On December 17, 1790, the Aztec Sun Stone was found - one of the oldest monuments of Aztec culture of the late 15th century.
The monument is 3.60 meters in diameter and 1.22 meters thick and weighs 24 tons. Until now, there is no single version of its purpose. We decided to tell about five secrets of the Aztecs - a civilization with a rich mythology and cultural heritage.
Sun Stone
The Stone of the Sun is also called the Aztec calendar, although this name, according to many researchers, is erroneous. This basalt monolith was found on December 17, 1790 in the central square of Zocalo in Mexico City, when the Spanish Viceroy ordered the paving of the city's streets and the construction of a system of sewers. It is believed that the disk depicts Aztec ideas about the origin of the universe and the concept of time in symbolic form. According to the views of the Aztecs, humanity survived four suns (eras).
We are currently living in the fifth era, which the gods created in 986. It will be the last and will be destroyed by the earthquake. God Tonatiu is the supreme sun of our era, he should regularly make human sacrifices in order to maintain the continuity of the movement of the sun and prevent the death of the world. The deity is depicted on a central disc with a tongue shaped like a flint knife.
In each hand he holds a human heart. Tonatiu is surrounded by four squares - symbols of four lost eras. The first era died because of the jaguars emerging from the ground; the sun of the second era was destroyed by a hurricane; the third died in a downpour of fire, and the fourth was flooded with rain, and all people turned into fish. Some researchers are inclined to see in the death of the fourth era an analogy with the Flood. Between the eras, the signs of the cardinal points are depicted, and around the circle that goes around the deity, counterclockwise are the pictograms of the twenty days of the sacred Aztec calendar.
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In the second ring there are squares with five dots, which symbolize the days of the week, and in the outer one there are two snakes carved, one of which has a half black face, and the other red. It is believed that snakes symbolize the eternal change of day and night. There are versions that the stone could be used as an altar, perhaps sacrifices were made on it or gifts to deities were bestowed on it. It is currently on display at the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico.
Teotihuacan city
The abandoned city inherited by the Aztecs, which they called "the place where people become gods", is located 50 kilometers northeast of Mexico City. It is one of the most valuable archaeological sites in the world. The grandiose structure was unmatched in all of ancient Latin America, it is the oldest city in the Western Hemisphere, its exact age is unknown. It is believed that it had a population of about 200 thousand people, which is comparable in size to the population of Rome at that time. However, in 700 BC. e. people suddenly left the city. According to another version, people did not live in it at all.
But the main mystery of Teotihuacan is the pyramids facing one side of the world. And they are built in accordance with the arrangement of the planets in the solar system. The largest of them is the Pyramid of the Sun. It is believed that it was built at the same time as the Roman Colosseum. A little smaller is the pyramid of the Moon, in the depths of which archaeologists have found the remains of 12 human bodies. All had their hands tied behind their backs, but 10 of them were beheaded and thrown in disorder in the middle of the cell, and the other two were neatly planted.
The distance between the pyramids corresponds to the distance between real planets only on a scale of 1: 100 million. In 2008, Mexican archaeologists began exploring a cave found under the Pyramid of the Sun in the 1970s, but closed until recently by the authorities. Scientists hope to find in it the key to unraveling the secrets of this mysterious city.
Ancient bas-reliefs
Recently, archaeologists excavating near the Templo Mayor temple in downtown Mexico City discovered several stone slabs depicting a calendar, as well as scenes from Aztec myths. For example, one slab depicted the birth of the god of war Huitzilopochtli, while others depicted the story of the appearance of the sun god and his battle with the goddess of the moon. Some of the tablets, in addition to mythical scenes, depicted various figures, for example, a warrior with a shield or a javelin thrower, a man with his hands and feet tied.
The find is 500 years old. According to the director of the excavation, Mexican archaeologist Raul Barrera, these images are a form of writing. They talk about wars, captives and bloody Aztec sacrifices. Archaeologists hope that the found bas-reliefs will help unravel the secret symbols and understand the meaning of the little-studied rituals of the Aztec civilization.
Obsidian processing
The Aztecs reached great heights in the processing of obsidian - it was necessary primarily for the production of weapons, because the Aztecs did not know how to process iron. It was used to make knives, arrowheads, and blades for macuavitli - swords with a wooden handle. Some historians believe that without these weapons of pre-colonial Central America, the Aztecs would never have built their powerful empire.
The chronicle "True story of the conquest of New Spain" mentions the fact that in a one-on-one battle the Aztec with such a wooden-obsidian sword was practically not inferior to the Spanish conquistador with a steel weapon.
In addition, thanks to obsidian, Aztec surgeons were able to carry out rather complex operations: instruments made of this material were not only sharp, but also had antiseptic properties. It remains unclear how the Aztec craftsmen could process obsidian with stone tools: this secret has been lost. Now such things can only be made with the help of diamond cutters.
Mysterious burial
Not so long ago, during excavations carried out in the area of the same Templo Major, almost 2 thousand human bones were found. They were all in the grave of one single woman. Her skeleton lay intact for 500 years. Why she was buried in this way, surrounded by other people, and who she was during her lifetime, scientists have yet to find out.
Scientists note that the burial, which dates from about 1481-1486, is highly atypical for the Aztecs and raises many questions. The skulls of seven adults and three children were found among the individual bones. At the same time, specific traces were found on some bones, which indicate that hearts were removed from the victims during the ritual.