Aztec Calendar Handbook
by Randall C. Jiménez, Richard B. Graeber
Category: Education

New Book Bridges Ancient Wisdom with Modern Technology! The ancient wisdom ascribed is found behind the creation of a 500-year-old artifact, the Aztec Calendar. To the Natives it was Teoilhuicatl Apaluaztli Ollin Tonal Machiotl meaning the Great and Venerable Mechanism of the Universe. Dr. Randall C. Jimenez, a former San Jose State University educator, and Richard B. Graeber, an engineering documentation specialist, have collaborated to create the first Technical Manual for the Aztec Calendar ever produced. [Note: The Aztec name was given to the Mechican Indians (ch as in chevron; sometimes spelled Mexican) by the writer W. H. Prescott in the early 19th century.] The Aztec Calendar Handbook, involving thousands of man-hours of effort to create, takes a blueprint style approach to a Historical Reference primer. Illustrated with over 150 technical drawings showing enlargement details, cut-away views, and computer-generated art, this new guidebook has been called the "ultimate" Aztec Calendar reference treatise. Distilled from over 240 sources and quoting direct eyewitnesses from the 1500's, it further includes a glossary of over 230 native words. This attractive book is made with parchment paper and has a leather-grained cover, making it resemble an ancient manuscript.The research for writing the Aztec Calendar Handbook was assisted by custom software to convert Native date designators into our modern calendar dating system. In this way, a researcher is able to convert and track the dates of events from surviving native history books, known as codices. Mountains of information could be processed more efficiently and accurately when correlating indigenous dates. Inversely, a Julian date can also be converted into the Mayan long-count system. It is then possible for the Mechican calendar-labeling scheme to be transposed over the count to generate a person's Aztec tonallo or spiritual name from their birth date. According to Native tradition, our current long-count cycle will be complete on the winter solstice 2012. A long-count cycle, credited to the Olmec/-Maya, is 5125 years and started in the year 3113BC. No one is really sure what will happen when the cycle ends, but the material in this book offers a solid foundation for figuring it out. By looking at myths, legends & history with an Aztec's perception of God, this new Manual provides needed answers to some important questions. Would you like to know about how and when the Maya influenced the design of the Aztec Calendar? Have you ever seen the Hopi version of the Plumed Serpent? Would you like to put the last 12,000 years into perspective? If so, then your library needs the Aztec Calendar Handbook. You will find yourself referring to it over and over again. No stone has been left unturned.