Maya Tonalamatle Wheel Mesoamerican 1915
A 100 year old original
print from the
Size
of sheet: 9” X 5 3/4”.
Condition: clean sheet. See photos.
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Refunds, Returns: If you are not satisfied upon receipt, you may return it to me for a full refund of the bid and shipping. (Buyer to pay for returning shipping to me.)
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From
the text: This is graphically shown in the wheel figured in plate 5, where the
sequence of the days, commencing with 1 Imix, which is indicated by a star, is
represented as extending around the rim of the wheel. After the name of each
day, its number in the sequence beginning with the starting point 1 Imix, is
shown in parenthesis. Now, if the star opposite the day 1 Imix be conceived to
be stationary and the wheel to revolve in a sinistral circuit, that is
contra-clockwise, the days will pass the star in the order which they occupy in
the 260-day sequence. It appears from this diagram also that the day 1 Imix can
not recur until after 260 days shall have passed, and that it always follows
the day 13 Ahau. This must be true since Ahau is the name immediately preceding
Imix in the sequence of the day names and 13 is the number immediately
preceding 1. After the day 13 Ahau (the 260th from the starting point) is
reached, the day 1 Imix, the 261st, recurs and the sequence, having entered
into itself again, begins anew as before.
This
round of the 260 differently named days was called by the Aztec the tonalamatl,
or "book of days." The Maya name for this period is unknown and
students have accepted the Aztec name for it. The tonalamatl is frequently
represented in the Maya codices, there being more than 200 examples in the
Codex Tro-Cortesiano alone. It was a very useful period for the calculations of
the priests because of the different sets of factors into which it can be
resolved, namely, 4×65, 5×52, 10×26, 13×20, and 2×130. Tonalamatls divided into
4, 5, and 10 equal parts of 65, 52, and 26 days, respectively, occur repeatedly
throughout the codices.” It is all the more curious, therefore, that this
period is rarely represented in the inscriptions. The writer recalls but one
city (Copan) in which this period is recorded to any considerable extent. It
might almost be inferred from this fact alone that the inscriptions do not
treat of prophecy, divinations, or ritualistic and ceremonial matters, since
these subjects in the codices are always found in connection with tonalamatls.
If true this considerably restricts the field of which the inscriptions may
treat.