Toube Miller 2

7/29/2019 Toube Miller 2

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times invented terms like the pseudo-YucatecMaya tzolkin to refer to the count of 260days. The Aztecs called it the tonalpohuail,and the book in which it was recorded thetonalamatl. No other book in Mesoamericawas so important to the diviner, for the 260-ddy almanac was the fundamental guide tothe future, and every day and number offeredclues for interpretation. Gifts and short-comings were bestowed by one's date ofbirth, and those born on troublesome dayswere often renamed on more auspicious ones.Each one of the 20 day names had a specificassociation with a supernatuial patron, andmany had associations with natura phen-omena. The Maya and Aztec associations areas follows:

(Left) Butterfly warriorwith shield andspearthrower, Xelh,Quintana Roo, EarlyClassic period. Althoughfound in the Maya area,this mural painting is intypical Teotihuacan style.

CALENDAR

Maya, Yucatec nameI345678I10II12t374t5I6

t7I81920

Imix (waterlily)Ik (wind)Akbal (darkness)Kan (maize)Chicchan (celestial snake)Cimi (death)Manik (deer)Lamat (Venus)Muluc fiade, water)Oc (dog)Chuen (monkey)Eb (evil rain?)Ben (green maize)Ix fiaguar)Men (eagle)Cib (wax)Caban (earth)Edznab (flint)Cauac (storm)Ahau (lord)

Maya glyphcacao, fromexcavated atGuatemala,period.

to be readcacao vessel: Ro ,{zul,Early Classic

Caiman tree, detail ofIzapa Stela 25, ProtoclassicMaya. This tree probablyrefers to the great ceiba,which has a green spinytrunk reminiscent of thecarman.

Aztec nameCipacti (caiman)Ehecatl (wind)Calli (house)Cuetzpallin (lizard)Coat (snake)Miquiztli (death)Mazatl (deer)Tochtli (rabbit)Atl (water)Itzcuintli (dog)Ozomatli (monkey)Mainalli (grass)Acatl (reed)Ocelotl (.'aguar)Cuauhtli (eagle)Cozcacuauhtli(king vulture)Ollin (movement)Tecpatl (flint)Quiahuitl (rain)Xochitl (flower)

meaning, associationsurface of the earthwindnight, darkness, jaguarmaize, abundancesnakedeathdeerVenus, rabbitwaterdogmonkeyJaguareagle

earth, earthquakeflintrain, stormsun


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cycle, crezhed bYt is drawn here a Cthe days and mo ses (cnrter wheel) and 13 day numbers (inner

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will all reach this point again.1".i. *-t'"f ,.p.r""ting the 52 years of the yearbearer cycle, Manuscrit Tovar, l6th c

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countMaya held the numbers 7, 9, and 13 tosacred. Multiplied, they yield 819, theof days counted in a never-endingthat occasionally exists as separateinserted in the Supplementary Seriesan Initial Series. (Only 13 examplesknown.) No beginning date is knownthe cycle, but days are always countedfrom the Initial Series in order tothe last date on which the cycle wasThese 819-day references havedifferent stations, each associated withof the four cardinal DInEcrIoNs and itscolon.

of the NightMesoamerican calendars included acount of the Nine Lords of the Night,over the nighttime hours. TheNine Lords are known as the "G"of the Supplementary Series. Some ofNine Lords have been identifiedspecific gods: G7, for example, may wellthe jaguar-pawed patron of the monthis a pulnrun. The Maya Lords ofNight ran continuously through the LongSince the 360 days of the Maya funperfectly divisible by nine, every perioddate of the Long Count of a tun orincluded G9.The Aztec Lords of the Night werein the divinatory tonalamatl sectionmany of the Conquest-era manuscriptssurvive - sometimes with notations inscript, which facilitate their identi-there was some variationtime and region, many of theLords were standard, and the cycleran: xIUHTEcuHrlr, Itztli or Tecpatl,clNrnorl, MIstLANrEcuHrLI,TLzoLTEorL, Tepeyollotl,ruloc. Each one of these nine godsheld an association with one of thelevels of the uxpnnwonr,o. Unlike theseries, the Aztec series did not alwayscontinuously and sometimes began aneweach trecena.

o the Daywith the 13 levels of the heavens,birds served as patrons of the daytimeThey repeat in order, following theriumbers olthe trecena,or l3-day "week"the Aztecs. Jonathan Kendall has recentlyAlfonso Caso's identiffcations.

