"Great and Venerable Mechanism of the Universe"
those of you that would like to understand the Native Calendar a little better, there is
an animation at the bottom of the page that show how the gears turn. The first thing
to realize is that the calendar count was universal to the Americas, used by the Zapotec,
Huastec, Toltec, Aztec, Maya, Nahuas, etc... and utilizes the same mechanics. The
Aztec Calendar is no less accurate than the Mayan Calendar and conversely.
animation of the Native Time-keeping System follows the concepts as explained in Aztec
Calendar Handbook. The basis for this meshing-gear interpretive representation is
derived from written impressions of 16th century eyewitnesses and so configured to follow
those rules. The icon that is refered to as the Aztec Calendar is in fact from
Toltec science arriving at Tenochtitlan from Cholula in 1375, originating from Teotihuacan
before that. It is the calendar of the Fifth Sun, whose days were counted in
darkness. It began when two self-sacrificing human messengers were transformed into
spirits and woke up the Sun and Moon, thus saving the Earth.
This animation is 330K file
size. If you are on dail-up, it takes a few extra seconds to download.