Room 2 - Aztec’s in Medieval Times Culture Artifact 1: Hieroglyphic Manuscript (Hieroglyphic, 1) This is a manuscript showing the god Chuacohuati. The manuscript is written in hieroglyphs, which is what they used to record history and for religious purposes, such as this manuscript. They would also use the hieroglyphic picture writing, because they had no alphabet of their own, on calendars (Aztec Britannica, 1). Artifact 2: Stone Calendar (Aztec Calendar, 1) The Aztecs had both a 260 day calendar and a 365 day calendar. In both calendars the months were 20 days long, with the 365 day calendar having more months than the 260 day calendar. The 260 day calendar was used in events such as predicting the future. The 365 day calendar was based on the solar calendar. At the end of this year, there were five unlucky “days of nothing”, and was celebrated by the Aztecs with dancing, singing, and sacrifices done by priests. The two calendars coincided every 52 years, and this was marked by the New Fire Festival, where there was fasting and human sacrifice. Both calendars were complex and very accurate (Peppas, 5) …show more content…
Worshippers would perform rituals and ceremonies to gain the god’s help, and an important part of these rites was human sacrifice. Shown here is a priest offering a heart taken from a living person and offering it to Huitzilopochtli and Tonatiuh at a pyramid temple, where this often took place (Aztec Britannica, 1).