[Aztlan] More Discoveries at Tantoc Site

[michael ruggeri]

Early calendar found in monolith

     October 06 2006 at 12:41PM

By Mark Stevenson

Researchers said on Thursday they have unearthed what may be one of  
the earliest calendars in Mesoamerica, a monolithic sculpture that  
suggests that women held important status roles in pre-Hispanic culture.

The massive stone sculpture depicts two decapitated women with  
streams of blood or water flowing from their necks. Markings around  
the sides of these figures appear to depict a 13-month lunar  
calendar, said archaeologist Guillermo Ahuja, who led the discovery  
of the monument.

"This would be the first depiction of a calendar or calendar elements  
in such an early time period," Ahuja said.

Predates early Mayan calendars by hundreds of years
Luciano Cedillo, director of Mexico's National Institute of  
Anthropology and History - which employs Ahuja - called the find  
"important and surprising."

The monolith, which measures more than 8 meters (yards) and weighs  
about 20 tons, was found in March 2005 by construction workers at the  
Tantoc ruins in San Luis Potosi state, near Mexico's northern Gulf  
coast.

It was carved sometime around 700 BC, likely by the Huasteco culture  
and possibly predates early Mayan calendars by hundreds of years,  
Ahuja said.

That theory has not yet been proven or published in scientific  
journals. Though Mayan calendar calculations reach far back in time,  
the physical calendars themselves are not nearly as old.

The lunar calendar has frequently been associated with female  
figures. The site where the stone was found was also a sacred area  
and burial ground for 14 females, whose pottery grave offerings  
depicted women.

Blood or water flows from the necks of the two women
"This suggest that women played very important roles, not only as  
priestesses, but politically as well," Ahuja said.

In many pre-Hispanic cultures, prisoners of war or sacrificial  
victims were often decapitated or flayed. Most depictions show males,  
but some cultures depicted decapitated females as a symbol of fertility.

The blood or water flows from the necks of the two women in all  
directions, and into the belly button of a third, central figure  
depicted as an almost skeletal figure, neither male nor female.

The announcement came four days after archaeologists in Mexico City  
discovered a smaller monolith near Mexico City's main square, but the  
sculpture on that monument cannot yet be read because much of the  
stone remains buried.

The smaller monolith - it measures about 3,5 meters (yards) on its  
longest side - was probably erected in the closing years of the Aztec  
empire, between 1502 and 1521, when the Spaniards conquered Mexico.

Cedillo said the earth covering the stone could be removed by  
sometime next week, at which point experts could examine and evaluate  
the carvings, which some researchers believe could be dedicated to  
Tlaloc, a rain god.

Tlaloc is also depicted on one of two small altars discovered near  
the monolith in Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruins, the main worship  
site for the Aztecs, who founded the city in 1325. The other altar  
depicts a minor deity, possibly related to farming. - Sapa-AP




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