Capturing Time—Connecting Space in Ancient Anahuac:
A Comparative Analysis of Mesoamerican Timekeeping Systems in Art

Citlalin Xochime. Department of English, MSC 3E, P.O. Box 30001, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, 88001. citlalin@att.net
Dept. contact (505) 646-3931.

This analysis looks at differences, dimensions, and features of capturing time and connecting space in ancient Mesoamerican art. The purpose is to illustrate, in critical detail, the complexity hidden within artworks that were created and used in Mesoamerican timekeeping practices before colonization. Artworks under study in this analysis include the Aztec calendar wheel, the Aztec Sunstone (Tonalmachiotl), and the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon of Teotihuacan. Comparatively, each artwork captures specific timing functions, connects spatial orientations in the cosmos, and represents abstractions of a greater cosmic order that rises and falls in cyclic motion. These motions include observations of planetary, lunar, solar, and constellation alignments, which in ancient times formed a collective knowledge base. This knowledge was interwoven into these artworks, conserving symbols of the sacred cosmic order and cosmovision underlying Mesoamerican philosophy. In turn, this body of collective knowledge influenced both the terrestrial and spiritual lives of the people. Mesoamerican calendars were consulted on multiple levels of inquiry concerning spiritual matters as well as relevancies to secular and cultural activities. Such activities included agricultural planting and harvesting, marriage and travel planning, and staging enemy attacks (qtd. in Jiménez and Gräeber 40). At all levels of society, calendar readings rendered an abstraction of ethereal influences connected to greater temporal-spatial relationships in the cosmos, which Mesoamerican timekeeping artworks recreated.

Recreating temporal-spatial relationships in artistic form is rooted in cultural values and worldviews that may begin to emerge from study by comparative analysis. Some key findings in this study were made in contrast to the Gregorian calendar, which must be constantly plotted out for the future while discarding its previous history in a linear progression that never cycles and rises forth in return. The Gregorian calendar is linearly paced and religiously aligned with a distinct point of reference (birth of Christ) and has a proposed termination date (Judgment Day). In contrast, the Aztec calendar wheel and Sunstone are Anahuac (Mesoamerican) timekeeping devices that orientate the past, the present, and the future on a temporal-spatial continuum that rises and falls in cyclic motion. This temporal-spatial stability is epitomized in the Aztec Sunstone and its spheres of celestial activities that overlap and periodically align with one another. The Sunstone also ties the geologic history of the earth (Four Suns) with the present epoch of the Fifth Sun. The Aztec Sunstone is round in design, encompasses the alignment of celestial body cycles, captures the ethereal influences on the daily lives of followers and is followed in a counter-clockwise direction that spans eons. The Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon contribute to this orderly alignment with spatial orientation in the four directions, with forms of duality and pyramidal layering, as well as alignment with cosmic orders such as solstices and equinoxes. All combined, these artistic works illustrate the temporal-spatial complexity hidden within artworks-created and used-in Mesoamerican timekeeping practices before colonization.





Works Cited
Jiménez, Randall C. and Richard B. Gräeber. The Aztec Calendar Book. 3rd ed. Saratoga, CA: Historical Science Publishing, 2003.
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