Page:Stone of the Sun.djvu/69

 harmony with the other elements of the relief; 260 Venus years adjust themselves to a grand cycle of 416 solar years and equal exactly 584 tonalámatl.

Another proof that these elements do not allude to days, but to years, we shall see in the two objects, which are considered in the next paragraph, in which fives appear combined with glyphs denoting the solar years; it would not be logical to suppose that elements signifying a day should be arbitrarily mixed up with elements signifying a year. This is the error into which have invariably fallen Chavero, Valentini, Abadiano, and most of the interpreters of the monument.

g) Glyphs follow which have been counted by Chavero and other authors; but, except for that archaeologist, who saw in them a cycle of 104 years, without decipherment. They represent solar years, and they are seen combined with the preceding in many astronomical monuments of the museum; in the cubical stone with the four ages of the world of which we have spoken before; in the stone known as the Stone of Tizoc, on whose border Abadiano read the same number of 1,664 which we know represents one of the ages of the world; in a most interesting stone box (tepetlacalli) from Texcoco, which also belongs to the museum, etc., etc.

The finding of the two classes of units in the cuirical stone sufficiently proves that they denote years, since it is not logical to compute in another manner ages of prolonged duration.

The same glyphs, in diverse combinations, appear in a great number of monuments: pages of the codices; a precious vase (cuauhxicali) in Berlin of which Kingsborough published an engraving; the admirable stone of Tepetzuntla, symbolism of Quetzalcóatl, which shows under the teeth the 8 glyphs of the solar years equivalent to the five Venus years which the god has on the forehead; the frieze of Mitla, copied by the great German archaeologist Seler; the figure from a Tacubaya garden which is called Tetzcatzóncatl.

h) No one has deciphered the so-called "pentagons." We identify these glyphs with the conventionalized signs, sufficiently analogous, which adorn the body of the so-called Cipactli of Xochicalco and that of the four serpents of page 72 of the Borgian Codex. Four plumed serpents appear in the codex, with 13 circles distributed over the body (including the eye of the monster). The figure forms a sort of frame within which the initial characters of the Venus year are encountered. We already know that there are five of these. The circles