A Hypercard stack. Version 1.3: January 20, 1995 by René Voorburg. It can be used to translate a Julian or Gregorian date into the corresponding Aztec date. For example, January 11, 1995 will translate into 8-Miquiztli, 13-Hueitozoztli in the year 9-Acatl. In plain English this is 8-"Death's Head", 13-"Long Watch" in the year 9-"Reed".
Acknowledgements
The main source of information for this calendar was Van Zantwijk (1977). I used Thomas' (1993) remark that in Tenochtitlan in 1520 the year 2-Flint (or 2-Tecpatl) started on February 14 AD. According to Van Zantwijk, in Tenochtitlan the bearer of the year was the name of the last day of the last Xiuhpoalli 'month'. However, Thomas and Van Zantwijk give different data on the order of these 'months'. Like the soc.culture.mexican FAQ file on pre-Hispanic calendars (based on Alfonso Caso, 1967) Thomas' assumed that the Xiuhpoalli year started with Izcalli. Van Zantwijk and Vaillant (1954) let the Xiuhpoalli year start with Atlcahualco. This is probably due to regional differences. For example, even the twin cities Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco had a different Xiuhpoalli system (Van Zantwijk, 1977). This calendar offers the option to make the conversion according to Van Zantwijk's or Alfonso Caso's Xiuhpoalli year. As a check, I found out that the "Van Zantwijk" conversion agrees with Collis (1954) that April 23, 1519 was a 9 -Wind (or 9-Ehecatl) day. The "Alfonso Caso" conversion corresponds with St. Hypolite Day, the fall of Tenochtitlan, August 13, 1521 as year 3-Calli, day 1-Coatl. This conversion will result in the same date as posted daily to soc.culture.mexican (thanks to Victor M. Mendoza-Grado).
The Glyphs
The glyphs in this version were drawn with the help of Vaillant (1954) and the Mixtec Codex Nutall (Nutall, 1975). I hope to find some glyphs with a more "Aztec" style (-like for example those of the Calendar Stone) that are suitable to use with this calendar . At present, I am ignorant of how the Aztecs depicted their Xiuhpoalli months. When I find some good examples of how this was done, I hope include it to this stack.
Version History
Version 1.3 is the first with glyphs. V1.2 lets the "Alfonso Caso" year start with Izcalli in stead of Atlcahualco. This conversion option was added in version 1.1. Version 1.1 also fixes a bug in V1.0 that exchanged the months September and October in the calculation algorithm. Next to improvements in the glyphs, my plan for future versions of this calendar is to include an option to convert an Aztec date to the corresponding Gregorian or Julian dates for a given century. I also want to provide some more background information, like for example on the gods that were important for a given date and the festivities that were held.
Hints or Wishes
If you have any hints or wishes, you can e-mail me at renev@xs4all.nl. I will make the latest version available at http://www.xs4all.nl/~renev/aztec.html.
Bibliography
Caso, Alfonso
1967 Los Calendarios Prehispanicos, Mexico: UNAM.
Collis, Maurice
1954 Cortés and Montezuma, London: Faber & Faber.
Nutall, Zelia
1975 The Codex Nutall: A Picture Manuscript from Ancient Mexico, New York: Dover.
Thomas, Hugh
1993 The Conquest of Mexico, London: Pimlico.
Vaillant, C.G.
1954 The Aztecs of Mexico: Origin, Rise and Fall of the Aztec Nation, Harmondsworth:
Penguin.
Van Zantwijk, Rudolf
1977 Handel en wandel van de Azteken, Assen/Amsterdam: Van Gorcum.
