Two different writing systems were developed by the ancient cultures of Oaxaca. Toward the end of the Formative period (around the time of Christ) Zapotec speakers in the Valley of Oaxaca invented a script that today is known through carved stone inscriptions at Monte Alban and other sites in that area. During the early part of the Postclassic period (ca. AD 900–1200), Mixtec speakers in the mountainous zone north of the Valley of Oaxaca worked out a pictographic writing system that survives in a number of painted pre-Hispanic manuscripts such as the Codex Nuttall. Most existing Mixtec books are historical accounts of the ruling dynasties of the Mixtec city-states. Compared with Classic Maya writing, Mixtec writing was limited in scope, capable of expressing only a narrow range of historical and ritual events. The origins of Aztec writing may reach back to early systems of signs and symbols at Teotihuacan and Xochicalco, but the many stylistic and iconographic similarities between Mixtec and Aztec writing suggest that the Mixtec script, too, played an important role in the development of Aztec writing.
The Aztec Writing System
Aztec manuscripts usually included two types of elements – pictures and glyphs – blended together so that it is sometimes difficult to separate them. Many events, places, people, and things were depicted by straightforward pictures that could be interpreted easily by the reader. With a little practice scholars today can “read” many of these pictures without any knowledge of Nahuatl. This very generalized form of communication had the advantage of not being tied to a particular language. Speakers of Nahuatl, Otomi, Tarascan, or Maya could all have read the pictorial parts of Aztec written texts.
Aztec hieroglyphs, on the other hand, were far more precise in their meanings. A hieroglyph, or glyph, is a sign that stands for a word, sound, or concept in a specific language. Aztec writing made use of several hundred glyphs.7 The calendrical date was a common type of glyph, and historical accounts were based upon the year-count. According to the Tira de Tepechpan, for example, the reign of the Mexica king Motecuhzoma II began in the year 10 Tochtli or AD 1502 (figure 2.11). Ritual books most frequently used day names from the 260-day ritual calendar (see below). Numerical glyphs were also common. In Aztec writing, a dot stood for 1; a flag meant 20; a feather meant 400; and a priestly incense bag indicated 8,000 (figure 7.5 shows the flag and feather glyphs).
Personal names and titles were another category of glyph. Glyphs for actions and events were less frequent, but examples do exist. Place-names were the most common type of Aztec glyph, and several hundred were included in the first two sections of the Codex Mendoza – the conquest list and the tax list. Hundreds of objects also were depicted in the Codex Mendoza, as well as other sources, but these illustrations are better described as pictorial representations, not glyphs.
This rather small repertoire of hieroglyphs limited the scope of what Aztec writing by itself could express. As I discuss in chapter 1, however, written texts were not meant to be used alone; they were mnemonic devices that listed important people, events, or places, the remaining information to be filled in from the memory of the reader. The telling of history, for example, was primarily oral in format, with books serving only to outline the main events. Nevertheless, the principles of Aztec hieroglyphic writing were sophisticated, and the glyphs were much more than simple pictures of people and things.
Types of Hieroglyphs
Aztec writing employed three types of signs or hieroglyphs of increasing complexity and abstraction: pictographs, ideographs, and phonetic elements.8 Pictographs are straightforward depictions of objects and people. In Aztec writing, a picture of a rabbit on a hill meant Tochtepec (“on the hill of the rabbit”). Tzonpanco (“on the skull rack”) was represented by a drawing of a skull rack (see figure 11.3 and box). Pictographs were the most common type of Aztec glyph.
Figure 11.3 Place-name glyphs from the Codex Mendoza (1992) illustrating the principles of Aztec writing; see box for explanation (drawing by Ellen Cesarski)
Ideographs are conventionalized representations of ideas or meanings. Their interpretation depends upon a certain level of cultural understanding, since the way in which a concept is depicted is usually culturally specific. The burning temple ideograph (figure 11.3, “Conquest”), for example, meant military conquest. In the glyph for Cuicatlan (“place of song”), the song was represented by a flowery speech scroll, a common Nahuatl metaphor for song. The Yopico glyph (“in the place of the Yopes”) was a depiction of Xipe Totec's peaked cap, an association based upon the importance of this god to the Yope people.