CALENDAR

A Long Count date fom Burial 48 at the Mayasite of Tikal, Guatemala. The date given -reading from top to bottom - is 9.1.I.10.10 4 Oc,or 9 baktuns, I katun, I tun, l0 uinals and l0kins, with the day name 4 Oc at the bottom. Inmodern terms this is 19 March lo 457.

Wffi3 G6Glyph C of the Supplementry Series, referringto the nine Lords of the Nlt, Late ClassicMaya.


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55also considered the fesh of uuu,rn sAcRIFIcEto be sacred food. The holy quality of humanflesh is most fully documented for the Aztecs'

used to sustain the gods, it aso served as avehicle for consuming divinity, that is, as aform of communion' Thus DEnYIMPERsoNTIoNwas a frequent component of Aztec sacrificialrites. When the victim embodied the deity,then one partook of the divine being throughthe consumption of human flesh.canoe The dugout canoe was the most com-mon form of boat in ancient Mesoamericaand was used by long-distance seafarers aswell as by more conventional travelers onlakes and rivers. Neither sails nor oarlockswere known in the Precolumbian world;skilled paddlers propelled the craft. Chris-topher Columbus, on his fourth and finalvoyage in 1502, encountered a huge Mayacanoe off the coast of Honduras, "as long asa galley and eight feet wide," manned by atlest two dozen crew, a captain, and assortedwomen and children, and with some sort ofcabin amidships. A trading vessel, this canoecarried cotton mantles, weapons, metalwork,pottery, and cacro. Mesoamerican canoes areusually shown, however, as much smalercraft, with gunwhales near the water. In artand wntrINc, Maya canoes sometimes bearthe glyph for wood, to indicate what materialthey were made of.In Maya iconography, canoes carry thedead through the precarious passage fromthe world of the living to the world of thedead. Like their human counterparts, godsalso travel by canoe. The cs.cs (rain gods)fish from canoes, and the PADDLER GoDs escortcharacters into the uNDERwoRLD' In the Mixteccodices, Mixtec kings frequently journeyoad, slow-s the Olmecwere prob-early civiliz-ation, and a number of miniature canoescarved of translucent blue-green lor havebeen recovered from Omec finds'captives In Mesoamerican combat, warriorssought not to kill opponents but to takecaptives alive on the field for subsequent

CAPTIVES

Cannibalism: the cooking and consumption ofhuman flesh, Floentine Codex, Book 4, l6th c'Central Mexico.

A rain god (Chac) paddling a canoecontaining the headdress and merchantbundle of God L, Dresden Codex,p. 43, Postclassic MaYa'

Bas-relief of acaptive("Danzante") atMonte Albn,Oaxaca, MiddleFormativeperiod.


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7lstone as well as air. These two sons create arrownns, andof the stonytheir garden,and humansi tial

;T:Maya and Central Mexican "."rujlccounts. The Mixtec creator couple are rep_resented in two of the ancient Mixtec ,"r""rr_folds, e Codex Vindobonensis and theSelden Roll, complete with the calendricalname of I Deer.According to a late l6th c. work of FrayAntonio de los Reyes, the first Mixtecsemerged from the center of the earth, whilelater gods and rulers were born from treesnear the sacred town of Apoala. In the ancientMixtec co fromthe earth stonemen. This

dawn ea :i;:;Mesoamerican peoples, gods and legendaryfigures were turned to stone at th. ffrrtdawning. The motif of tree birth, still presentin contemporary Mixtec mythology, is alsoillustrated in both the Vindoborinsis andSelden codices. See also ANcESTRL coupI-E.crossroads In native Mesoamerica, cross-roads were widely regarded as dangerousplaces inhabited by demons and illness. TheAztecs believed that they were the favoredplace of the fearsome crHUrErEo, and shrinesto thesepraced o ibelieved rtantplace to suchas items associated with social misdeeds orDrsEAsE. Grass brooms, a sign of punl.rcnrroN,are commonly seen with Central Mexicanrepresentations of crossroads.

cuauhxicalli Literally "eagle gourd,,, thecuaLthxicalli was the vessel in which theAztecs made their most sacred offerings,human r{EARrs. Real gourds, as well as fine.-lycarved stone objects, may have been used foicuauhxicallis at the time of the Conquest.The very oldest representations have teenfound at Chichen Iz, so the tradition maydate to the Toltec era or earlier. In the poror_vuu, the messenger owls are told to sacrifice

CUAUHXICALL]

Mixtec creation accounts: a scene of tree birth,Codex Vindobonensis, Late postclassic period.

Eagle-plumed cuauhxicallibowl containing hearts andblood, Codex Borbonicus,


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Toube Miller 2