THE 







AMERICAN 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS 



[SECOND SERIES.] 



Art. X. — Some New Discoveries respecting the Dates on the 

 great Calendar Stone of the Ancient Mexicans, with Observa- 

 tions on the Mexican Cycle of Fifty-two Years ; by E. G. 

 Squier, Mew York. 



The most interesting monument of antiquity which has been 

 discovered in America, is unquestionably the great Calendar Stone 

 °i the Aztecs, which now occupies a place in the walls of the 

 Cathedral of the city of Mexico. It is an immense mass of por- 

 phyry, estimated to have weighed originally upwards of thirty 

 tons. Its horizontal face is inscribed with a circle in relief, with- 

 in which is found a complication of signs and figures, chiefly of 

 a & astronomical character, and referring to the motions of the 

 sun. The relative positions and dependencies of these signs can- 

 not be indicated without the aid of an engraving. I shall there- 

 tore, without going into a particular account of the stone, — in- 

 p°, °ft as it necessarily would, a complete analysis of the Aztec 

 Calendar, — simply call attention to some of the results which 

 have attended its study by Gama, Humboldt, Gallatin and others, 

 so as to be able to submit, in a comprehensible manner, some ad- 

 ditional discoveries which have followed its investigation, under 

 Wore favorable circumstances. 



. The authorities above named, ascertained the existence of five 

 S1 §ns upon this stone, referring to the principal annual positions 

 °f the snn, viz : the dates of the two transits of the sun by the 

 zenith of Mexico, the dates of the vernal and autumnal equi- 

 noxes, and the date of the summer solstice. The summer sol- 

 ace, according to the stone, occurred on the 22d of June ; the 



Second Series, Vol. VII, No. 20.— March, 1849. 20 



