This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 Excerpt: ...the frame with their tips, it would not be absurd to understand the thought of the artist in this mode: the stone commemorates the year 5096, which was 13-dcatl in the chronological series. Consulting the tables of the calendar of the Indians it is seen that in fact the year 699 was 13-dcatl. Therefore the date with ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 Excerpt: ...the frame with their tips, it would not be absurd to understand the thought of the artist in this mode: the stone commemorates the year 5096, which was 13-dcatl in the chronological series. Consulting the tables of the calendar of the Indians it is seen that in fact the year 699 was 13-dcatl. Therefore the date with which we deal will not by itself alone decide the problem, since it gives occasion to two apparently legitimate interpretations. But we believe it possible to read, and actually without violence, a frankly Aztec date in the glyphs of the relief. Already we have said how it is met, counting one by one the ciphers stamped on the scales or divisions of the serpents. These divisions are 24; each one inclosing the glyph of fire, its value complete would amount to 52 years; but the half-circle added to each scale indicates that only half is to be taken, that is to say, 26. This gives us 624 years; summing these to the 5,096 before read, we get the number 5,720. The number issues, so to say, from the body of the serpents, added to the actual elements those which their position shows are past. We might attribute their complete value to the scales: they represent in this manner 1,248 years which summed with the 416 of the little bars distributed in the bodies reaches precisely the number 1,664; but this is not the actual date, but the future end of the current age. When the artist engraved the half-circles, it is reasonable to assume that he had a definite purpose: his entire problem consisted in distributing the elements. We introduce nothing new or arbitrary into the calculation, except considering the scales on divisions of the serpents as indicative each of (mtxiponaM. Thisdoesnotinvolveanabsurdconjecture. The serpent is time, which grows by fixed pe...
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. First edition. 77pp. Green printed wrappers. Fold-out frontispiece of "Stone of the Sun and of Venus called the Aztec Calendar." Translated from the Spanish by Frederick Starr. Extremities chipped, still very good. "The University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology, Bulletin VI."