 5:09 pm Post subject:
it is a mosaic and represents ollin(movement)

there are many variants as to its active principle such as a day sign and trecena of the aztec calendar.
http://www.azteccalendar.com/day/Ollin.html

http://www.azteccalendar.com/trecena/Ollin.html

as you probably know, the ollin or x sign also is present in medicine wheels,navajos also used the ollin sign in many of their sand paintings.

perhaps your tribe also used the ollin sign, but could have incorporated its appearance within a animals gestures or perhaps totem carvings depicting
movement as a designing factor.
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Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:00 pm Post subject:

the sunstone or the more common name the aztec calendar is more a representation of the aztec calendar rather than the actual calendar.

here is a picture of how a actual calendar wheel might have looked, whether it be aztec or mayan.

http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient ... hsc08b.htm

i should note that there were and are two different calendars in use, the sun calendar that represents three hundred and sixty five days in a cycle.

and the celestial calendar that represents two hundred and sixty nights in a cycle.

"Lost King of the Maya"




PBS Airdate: February 13, 2001

His name is Yax K'uk Mo'. His spirit haunts this valley, deep in the rainforest of Honduras. He is the legendary founder of Copan, a Maya city mysteriously abandoned over 1000 years ago. For 400 years, his dynasty of Holy Lords rules a kingdom through hallucinogenic visions, ritual warfare and human sacrifice.

If the legend of Yax K'uk Mo' is true, then scientists believe he must be buried here, beneath this massive temple pyramid. One-hundred-thirty feet down and 1600 years back in time, anthropologist Robert Sharer burrows deep into the pyramid, searching for the bones of Yax K'uk Mo'.

After 10 years of excavating and tunneling, following lines left from plaster floors long ago buried, Sharer uncovers an immense underground temple. On a vibrantly colored stucco panel, carved with symbols only recently decoded, is the name of the legendary first king of Copan, Yax K'uk Mo'.

If the legend of Yax K'uk Mo' is true, then scientists believe he must be buried here, beneath this massive temple pyramid. One-hundred-thirty feet down and 1600 years back in time, anthropologist Robert Sharer burrows deep into the pyramid, searching for the bones of Yax K'uk Mo'.

After 10 years of excavating and tunneling, following lines left from plaster floors long ago buried, Sharer uncovers an immense underground temple. On a vibrantly colored stucco panel, carved with symbols only recently decoded, is the name of the legendary first king of Copan, Yax K'uk Mo'.

To resurrect the voice of the Maya, scholars must overcome one of the most tragic losses in history—that of the Maya code.

For centuries, the Maya created thousands of books made of bark and covered with hieroglyphs. But in the 1500s when the Spanish conquer Central America, the Spanish priests declare the strange books to be the work of the devil and burn them. A thousand years of knowledge and the key to understanding the Maya writing go up in smoke.

One of the first things that was deciphered about 100 years ago was the calendar system. And I have an example of it here from an ancient Maya book, a facsimile of one, where we have an example of a date written with five numbers using bars and dots. That's the way Maya represented numbers between one and 19. A bar was a five, and a single dot was a one. So, if we look at this column for example, right here, we have five numbers, the top one being an eight, the next down is an eleven, then after that an eight, and a seven. And then this football-shaped sign is the way the ancient Maya wrote a zero sometimes.

Their knowledge of the number system helped early scholars discover that the Maya books were celestial almanacs. The Maya could chart the 365-day solar cycle, predict solar and lunar eclipses, and even track the complex orbit of Venus. Amazingly, their Venus almanac is accurate to within two hours every 500 years. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2804maya.html

The Knowledge of the south Amerindians, they were advance in engineering and experienced in working in wet land conditions. To build a structure in a small wetland area would be a small task for them? (ie.) Birch Island Triangle it's contruction may be older than the money pit.
To discredit them of the construction of the Oak Island enigma would be ignorance? there books were stupidly burnt out of ignorant behavior, if some ones don't understand they discredit or burn it?
http://www.firstnations.com/forum/viewt ... &start=105

Keith, 2007 A.D

http://kr.mendhak.com
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Mr. Keith Ranville is a self-taught researcher

http://oakislandmoneypitblogspotcom.blogspot.com/