Symbolic Math in the Aztec Calendar

©2003 Copyrighted by Charles William Johnson

In this illustration, we have blackened out the rectangular shaped elements of the design in the Aztec Calendar. We have been suggesting ways in which the different elements may represent and reflect certain day/year/cycle counts of the ancient calendrical system of the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican cultures. Let us discuss one significant symbolic relationship of these elements in math.

	Note the detailed expression of some of the elements on the different rings of the Aztec Calendar.

The numbers shown correspond to the quantity of blackened elements on a particular concentric ring of the Aztec Calendar.

©2003 Copyrighted by Charles William Johnson

The uppermost rectangular shaped element represents, according to established interpretations, 13-Acatl, or Thirteen Reed. This supposedly represents the date upon which the Aztec Calendar was made.

Now, all that remains is that we do the math

This number is suggestive of the Maya Companion number, a day-count, found in the Dresden Codex:

1366560

Now, if we consider the 13-Acatl number, the only rectangular element that remains to be computed one may readily visualize the symbolic math of the 1366560 day-count number on the Aztec Calendar. There is only a single element of the 13-Acatl glyph/rectangle. So, it could be symbolically counted as one, but as a sum.

As we research the logic of the ancient numbers, we begin to realize that the manner in which the symbolic math of the ancients functioned was much more creative than has been generally conceptualized.

Such computations appear to confirm the symbolism.

©2003-2006 Copyrighted by Charles William Johnson. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

Symbolic Math in the Aztec Calendar
3 October 2003
Earth/matriX:
Science in Ancient Artwork,
P.O. Box 231126, New Orleans, LA 70183-1126.
ISBN1-58616-350-7