Enrique Juan Palacios

“ The great stone of the museum, Cyclographic Stone of the pre-Columbian civilizations of America, is certainly the stone of the history of the world, according to the cosmogony and beliefs of the Indians, and in particular of the history of the constructing race up to the moment when the monolith was erected. We know of no people which has raised another more admirable and marvelous. ”

“ Each flame is the emblem of a spark of light, of an irradiation of solar fire through the universe, irradiation which in the life of the orb is like a flash, but which for the limited existence of man attains the term of a cycle of 416 years. Being twelve flames of the entire round, there result 4,992 years, date for which we shall later seek associations. ”

“ The same sign is seen, among celestial signs, in the pages of the tonalámatl; and here we recall that in the Mixtec codex from Santa Maria Yolotepec there is a butterfly placed upon a throne. It is to be noticed also that this figure is the motif par excellence of many worked stones in the museum and of stones, slabs, Columns, and figures of great size.
It seems more natural that a primitive people should take into account, at the solemn moment of making the new fire, the movements of a great constellation like this butterfly than of the little group of the Pleiades. ”

“ The sign which adorns the forehead constitutes one of the enigmas of the monument and has given rise to the most divergent opinions: among others that it is the phonetic of the word Mexico, an unsustainable supposition. Its importance is, beyond doubt, capital. It has been claimed that the two numerals that accompany it express Ome ácatl, symbol of the correction of the calendar. No thesis is apparently more substantial, more interesting, more plausible. There is none which we ourselves would more desire to see fully confirmed. ”

“ The little stars alternate with técpatl or flint knives, symbol expressive of luminous gleams, sparks, flashings: the glyph unquestionably treats of a constellation.
We have analyzed and discussed the glyphs of the relief, avoiding arbitrary assumptions so far as possible. The majority of our interpretations are supported in important monuments, and among themselves they are found in harmony on the stone, the explanation of which results congruent, complete, and unitary. It could not be otherwise: a monument of such magnitude necessarily responds to a clear and logical thought. ”

“ Of the cosmogonic ages figured in the four rectangles, we know nothing to add to the masterly study of Don Alfredo Chavero; but we understand him to have erred as to their duration, determined by the very numerals inscribed in the rectangles. The illustrious archaeologist did not restrict his attention to them, preferring to resort to the chronology of the Vatican Codex, not entirely happy in our judgment. ”

“ In developing the calendar of the star, the periods of 584 days are begun with the symbols Cipactli, Cóatl, Atl, Acatl, and Ollin, and continuing the series of Venus years, the same characters are repeated in identical order, giving for result that of the twenty day signs of the native month; only five preside over the revolutions of the star, a fact discovered by the learned Seler. The number results eminently symbolical of the planet. We have then a little cycle of five revolutions of Venus equal to eight solar years, which are 2,920 days. ”

“ What could this be except that symbolized in the tails of the emblematic beings, the cycle of 52 years? The native belief that serpents carry their age marked in this part of their body is well known.
The result has been the number 5,120 of the Indian chronology. Related to our calendar, starting from the year 5097, which we already know was the year 700 of the vulgar era, we find it to be 1323 of the Christian Era. The date not only belongs sharply to the Aztec history, but is in a certain sense the most important in its annals, since it was the date of the founding of Mexico. ”

“ We are about to commence again the count of time. And they did so with the commencement of the following year, Ce técpatl, which was the 5,097th year from the creation. And they added that this age would have to end through terrestrial calamities, after 4X416 years, since the preceding ages had come to end through the force of water, of air, and of fire, because so the two lords of heaven, who come together every 8 and 104 years, will it. And they decided to record it in a monument, strong and eternal as time, that it should be preserved in the history of the world. ”

“ DATES We arrive at the important matter of the dates inscribed upon the famous monolith. One only has until today been definitely fixed by archaeologists: the 13-ácatl sculptured within a frame between the tails of the serpents. It is the prominent date of the stone, the one engraved with the most deliberate purpose; its position shows it such. ”

“ As an original and most valuable contribution to human culture it left, as we have already said, its arts and calendar, which is based totally on astronomical observations. Arts, history, and calendar are found in synthesis in the stone of the museum. ”

“ How not to record permanently the account of that reunion in which had been condensed the wisdom, the legends, and even the auguries and predictions of a race which lived ever scrutinizing the secret of the firmament! No more fitting means existed than to sculpture it in indestructible material, which should preserve the marvelous secret for following ages. ”

“ The thesis of Gama may be admitted with respect to those whose general interpretation of the monument, we may say in passing, is the only one among all those that have been offered that maintains a respectable footing. Our reading of the stone is not unreconcilable with the thesis that the relief might serve in the manner of a sundial, vertically placed, with the face toward the south, and that the shadows of some gnomons have indicated the hours of the day and the time of the spring equinox and the summer solstice. ”

“ Rare must be the traveler who does not admire the architecture of the metropolitan cathedral, whose towers, crowned by bell-shaped terminations, majestically distinguish it among all the basilicas of the world. ”

“ The third age concluded in the year 4992, which is just 12 complete cycles of 416 years, and ended by terrestrial calamities (wars, eruptions, earthquakes, etc.) , “ . . . . those of this earth had another destruction, who were the giants; and thus also many of the Toltecs died in the year Ce técpatl (4993) ; and this age they called Tlacchitonatiuh (sun of earth) .” In it Ixtlilxóchitl places the Ulmecas and the Xicalancas, gives data
regarding Quetzalcóatl, and speaks of the first pyramid of Cholula. The destruction of the giants (quinamétzin) marked the end of the era in 4093. ”