Phoneticism is the use of signs to represent words, syllables, or sounds. Phonetic glyphs were the most complex type of Aztec sign. Many examples of Aztec phonetic writing employed the “rebus principle,” in which a word difficult to depict in writing was replaced by a word or words with the same sound (homonyms) that were easier to depict.9 In figure 11.3 the glyph for Coatlan (“where there are many snakes”) uses a pictograph for the snake (coatl), but the sound “tlan” is depicted by teeth, tlantli; in the case of Coatzinco (“on the small snake”), the “tzinco” sound is signaled by a pictograph for rump (tzintli); Itzamatitlan (“near the Ceiba tree”) is written with two phonetic parts – itztli (obsidian) and amatl (paper). While no one doubts the use of phonetic signs in Aztec writing, the extent and significance of phoneticism has been a topic of recent debate among linguists.10
Calendars and Astronomy
Calendars and timekeeping were a major concern of most Mesoamerican civilizations, which used several distinct calendrical systems for different purposes. The most widespread of these systems in Mesoamerica was a 260-day ritual calendar used for divination, astrology, and religious record-keeping. Annual calendars were used to keep track of events within the solar year, and various larger cycles of time were developed to keep track of events across the years. Use of these calendars hinged on careful observations of the stars and planets, so astronomy was a well-developed science. The Aztecs inherited a rich tradition of calendrics and astronomy from earlier Mesoamerican cultures, and from this tradition they focused their attention on three types of calendar: the ritual calendar, the annual calendar, and the 52-year calendar round.11
Glyphs from the Codex Mendoza
1 Pictographic Glyphs
Tochtepec, “on the hill of the rabbit” (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:97; f.46r)
toch(tli): rabbit
tepe(tl): hill, or place of
c: on, or in
Tzonpanco, “on the skull rack” (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:40; f.17v)
tzonpan(tli): skull rack
co: on, or in
Ychcateopan, “on the temple of cotton” (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:79, 83; f.37r, 39r)
ichca(tl): cotton
teopan(tli): temple
pan: on
2 Ideographic Glyphs
Military conquest (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:26; f.10v) (depiction of a burning temple)
Cuicatlan, “place of song,” or “place of the Cuicateca” (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:91; f.43r)
cuica(tl): song
tlan: abundance of, or place of
Yopico, “in the place of the Yopes” (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:45; f.20r)
yopi(tzontli): Xipe Totec's cap
Yopi(me): a group living on the southwest edge of the Aztec Empire
3 Glyphs with Phonetic Elements
Coatlan, “where there are many snakes” (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:51; f.23r)
coa(tl): snake
tlan: where there is an abundance of
tlan(tli): teeth (phonetic)
Coatzinco, “on the small snake” (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:89; f.42r)
coa(tl): snake
tzin: small
tzin(tli): rump (phonetic)
co: on, or in
Itzamatitlan, “near the Ceiba trees” (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:54; f.24v)
itzama(tl): ceiba tree
titlan: near or among
itz(tli): obsidian (phonetic)
ama(tl): paper (phonetic)
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br /> Note: These etymologies are from Berdan (1992b).
The 260-Day Ritual Calendar
Mesoamerican peoples used a cycle of 260 days to keep track of rituals, to forecast the future, and to determine which days would be lucky or unlucky for the outcome of various events and actions. This calendar comprised two repeating, meshed cycles: a cycle of 20 day names and a cycle of 13 numbers. The 20 day names are listed in table 11.1; their glyphs are depicted in figure 11.4. The cycle of day names begins at the top with Cipactli (Crocodile) and runs through Xochitl (Flower); it then returns to Cipactli to repeat again. The cycle of numbers similarly repeats itself, running from 1 to 13 over and over. Each day in this calendar is identified by a number and a day name. Given 20 day names and 13 numbers, there are 260 unique combinations.
Table 11.1 The 20 day names.
