On This Day In History: Aztec Calendar Stone Rediscovered – On Dec 17, 1790

AncientPages.com - On December 17, 1790, the Sun Stone (Stone of the Five Eras), sometimes called the Aztec calendar stone, was rediscovered during repairs in Mexico City.

The artifact is a late post-classic Mexica sculpture, probably the most famous work of Aztec sculpture.

Aztec Sun Stone, at National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, Mexico. Image credit: Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata - CC BY-SA 4.0

The disc-shaped stone is 12 feet in diameter and 3 feet thick and weighs about 24 tons. It was covered with pagan symbols.

Shortly after the Spanish conquest, the monolithic sculpture was buried in the Zócalo, the main square of Mexico City.

Following its rediscovery, the calendar stone was mounted on an exterior wall of the Cathedral, where it remained until 1885. Most scholars think the stone was carved between 1502 and 1521, though some believe it is much older.

The sculpted motifs covering the stone's surface refer to the Mexica cosmogony's main elements.

A depiction of the solar deity, Tonatiuh, holding a human heart in each of his clawed hands, is in the center of the monolith. His tongue is represented by a sacrificial stone knife (Tecpatl). The four squares surrounding the central deity represent the previous suns (or eras). Each period ended with the destruction of the world and humanity and was recreated in the next period.

The Aztecs believed that the universe was in great danger when the solar and sacred cycles fell on the same day. So every 52 years, they performed an elaborate ceremony of human sacrifice.

Researchers have many theories but do not know exactly how the stone was used or whether it was a sacrificial altar, sundial, or calendar.

The calendar stone is now housed in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City.

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