The Aztec Calendar Stone or Sun Stone

The Aztec Calendar Stone, or Sun Stone, as it is called in Mexico, is perhaps the most famous sculpture made in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans at the end of the fifteenth century. Although earlier scholars thought that the stone was carved in the 1470s, during the reign of the Aztec emperor Axayacatl, most writers today believe Moctezuma Xocoyotzin commissioned the Calendar Stone sometime between 1502 and the conquest of Mexico in 1521. We do not know where the sculpture was originally placed in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, but presumably it was situated close to the Templo Mayor.

Pic 1: From cliché to class: the Sun Stone’s image remains a universally acknowledged icon

The Calendar Stone was rediscovered in December 1790, in the course of a leveling project in the Zócalo. The massive basalt slab, measuring 11½ feet in diameter and weighing more than 24 tons, had been buried less than three feet beneath the surface, with its sculptured face down. The Calendar Stone was one of three large Aztec sculptures rediscovered in 1790 and 1791, along with the famous Coatlicue goddess statue and the Stone of Tizoc. Apparently the Spanish Colonial and Catholic Church authorities planned to use the Calendar Stone as a step in front of the cathedral in the Zócalo, not only keeping parishioners’ feet out of the mud, but also as a symbolic statement of the triumph of Christianity over pagan Aztec religion.

Pic 3: Model on display in Metro passageway showing location of Coatlicue (A) and Sun Stone (B) monoliths when unearthed, in relation to the Metropolitan Cathedral and National Palace, Mexico City Zócalo (main square)

In 1882, the sculpture was moved a couple blocks on special train tracks constructed for the purpose to the new Museo Nacional on Calle Moneda, on the north side of the national palace. It was installed in the Salón de Monolitos at the museum in 1885, and remained there until 1964, when it was moved to the Museo Nacional de Antropología.

Pic 5: Aztec Calendar Stone. William H. Jackson. 8x10” glass plate negative, c. 1880. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. LC-D4-3162

León y Gama thought the Calendar Stone functioned as a great sundial, and that along with an identical sculpture marked the solstices, equinoxes, and zenith passages by shadows cast by strings and gnomons set into the stones. One stone marked the events of each half of the year. From this time forward, the stone was erroneously thought to be a timekeeping device.

Pic 7: Engraving of the Sunstone by Francisco de Agüera, ca. 1792

The image carved on the Calendar Stone shows a face surrounded by a series of concentric rings. The figure at the center has been identified as either the sun deity Tonatiuh, the earth god Tlaltecuhtli, or some hybrid of the two. The Aztecs believed that they had been ordained by the gods to keep the sun moving across the sky by feeding it with the hearts and blood of warriors. The earth also required similar sacrifices. The claws we can see to the right and left of the central face (see pic 9) probably originally grasped human hearts, today much eroded or damaged.

Pic 9: The centre ‘piece’ of the Sunstone with first four ‘Suns’ or world eras marked; illustration by Miguel Covarrubias

The X-shape and the four dots above and below the claws are the hieroglyph for Nahui Ollin, 4 Motion or 4 Earthquake. This was the so-called Fifth Sun, in which the Aztecs lived, and which was supposed to be destroyed at some unknown time by earthquakes. Any date in this Aztec calendar, such as 4 Ollin, repeated every 260 days. So it is impossible to say when the Aztecs thought the present creation might end. They lived with the constant threat of destruction. It is important to recall that the creations, their names, and sequence on the Calendar Stone were devised by Moctezuma and the Aztecs. They are essentially unrelated to the sequences of world creations and destructions used by other peoples of ancient Mexico and Central America. In particular, the Aztec Calendar Stone has nothing to do with the ancient Maya calendar that is supposed to be ending at the close of 2012 (it is not ending!).

Pic 11: ‘The X-shape and the four dots above and below the claws’

The next ring contains a large number of small boxes, each with a five-part symbol like the number five on a playing dice, that has been interpreted as the sign for turquoise, a stone ancient Mexicans associated with preciousness and fire. This ring is punctuated by a series of points that symbolize the rays of the sun. Between these rays we can a large number of upside down U-shaped forms, symbols of feathers, and above them many triangular pointed forms, which some writers interpret as drops of blood. These are interrupted by six taller rectangles, each with feathers and one of the five-part turquoise hieroglyphs. Felipe Solís and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma have interpreted these as the handles of ceremonial perforators, intended to draw blood for the sacrificial offerings that fed the gods and ancestors.

Pic 13: ‘The next ring contains a large number of small boxes...’

Since its rediscovery, the Calendar Stone has been displayed vertically, as if it really were a clock. But the form and imagery of the sculpture closely link it to sacrificial altars, upon which the Aztec emperor, probably Moctezuma himself, ascended to sacrifice noble captives to feed the sun and earth. The most closely related monuments to the Calendar Stone are the Stone of Tizoc and the Stone of Moctezuma I. Both are large basalt disks, with solar imagery on their upper faces. But whereas these other monuments display the conquests of Aztec rulers on the sides of their cylindrical forms, the Calendar Stone shows images related to the sky on its shallow carved side (see link below).

Pic 15: The Stone of Moctezuma I