The Aztec Sun Stone

The Sun Stone is probably the first bit of Aztec art I became familiar with even before I studied art. It has been widely represented in various forms of culture from the relatively recent Mexican folk art tradition of Amate paintings to pop culture such as Legends of the Hidden Temple which I must confess was one of my favorite Nickelodeon game shows in the 90s. On its face, we see a beautiful image full of symbols laid out in radial symmetry that is just so visually satisfying, But as we look a little closer and get to know the symbols, this stone image is a lot deeper and heavier than I realized.

The Aztec Sun Stone is also often referred to as the Calendar Stone, but it wasn’t intended to function in the way we use calendars today. The image is a representation of Aztec mythology describing five consecutive worlds of the sun all carved into the elaborate radial stone glyph. While the calendar stone was not used to mark the passing of days and months, it does have a date represented at the top. 13 Reed represents the start of the fifth and final sun, as well as the year that Itzcoatl began his rule thus legitimizing his rule with a link between the divine and man in the year 1427CE

When the Sun Stone was discovered, it was flipped upside down. It is believed that the Aztecs may have flipped it upside down in order to prevent the final cataclysm, the fall of the fifth sun. Flipping the stone would have been no easy feat considering it is about 3 and a half meters wide, almost a meter thick and weighs in at 25 tons although I suppose people will do whatever they can to fend off the end of the world. Now putting this into a historical context, remember that this stone was created in the 15th century and the late 15th century is when Columbus and other European explorers began to make contact with the Americas. About 100 years after The Sun Stone was created, the Spanish conquistadors did effectively end the Aztec civilization so their apocalyptic notion of the 5th sun being the final really wasn’t so far off. While the sun didn’t fall to the earth, it was the end of their era.

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