Figure 11.4 Model showing the operation of the 260-day ritual calendar, the tonalpohualli. The numbers 1 to 13 are combined with the 20 day names (redrawn Coe and Koontz 2002:209; reproduced courtesy of Michael D. Coe)
Table 11.1 shows the first few cycles of the 260-day ritual calendar (tonalpohualli). The first three days, for example, are 1 Cipactli, 2 Ehecatl, and 3 Calli. When the first cycle of 13 numbers is completed, the number 1 is paired with the fourteenth day name (1 Ocelotl), which is followed by 2 Cuauhtli, and so forth. When the final, twentieth day name, is reached (7 Xochitl), the day name cycle starts over with the next number in sequence, 8 Cipactli, 9 Ehecatl, and so on. After 260 days, 13 cycles of day names have been coupled with 20 cycles of numbers, and the final, unique, combination (13 Xochitl) is reached. The calendar then comes back to its starting point, 1 Cipactli, and a new cycle begins. Figure 1.7 shows a 13-day section of the tonalpohualli running from 1 Ocelotl to 13 Miquiztli. The 260-day calendar is probably the calendrical form with the greatest antiquity in Mesoamerica. No one, however, is sure just how a period of 260 days was selected for this important ritual cycle.
In Aztec culture this simple calendrical cycle was the foundation for a complex series of ritual associations. For example, each group of 13 days was a unit named by its first day (1 Cipactli, 1 Ocelotl, 1 Mazatl, and so on). These groups, known today by the Spanish term trecenas, were thought to have special symbolic significance, and each was presided over by a different deity. In figure 1.7, for example, the trecena starting with 1 Ocelotl is ruled by Quetzalcoatl. The 260-day calendar also included 13 deities known as the “Lords of the Day,” 13 holy birds, and 9 “Lords of the Night” deities. In addition, each of the 20 day names had its own patron deity and a complex symbolism and cultic significance that are not well understood. Another use of the 260-day calendar was to provide personal names. In addition to their normal given names, people took on calendar names, that is the name of the day of their birth.
The Annual Calendar
The annual solar calendar consisted of 365 days arranged into 18 months of 20 days, with 5 unlucky days to finish out the year. The actual solar year is closer to 365.25 days long, and earlier Mesoamerican peoples had calculated its precise length. The Aztecs had this knowledge, but we do not know how they resolved the discrepancy, whether they added days (as in our leap years) or used some other means to keep the calendar in tune with the seasons.
The annual calendar was used for both practical and religious purposes. It kept track of the seasons and the monthly public ceremonies, and it may have had a role in agriculture.12 Each 20-day month was divided into 4 weeks of 5 days, and this period structured everyday life much as the 7-day week organizes our lives today. Weekly markets, for example, were held every 5 days, and smaller markets convened every 20 days.
The Calendar Round and Year-Count
When the 260-day ritual calendar was combined with the 365-day annual calendar the result was a major cycle of 18,980 days, or 52 years. Each day in this cycle, called the “calendar round,” had a unique combination of entries in the two calendars. For example, the Spaniards first entered Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519. This was the ninth day of the month Quecholli in the annual calendar, and the day 8 Ehecatl in the ritual calendar. This same designation (9 Quecholli, 8 Ehecatl) reappeared every 52 years.
The year-count, a simplified version of the calendar round, was used to keep track of the years. Each year within the 52-year calendar round was assigned its own designation of a name with numeral. Four of the day names were used for this purpose, and they were referred to as the year bearers Calli (house), Tochtli (rabbit), Acatl (reed), and Tecpatl (flint knife). They were combined with the numbers 1 through 13 following the same principle of repeating cycles as the 260-day calendar. The combination of 4 day names with 13 numbers produced a 52-year cycle that matched the cycle of the calendar round.
The events recorded in Aztec native historical accounts were dated using the year-count. Since we know that the Spaniards entered Tenochtitlan in the year 1 Acatl, or AD 1519, we can correlate the European and Aztec calendars to assign European dates to the events of Aztec history. Table 11.2 lists the years from 1 Tochtli (1506) to 5 Acatl (1523) in the year-count. A portion of this period is shown in figure 11.5, from the first part of the Codex Mendoza. This illustration lists the first eight years in the reign of Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, beginning in 11 Acatl (1503). A New Fire ceremony (shown by a fire drill lighting a fire) was celebrated in 2 Acatl (1507). The king is shown with a shield and arrows as a symbol of his military conquests; five of his many conquered towns are shown in this figure. The listing of years along the margin of the page shows why this kind of historical document is called a “continuous year-count annal” (see figure 2.11 for another example).
