Mexican Calendars: A chart of the trecenas

Saturday, March 22, 2008

A chart of the trecenas

I often want to know how the date on
my kitchen calendar relates to the sacred calendar. This format of the
sacred calendar is useful for observing the relationship because
nahuatl day names always have a number followed by a name. I can look
down any column headed by the number until finding the name to find the
exact location in the 260 day sequence of the sacred calendar. This
calendar format is published in my documents at:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d7b4c3p_68f4jp6qz9

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Purpose of this blog.

Codex Borgia has 260 places in a spatial matrix of rows and columns. Each place holder is identified by a stylized picture, an icon, in a row-column position. There are 20 different icons in rows of 4 times 13 columns, producing 260 unique positions which can be identified by a word consisting of number-icon as an alternate to pointing to a particular position in the spacial matrix.

One year can be counted by a strange coincidence when the European week of seven days is counted at each matrix position. This number seven is used in counting two extra rows in an illustration on Plate 27 which also illustrates the 365'th day in each year.

The number 13 was probably selected because there are 13 lunar cycles in every agricultural cycle as observed by an intelligent person living in a community which depended on growing part of the daily food. This fundamental cycle is called a year in English. The number of 20 icons is probably related to the use of ten fingers either extended or folded in order to count agricultural products or other items of interest. The icons were used to substitute for a finger count. The unique combinations of 13 and twenty allowed a larger set to be considered. This was a numbering system with numerical base of 260 instead of simply 20 fingers.

This matrix is used in Codex Borgia in four double pages that are illustrated in plates 1 through 8 to provide an unique identity to each passing day in a ritual year of 260 days. The icons are also used in most of the plates in differing arrangements to provide augmented explanations by association with paintings more complicated than icons. The associated paintings are sometimes complex and not easy to explain in the written language which I use for this explanation.

I am attempting to understand the message that is conveyed by Codex Borgia, one of the surviving painted books that were produced in Mexico before the Spanish conquest. It appears to be a series of messages which could be called essays or stories. A blog is presented as I attempt to translate, or explain, the book from icons and pictures into a written language.

Mexican Calendars

Saturday, March 22, 2008

A chart of the trecenas

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