Aztec Calendar Codex Borbonicus 15th Century

by Photo Researchers

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Aztec Calendar Codex Borbonicus 15th Century

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Photo Researchers

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Photograph - Photograph

Description

Aztex calendar from the Codex Borbonicus written by Aztec priests shortly before or after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Codex Borbonicus is one of the most intricate surviving divinatory calendars (or tonalamatl). Each page represents one of the 20 trecena (or 13 day periods), in the tonalpohualli (or 260 day year). Most of the page is taken up with a painting of the ruling deity or deities, with the remainder taken up with the 13 day signs of the trecena and 13 other glyphs and deities. With these 26 symbols, the priests were able to create horoscopes and divine the future. The first 18 pages of the codex (all that remain of the original 20) show considerably more wear than the last sections, very likely indicating that these pages were consulted more often. Originally captioned This Trecena 14 was governed by Xipe Totec and Quetzalcoatl. Each day panel has a Lord of the Day, a Lord of the Night, and an augural bird.

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June 5th, 2014

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