“ The ear ornament possesses distinctive value in the representations of deities. More is not necessary for our purpose; it suffices to affirm that the sun is the star represented in this figure.
What star can it be that the other serpent symbolizes? It is not necessary to meditate long in order to understand it: it is Quetzalcóatl or Venus, the beautiful twin or the plumed serpent, a deity often actually represented in this latter form. Symmetry compelled the artifice of representing by another plumed serpent the corresponding solar cycle ”

“ As Beyer has said, many of the principal theories offered do not stand scientific criticism. The central face and the four quadrangles which inclose the symbols of the ages have been satisfactorily explained; there are hypotheses, susceptible of verification, concerning the dates inscribed near to the sun’s face; the fives, the solar glyphs, the pentagons, and the dots of the body of the serpents have been counted, but only of the last does any reasonable explanation exist (Chavero hit the mark very well in the interpretation of the 104 solar glyphs) ”

“ Chavero believes another thing: that the dates indicate the days on which the sun passes by the zenith of the city (May 17 and June 26) , which is possible and can be tested by experiment; but it cannot be fitted with the theory that the stone had to be placed horizontally. Various modern interpreters of the stone have fallen into this error; adopting in general the explanation of the dates proposed by Gama, they claim that the stone had to be laid down, as Chavero affirms; without observing that the theory of the first archaeologist requires the vertical position of the monolith. ”

“ The vast knowledge of the German writer and his extensive journeys suggested to him various relations between the constructors of the stone, the Asiatics, and peoples of Southern America, an idea fecund in a certain way, but which has brought more ills than advantages to our archaeology, leading many investigators to devote their energies to tracing foreign affinities, instead of studying in themselves the products of the culture of Anahuac. ”

“ It is necessary to exhaust this aspect of the matter, because the fact that the stone embodies Toltec ideas is not irreconcilable with the fact that Mexicans were its constructors. We have said that many reasons exist for maintaining that the Mexicans were a later branch from the same trunk as the Toltecs. If we admit that artificers and astronomers of the time of Axayácatl are the constructors of the relief, it would be desirable to ascertain what circumstance might influence their minds to erect the monument at the time claimed. ”

“ By error, in the edition made by Chavero, the date 4996 appears; but as the Texcocan chronicler himself adds that between this date and that of 5097 or Ce técpatl, with which the Toltecs began their era, there was an interval of 104 years, it is evident that the year is 4992. This is that which the flames of the relief indicate; the value which we have attributed to them is thus confirmed. Adding the number of 104 years, of the meeting of the heads, we arrive exactly at the 5096 of the world in the chronology of the Indians, which was a 13-ácatl year. ”

“ Orion shows clearly the form of a great butterfly, in which we ourselves recognize the beautiful Itzpapálotl (butterfly of obsidian knives, or of sparks) of the Indians. The Aztecs, not seeing in the said constellation the figure of a warrior, but that of a gigantic butterfly of brilliant sparkling (a more beautiful conception) , must have considered it formed of seven principal stars, three of the belt and four of the great parallelogram, whose corners correspond to the eyes of the butterfly‘s wings. ”

“ And as religion and time measurement formed with the observation of the heavens one single body of ideas, the stone came to be actually the sum total of the mythologico-astronomical conceptions of the natives. ”

“ Veytia says, alluding to the Toltecs, that “ the future ages will be equal to the past.” Therefore their duration appears to be indicated on the relief with the four numerals inclosed in each rectangle, and of which we have not yet treated. Now one conjecture regarding their significance offers itself to us: each one of these represents a great cycle of 416 years and between them all 1,664, exact length of the three periods gone by. It may be said that the stone confirms with mathematical exactness the chronology of Ixtlilxóchitl, followed by Boturini and Veytia ”

“ As to the human heads inclosed in the throats of the serpents, the mode of interpretation has been most varied. While Dr. Valentini attributed them to the reformer of the chronology (Votan according to some authors) , Don Alfredo Chavero affirms that they are Ometecuhtli, that is to say, that they relate to fire as creator or dios dos (two-god) . This conception of duality has greatly preoccupied the archaeologists—now in a general and vague form calling the figures creative duality, and even double duality, or the tetranary concept (Mrs. Nuttall) ”

“ Incapable of categorically undoing the difficulty, we will only venture a conjecture: the glyph considered is that distinctive of the orb itself, since it also appears on the forehead of the solar snake of the same relief. The numerals might indicate that the chronological value of the face ought to be taken twice in some computation. What might this be? The central zone of the relief, circumscribed by the serpents, by its position on the face of the monument easily denotes the present epoch, or the historic sun. ”

“ There are reasons to believe that the first Tula, or at least the ancient place of origin of the people of Huemántzin, lay to the southeast, in the famous kingdom of the Quich’es of Chiapas, race with which the Ulmecas present more than one affinity, and the first noticed of which date back to about a thousand years B.C. Only the southern fertility and the opulent resources of that zone could engender in primitive times a culture such as that attained by that people. When the Toltecs established themselves on the Plateau, we must believe that they were already civilized. ”

“ The two upper groups present thirteen signs; and each one of the lower, twelve, it being necessary to presume the missing one, hidden by the plumes of the serpents which adorn this part of the stone. In total they sum up four groups of thirteen glyphs of the same form, the significance of which is somewhat of the most important which the relief contains; there is concentrated not only its own significance, but that of many of the other aboriginal monuments. It explains the tenacity with which the glyphs guard their secret. ”

“ In the course upon Mexico, which has been given repeatedly to my students at the University of Chicago during the last twenty-five years, we have always devoted some time to the study of the "Aztec Calendar Stone." As a specimen of native American art it is of extraordinary interest ”