When it comes to studying Mesoamericans civilisations, there are two fascinating civilisations which have captivated the minds of archaeologists and history scholars – the Aztecs and the Mayans. Mesoamerica refers to the area that we call today as Middle America or Central America. It coincides with the modern day countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The Aztecs were centred in there capital city of Tenochtitlan and cover most of present day Mexico and the Mayans flourished in the lands to the south east of Tenochtitlan’s sphere of influence. As you can clearly understand, both these two civilisations were relatively quite close to each other. This may be the reason why the two civilisations are so culturally similar. They share the same gods (although with different names), same rites and rituals and many other things. Among them, the most remarkable aspect that they shared was the use of a complex ritual calendar.
Both the Aztec and the Mayan priests marked the passing of time and predicted the future using two basic calendars, one had a solar count of 365 days linked to the passing of different seasons, just as the Christian calendar that we use widely today, and the other one had a count of 260 days which was based on the length of human pregnancy. These two calendars would combine to make a longer measure. In this system, a period would be defined by a particular day when both the calendar periods would coincide which would happen after every 18,980 day or 52,365 day year. An interesting aspect of this period is that after the end of every 52 year period, a moment of darkness would follow when the gods might end the world. This measure was called the ‘bundle of years and held a great significance to that Aztecs and the Mayans. This calendar had been with the Mesoamericans all the way from 5th century BCE. One misconception that is very popular is that the Mayans did not have just one calender, they hand many more but the one which we always refer to is actually the Mayan "long count" calendar. Although the two calendars are similar in many ways, they also have some unique differences. The Aztecs used a much primitive number system as compared to the Mayans and they also had a less accurate way of recording data. They noted the day in which an event occurs and the name of that year, but this could be confusing since the dame day can occur twice in a year.
 |
| The Aztec Calendar |
 |
| The Mayan Calendar |
One of the most intriguing features of both these calendars is that they were not used as regular calendars that we use today. They are prophetic calendars which help us understand the past and predict the future. They have the ability to predict events that may occur in the future. The Aztecs used their calendar as a religious calendars marked by religious festivals. Religious priests would use it to determine what we call as “lucky days” to start wars, building houses, sowing crops and other similar activities. The most interesting aspect of these calendars was that both of them has predicted the world to end on 21st December 2012. This prediction was made based on astronomical observations. It is found that on that very day, the sun the earth and the centre of the milky way galaxy would come into a perfect alignment. How the ancient Mayans and the Aztecs came to know about this is still a mystery to us today. Some say that a great natural catastrophe will occur on that day which will shake the very foundation of the world. While others speculate that the calendars have been misinterpreted, as they do not predict the end of the world on 21st December 2012, but rather they say that it will be the starting of a new golden age. According to their calendar and mythology, time periods are divided into creations and currently we are living in the fourth world or "creation" which happens to end on 21st December 2012. Fat is that the Mayan calendar never actually predicts that world would come to an end that day, it just stops. Whether it is the end of the world as we know it or the beginning of a new age, only time will tell what will happen on that fateful day.
One of the most intriguing features of both these calendars is that they were not used as regular calendars that we use today. They are prophetic calendars which help us understand the past and predict the future. They have the ability to predict events that may occur in the future. The Aztecs used their calendar as a religious calendars marked by religious festivals. Religious priests would use it to determine what we call as “lucky days” to start wars, building houses, sowing crops and other similar activities. The most interesting aspect of these calendars was that both of them has predicted the world to end on 21st December 2012. This prediction was made based on astronomical observations. It is found that on that very day, the sun the earth and the centre of the milky way galaxy would come into a perfect alignment. How the ancient Mayans and the Aztecs came to know about this is still a mystery to us today. Some say that a great natural catastrophe will occur on that day which will shake the very foundation of the world. While others speculate that the calendars have been misinterpreted, as they do not predict the end of the world on 21st December 2012, but rather they say that it will be the starting of a new golden age. According to their calendar and mythology, time periods are divided into creations and currently we are living in the fourth world or "creation" which happens to end on 21st December 2012. Fat is that the Mayan calendar never actually predicts that world would come to an end that day, it just stops. Whether it is the end of the world as we know it or the beginning of a new age, only time will tell what will happen on that fateful day.
Both these calendars have proved to be advanced and accurate in many ways but they too have their limitations. For example, they take into consideration that a solar year lasts for 365 days whereas we know that that does not always happens. In other words, they ignore the leap years completely. Furthermore, they did not have any sophisticated adjustments that we have on the Gregorian calendar that we widely follow today. Due to this, the solar years have dragged behind the actual movement of the sun and the stars. Archaeologists today are working around the clock to solve the numerous unsolved mysteries of these calendars and almost every day we are discovering new facts about them.
Both the Aztec and the Mayan priests marked the passing of time and predicted the future using two basic calendars, one had a solar count of 365 days linked to the passing of different seasons, just as the Christian calendar that we use widely today, and the other one had a count of 260 days which was based on the length of human pregnancy. These two calendars would combine to make a longer measure. In this system, a period would be defined by a particular day when both the calendar periods would coincide which would happen after every 18,980 day or 52,365 day year. An interesting aspect of this period is that after the end of every 52 year period, a moment of darkness would follow when the gods might end the world. This measure was called the ‘bundle of years and held a great significance to that Aztecs and the Mayans. This calendar had been with the Mesoamericans all the way from 5th century BCE. One misconception that is very popular is that the Mayans did not have just one calender, they hand many more but the one which we always refer to is actually the Mayan "long count" calendar. Although the two calendars are similar in many ways, they also have some unique differences. The Aztecs used a much primitive number system as compared to the Mayans and they also had a less accurate way of recording data. They noted the day in which an event occurs and the name of that year, but this could be confusing since the dame day can occur twice in a year.
One of the most intriguing features of both these calendars is that they were not used as regular calendars that we use today. They are prophetic calendars which help us understand the past and predict the future. They have the ability to predict events that may occur in the future. The Aztecs used their calendar as a religious calendars marked by religious festivals. Religious priests would use it to determine what we call as “lucky days” to start wars, building houses, sowing crops and other similar activities. The most interesting aspect of these calendars was that both of them has predicted the world to end on 21st December 2012. This prediction was made based on astronomical observations. It is found that on that very day, the sun the earth and the centre of the milky way galaxy would come into a perfect alignment. How the ancient Mayans and the Aztecs came to know about this is still a mystery to us today. Some say that a great natural catastrophe will occur on that day which will shake the very foundation of the world. While others speculate that the calendars have been misinterpreted, as they do not predict the end of the world on 21st December 2012, but rather they say that it will be the starting of a new golden age. According to their calendar and mythology, time periods are divided into creations and currently we are living in the fourth world or "creation" which happens to end on 21st December 2012. Fat is that the Mayan calendar never actually predicts that world would come to an end that day, it just stops. Whether it is the end of the world as we know it or the beginning of a new age, only time will tell what will happen on that fateful day.
No comments:
Post a Comment