Figure 11.5 Year-count calendar with dates in the reign of Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin. This sequence shows years 11 Reed (1503) through 5 Rabbit (1510), with a New Fire ceremony in 2 Reed (1507) (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:36:f.15v)
Table 11.2 The year-count calendar and its correlation with the European calendar.
Each year name in the year-count reoccurs every 52 years, however, which causes great problems for the reconstruction of Aztec history from native historical sources. It is impossible to tell from the year name alone which cycle an event belongs to. According to the sources, for example, Tenochtitlan was founded in the year 2 Calli, but 2 Calli could be AD 1273, 1325, 1377, 1429, or 1481 (to name only five possibilities). We have ascertained that 1325 is the correct date only by carefully cross-checking with other events.
Astronomy
The Aztecs, like all peoples of ancient Mesoamerica, were avid astronomers who carefully tracked the stars and planets at night. Most observations and calculations were made by priests and nobles. In the Codex Mendoza, for example, a priest was depicted observing the stars in order to keep track of the schedule for nightly rituals (figure 11.6). Friar Torquemada described king Nezahualpilli of Texcoco as a great astronomer:
It is said that he was a great astrologer; that he was much concerned with understanding the movement of the celestial bodies. Inclined to the study of these things, he would seek in his kingdom for those who knew of such things, and he would bring them to his court. He would communicate to them all that he knew. And at night he would study the stars, and he would go on the roof of his palace, and from there he would watch the stars, and he would discuss problems with them.13
Figure 11.6 A priest tracks the stars at night (Codex Mendoza 1992:v.4:131:f.63r)
The archaeoastronomer Anthony F. Aveni has worked out many of the details of Aztec astronomy.14 Mesoamerican astronomers typically used fixed locations in temples and other buildings to observe the heavens. They tracked the rising and setting of the sun, moon, planets, and stars at the horizon by placing sets of crossed sticks along the line of sight. The precise direction of the sun at sunrise was a particularly important orientation in Mesoamerican cosmology. The position where the sun rises in the east varies throughout the year. The sun rises at its northernmost point on the summer solstice (June 21) and at its southernmost point on the winter solstice (December 21). In
valleys surrounded by high mountains, such as the Valley of Mexico, astronomers tracked the direction of the sunrise by noting the point of the sun's appearance over specific mountain peaks and other features on the eastern horizon. The length of the solar year was easily calculated by noting the direction where the sun rose on a solstice and counting the number of days until it returned to the same position.
Important astronomical alignments and orientations were recorded and these were sometimes used by surveyors and architects to lay out cities and buildings. For example, the Templo Mayor was designed so that on the spring equinox (March 21) the sun rose directly between the Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc temples. The monthly ceremony of Tlacaxipehualiztli, dedicated to Xipe Totec, a god with solar associations, was held at this time. Friar Motolinía noted that the ceremony took place “when the sun was in the middle of [the temple of] Huitzilopochtli, which was the equinox, and because this was a little twisted, Motecuhzoma wished it torn down and straightened.”15 Aveni measured the alignment of the Templo Mayor and found that its orientation, 7 degrees south of east, matched precisely the direction of the sun when it rose over the massive platform in the notch between the two temples on March 21 in Late Aztec times.
Aztec astronomers tracked many other celestial bodies in addition to the sun. The New Fire ceremony, which celebrated the start of a new 52-year calendar round, was signaled not by sunrise but by the passage of the Pleiades constellation across the zenith of the midnight sky. Astronomers calculated to great accuracy the length of the solar year, the lunar month, the period of revolution of the planet Venus (584 days), and other celestial cycles. They noted and predicted solar and lunar eclipses and paid close attention to comets and shooting stars. Although some of this great body of astronomical knowledge was put to practical use in the calibration of calendars, most functioned more in the realm of divination and ritual. The emphasis on astronomical alignment was related to the important role of the cardinal directions in Aztec symbolism; rituals were choreographed to conform to key alignments and directions, and heavenly bodies from the stars and planets to comets were thought to have religious significance.
The Aztecs Page 28
