The Stone of the Sun and the First Chapter of the History of Mexico/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.
No one is ignorant that the capital defect of the chronological system of the Indians is that the names of the years repeat themselves every 52 years, each xiuhmollpia. The 13-áacatl (13-canes) of the tablet may be the year 1479, which is the one generally admitted, and 1427 and 1375 and 1323 and 1271 and 1167 and 1115 and 1063 and 699, etc., etc. It is certain that the minute account of Duran, invoked by Don Alfredo Chavero, gives much force to the presumption that the date expresses the year in which the monolith was completed, during Axayacatl’s reign, in 1479. More than that, the stone was in the great temple of Tenochtitlan; it was found in those precincts; there they buried it again between 1551 and 1569, and there later on it was rediscovered, remaining in the base of one of the towers of the basilica until its transference to the site which it now occupies in the museum. There are reasons, then, for believing that it is the stone described by the friar, the consecration of which was the object of so great ceremonies and to which alludes the statement of the natives, therein cited, that it bore “the figure of the sun.” Tezozomoc gives a similar account.
Withal, this does not go beyond supposition, and there might be reason for doubt amid the multiplicity of conflicting opinions: that the stone was completed in the time of Chimalpopoca, as Don Antonio Peñafiel believed; in 1352, as Abadiano asserted; in 103 or 231, dates
which some have claimed to read in the relief; and in 699, and that it was made by the Toltecs, as there are very strong reasons for believing. What we may indeed affirm is that we have not here the date which the last sun or the historic sun began, as Joyce says, and Spinden repeats, because the statements are in agreement, not only in the Aztec traditions but in the Toltec, in assigning the sign Ce técpatl (1-knife) to this event: the codices prove it without any manner of doubt. What, then, will be the date designated? We believe the stone itself will yield the means of solving the problem.
Let us enumerate the dates of the relief. In the upper rectangular tablet we have seen the one upon which attention has been most turned, the date in which we believe the monument was completed: 13-cane.
Near the face of the sun, in the next following great circle, it will be remembered that we meet with a flint knife with one dot, that is Ce técpatl. Together with the técpatl is seen the mamalhuaztli; sign of the new fire.
In the designs like flames or half-feathers, which project from the inner border of the serpents, four stout bars are seen upon each.
The peculiar position of these flames, almost separated from the body of the serpents, symbol as we know of time, seems to us to express previous epochs or cycles, which must be considered as past with reference to the actual era of the world, directly represented in the serpents. They are links separated from the allegorical circle of time. In consonance with the general significance of the glyphs, it does not seem to us illogical to attribute to the said figures a cycle of 416 years, or, what is the same, to give to each bar the value of an Indian century, a huehuetiliztli; we shall see the hypothesis confirmed.
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. Adding to it the 104 years represented by the meeting of the heads, we arrive at 5,096, a most important date which will give us extraordinary revelations. The importance of the date seems to have led to its repetition, and we meet it figured in the projection of the cylinder. Let us state now, to be proved later, that this year 5096 was a 13-ácatl; and do not lose sight of the fact that the reading of the number is made in the bodies of the serpents, whose tails indicate precisely the frame of the 13-cane.
Let us see now the symbols of the projection. Until the present they have been considered either merely decorative or emblems of the Milky Way. They might metaphorically be the latter; but they have, at the same time, an exact chronological significance, an idea suggested by Abadiano, although our own judgment in this matter differs in various respects from his. There are two técpatl (flint knives) which face each other, alternating with itzpapálotl (obsidian butterflies), which in our conception is the constellation Orion: the small circles crossed by lines clearly show that an asterism is in question.
There are 32 butterflies; assigning to each the value of a xiuhmollpia (cycle or bundle of 52 years) gives us among them all 1,664, whose significance we shall seek opportunely. With respect to the knives (técpatl), they number 64, or, as they are in couples, 32 groups; attributing the same value to them, not an arbitrary hypothesis as we shall see, there is obtained the number 3,328, the double of 1,664, which is the precise product of four periods of 416. Summing this number 3,328 and the preceding 1,664 completes the important date read in the surface of the relief: the year 4492; notice that the series of elements with which we have encountered it are three in accord. One reading confirms the other. We shall undertake to harmonize them with our chronology.
A third date may be read in the monolith. Each serpent presents twelve scales, or divisions, and each one of these incloses a glyph, symbolical of fire according to the archaeologists, which is accompanied by a half-numeral, that is to say, a half-circle.
The figure resembles the glyph of the new fires, frequently represented with a double volute, as may be seen, for example, in the edifice of Xochicalco; and the supposition is so much the more probable, considering that the symbolical serpent ought to grow by equal parts or periods, and here the four tyings of the tail tell us that the serpent represents primordially a chronological value of 52 years. But the half-circles indicate that in each scale only the half-period is to be considered. There being 24 of these divisions, their summation embraces a total of 624 years (24×52÷2), which, added to the 5,096 gives us the year 5720 of native reckoning.
Soon we shall harmonize this new date with our chronology. If we add the 156 dots inscribed on the cylindrical projection or edge of the relief, near the butterflies and the flint knives, we attain the date
5876 last in time of those which are read in the monolith. All pertain to the chronology of the Indians; it is necessary to relate them if possible, to our own.
Let us repeat in order, for greater clearness:
| Direct, that is to say, by summation of elements | Year 4992 (twice) Year 5096 Year 5720 Year 5876 | ||
| Native reading, for us indirect | 13- | ácatl | |
| 1- | técpatl | ||
Two other dates there are, Ce quiáhuitl (1-rain) and Chicome ozomatl (7-monkey), below the great central arrow.