Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-28
REVISING THE CALENDAR.
III-ANCIENT AMERICAN SYSTEMS.
By Frederic J. Haskin.


If one were to judge the civilizations OF
the ancient world by the perfection OF
their systems of time reckoning the cred
it of having reached the highest state OF
enlightenment would have to be awarded
to the people of Mexico. Ancient Mexico
produced the most perfect calendar the
world has yet known. Although IL was
finally revised In the year 70 BIC, only
sixteen years after the PRONUNCIATION OF
the Julian calendar, it stands to this day
the most accurate of all calendars yet &c
vised by men. How much superior IL Was
to the Julian calendar is revealed by the
fact that, whereas the latter Is now thir-
teen days out of harmony with the trop-
ical wear, the Aztec calendar would now
he less than half a day out OIL paiahce
with the solar time.
In another way one may appreciate the
mathematical accuracy of the work OF
the Aztecs in the science OF caienua ad
making. Nearly sixteen centuries passed.
hetween the great revision or the Aztec
calendar and the PRONUNCIATION OF tue
Gregorian system of time rechonins. an ~,
vet after the lapse of all TINS uHie one
f,nds that the Gregorian calendar IS not
ns accurate as that created by the AZ
tees. In less than four tnousanu seals
an error of a day will have 10 De Ieco!ueu
under the Gregorian system: on the olnsi
hand. the Aztec calendar VIII .nre,,rh
record the passing of solar time through
more than five thousand years without
the variation of d single day:
one NAV not be able to discover an!
advantage in the Aztec method OF sun
dividing the year over 'ae sih1a that
the Aztec subdivisions are fuzzy as SCI
entific as our own. The Aztec year was
divided into eighteen months. all OF four
weeks each, the weeks having un1orm
length of five days. AZ ''e &c, emu ,ntercalarv
period of five days. In addition 10 thls
Il was arranged that there should De
further INTERPOLATION OF twenty i've ia.
during each 104 years rms served "
make the most perfect adjustment oil ,Hs
civil and the solar years that the Worio
has ever known.
The great Aztec revision of the calendar
took Mace in the ancient and now Iost
city OF Hue
Revision Took Place huetlapallan IN
in Now Lost City. Flint" which.
as stated before, corresponds TO the sea'
"a r. c. in our system OF reckoning .iine
where this ancient city was located no
ono knows with any degree OF certaih'S'
some believe that the location Is repre-
sented bv the Casa Grande ruins, IN
Arizona, near the junction OF the oo'o'
r.do and the ella rivers. Others are IN
cl,ned to believe that 1t was situated IN
our own Mississippi valley near the
great mounds left by the aboriginal
Americans. Color Is lent to the ss assn Map
;can region by the fact that the Aztec
chroniciers referred with great
IA 20 s' u,hich find a counterpart in the pres
ant dry periods in that region.
The Aztec calendar finds Its concrete
EXPRESSION in the great calendar stone,
now preserved in the National Museum
of Mexico This stone. elaborateiy carved
~ meet the astronomical purposes for
which it was designed. is one of the most
remarkable of all the monoliths left by
the races of antiquity. 1t is asserted that
It originally weighed fifty tons. and that
it was covered with red pigment: Is
| a large circular stone. twenty-five feet IN
diameter and three feet thick, resempnne
] a milestone. 1t was quarried many miles