I believe everyone has read or heard about it from the National Geographic online.
It’s a great article, but there was an issues I had with it.
The way they displayed the calendar dates on its issue:
A typical person will see the image of the long calendar dates along with the number of days, but will not understand it. The days represents the number of days since the long calendar date started.
I edited the image to make it easier for people to understand it:
A dot represent one. A line represent 5. The weird ovals football shapes on the wall represent zeros. In the first calendar date, the zero is barely legible.
The dates I have going with the theory that the long count calendar start date correlates to the Gregorian date of August 11, 3114 BCE which Anthony Aveni and Mark Van Stone agree. If you believe that the long count start date correlates to August 13, 3114 BCE, like Marc Zender, Linda Schele and Michael D. Coe believe it starts, just add two days more to those dates.
There is another image going around:
Sadly, the dates can’t be fully read, but the last one I have some idea.
13 Baktun 5 Katun 4 Winal which gives us the idea that it’s anything after June 25 2115 ACE.
I'm just trying to further debunk that the world isn’t going to end especially since I have heard some people dismissing the National Geographic find.
https://www.yousendit.com/dl?phi_action=a
S/he even changed the title of the book to Broken Bones. They explain why in the prologue.
Source:
Archaeologists found 23 stones that are 550 years old off the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, with images based on Mexica mythology.
The stones have representations of snakes, symbols captive warriors and representation to the birth of Huitzilopochtli and the origin of a sacred war.
According to archaeologists, the findings form the pre-Hispanic myths related to the birth of Huitzilopochtli, the Mexica god of war, and the origin of an ancient sacred war.
The findings, which were located where the shrine of Huitzilopochtli was, were recorded late last year by experts from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), in the Manuel Gamio Plaza, next to the circular platform decorated with snake heads discovered in September 2011.
All locations cited in the myth, according to the chronicles of Bernardino de Sahagun, are represented in the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan: Mount Coatepec with the Templo Mayor; Apétlac with a large slab decorated with snakes.
The legend about the origin of the sacred war amongst the Mexica, described in the Chimalpopoca y Boturini Codex, states that during the journey made from Aztlan to Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico, where they would build their city, north star warriors fell from the sky, named mimixcoas in Nahuatl, were encountered, defeated and killed by the Tenochca.
Both myths are related to the concept of a star war, in which Huitzilopochtli the war and Sun god, emerged victorious from the affront to the 400 warriors of the south and Coyolxauhqui, giving rise to the stars (his dead siblings) and Moon (by which Huitzilopochtli throwing the decapitated head of his sister to the sky).
Some of the images depicted on the stones are a representation of smoke dart, a star warrior carrying in one hand his chimalli (shield) and the other other a spear in which Huitzilopochtli used to defeat Coyolxauhqui and ornaments characteristic of this goddess, as a nose ring and an earplug.
Another depiction has a captive war with a tear drop on his cheek.
More depictions were found, but need further study.
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- Tonalamatl Aubin
- In Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City
- Codex Bodley
- Bodleian Library, Oxford, England
- Codex Borbonicus
- Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris
- Codex Borgia
- Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome
- Codex Boturini
- Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City
- Codex Colombino
- Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City
- Codex Cospi
- Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, Italy
- Codex Dresden
- Sachsische Landesbibliothek — Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek Dresden, Germany
- Codex Fejervary-Mayer
- World Museum Liverpool, England
- Codex Laud
- Bodleian Library, Oxford, England
- Codex Madrid
- Museo de America, Madrid, Spain
- Codex Magliabecchiano
- Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy
- Codex Mendoza
- Bodleian Library, Oxford, England
- Codex Zouche-Nuttall
- British Museum, London
- Codex Paris
- Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris
- Florentine Codex
- Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, Italy
- Codex Selden
- Bodleian Library, Oxford, England
- Codex Vindobonensis
- Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Austria
This isn’t all the codices. These are just the mainstream ones. There are many codices in their original communities.
A source of Nahuatl dictionaries of today comes from the writings of Alonso de Molina who was a Franciscan priest.
Books he wrote that relate to Nahuatl:
Doctrina christiana breve traduzida en lengua mexicana (1547)
Aqui comiença un vocabulario en la lengua castellana y mexicana (1555) - Spanish to Nahuatl dictionary.
