attention has been called to the dots on the margin of the stone; but the mode of interpreting them rested upon a false assumption.
With respect to the date of the quadrangle above; there may be no mode of determining it, as it may express at once various important dates in the past of Mexico. The sign upon the forehead of Tonatiuh, the dates Ce quiáhuitl and Chicome ozomatli[1] and a definite decision when the stone was made and who worked it remain in doubt. But that it expresses the Toltec chronology based upon the cycles of 104 and 416 years, engendered by the movement and calendars of two stars, we believe is now a conquest of science. Our explanation, harmonious in its other parts, still has two gaps in it: the five solar glyphs at the base of the arrow of the naolin and the numeral located in the same place. Perhaps these may be the five intercalations of the end of the year; their position indeed suggest it.
In résumé, the Indian century or cycle of 104 years appears:
- In the face of huehuetéotl (metaphorically);
- In the circle of the solar glyphe (directly): (104) ;
- In the heads which join each other: (52+52=104).
The xipoualli or bundle of 52 years:
- In each scale or division of the body of the serpents;
- In the tyings of the serpents, assigning to them the value of a tlapilli;
- In the butterflies and the técpatl of the projection or edge of the stone.
The cycle of 416 years appears:
- In the great numerals which surround the huehuetéotl;
- In the pentagons distributed in four groups of 13 (4x13x8=416);
- In the groups (52 in each serpent) of four little bars: (directly):
- (52x4X2=416);
- In the flames of the back of the serpents: (104x4=4I6).
By equivalence:
- In the numerals (260) distributed in fives.
The year appears in the body of the serpents; there also the tonalámatl is encountered, and at the same time it is possible to make the reading of the period 1,040 in its glyphs and especially of the great era of 1,664 years, repeated four times in the rectangles of the center.
- ↑ I believe that these dates express a correction: that is to say, the actual difference of time which is produced at the end of 146 years, between the respective positions of the sun and Venus. If this is so, these dates constitute, pre-eminently the astronomical touchstone of this admirable monument.
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