Confessionario mayor, en lengua mexicana y castellana (1565)
Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana (1571) - Nahuatl grammar book.
Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana (1571) - Spanish to Nahuatl dictionary.
Confessionario breve, en lengua mexicana (1577)
Another Franciscan priest that Nahuatl dictionaries are sourced from is from Andres de Olmos. The book that is sourced is called Arte Para Aprender la Lengua Mexicana (1547), a grammar book. He did not write glottal stops nor did he distinguish vowel length. His other works are lost in history.
Finally, you have Horacio Carochi, an Italian Jesuit priest. Though he was the first European to recognize glottal stop and vowel, he got words his other Jesuit friars especially for his writings.
The only book he got published:
Arte de la Lengua mexicana con la declaracion de todos sus adverbios (1645)
Unpublished works he had written:
Vocabulario copioso de la Lengua mexicana
Sermones en Lengua mexicana
Though a dictionary is an important tool, many Nahuatl dictionaries, which you find in the stores today, are based on classical Nahuatl writings written by Europeans. Many words, grammar and sentence structure aren’t used by today Nahuas who still speak the language and are the descendants of those many of us worship.
For this article, I will only focus on the operas that have Moctezuma (including its misspellings) as the title and not the other operas (there’s a lot more plays about conquest.).
The first opera known was Motezuma, made in 1733 by Antonio Vivaldi. It was once known as Montezuma since the text was thought to be lost. There was even a reference to Antonio Vivaldi’s opera in the film El Baile de San Juan:
Second opera was Montezuma, made in 1755 by Carl Heinrich Graun.
Third opera was Motezuma, made in 1771 by Josef Mysliveček.
The final opera in the 18th century was Montesuma, made in 1781 by Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli.
Of course, it didn’t stop in the 18th century, but 1 play in the 20th century in 1963 by Roger Sessions named Montezuma.
I guess I can’t stop there without talking about the quack Lorenzo Ferrero creating an opera called ‘La Conquista’ in 2005.
After looking at all of this, I wonder what fascinates Europeans so much with Moctezuma.
I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers along with surprises. To those who don’t want to read the plot, just read below from “//end plot”:
Story starts with a girl and her family are at La Venta park. The girl only thinks about herself & family goes with the tour guide while she stays at the entrance listening to her music. She leans on the Olmec head and discovers something in the Olmec head which flash backs to the times of Olmec.
It about a girl named Nikte who her and her siblings are adopted by a nice couple, but Nikte wants more. She wants to be a princess. She tells her parents that they aren’t her real parents and she runs off. She fall in some ruins and discovers a mural which she finds out that a princess will appear when the comets appears. She gets the idea that she will be the one that will be and become the princess. Paal help with her plan.
The sub plot comes in with the were-jaguars praying to the palm tree for a coconut to fall from the tree. Chin just wished his community would accept his invention idea where they can get a coconut whenever they were hungry instead of a parrot to knock it down. The community can’t leave their community since monsters surround their community. Once he gets the chance, he messes up and goes on a quest to redeem himself.
Then there is two priests, Khan & Khun, on top of the temple, making sure the prophecy comes true. On the day of the festival Nikte does her best to make it look like she is the princess of prophecy. Though she passed all parts of the princess prophecy she doesn’t know the rest of the prophecy, which is to stop a plague monster from entering the community and in order to end it, she would have to go on a quest to get a particular flower that only the true princess would know. She is given a turkey to mount to help her on her quest.
Nikte later meets Chin and the quest continues to find the flower.
This isn’t the whole plot, but I don’t to spoil the entire movie. I also won’t spoil the end.
//end plot
Visually, it’s amazing. You have the community in the beginning which looks great. It has a lot of olmec culture & elements with a bit borrowed from Mayan and Nahua.
My favorite scene is the ball game. Modernized Mexican culture in Olmec times.
What make it funny is how they get Alex Lora, of tri fame, to play the shaman were-jaguar Chaneke.
There is a bit of Mexican culture that people may not understand in mannerisms & language including jokes.
The only negative parts that I can think of is the pop music in the movie.
Regardless of that, I recommend everyone to see this movie. Movies like these need our support or we'll be stuck with the cliche movies that are in the mainstream.
Pamphlet on the Truth of 2012
It has some humor along with some facts.
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