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In Aztec artwork a number of monumental stone sculptures have been preserved, and such sculptures usually functioned as adornments for religious architecture. monumental sculptures

Calendar stones are intricately carved sculptures that encapsulate the Aztec understanding of time and space being interconnected. Calendar Stones were monumental in size, and they contained low relief carvings of symbols representing date glyphs. At the center of the Calendar Stones, the five suns are included to symbolize the five eras in which the Aztecs lived: the first sun signified the destruction of the world by jaguars, the second sun signified the destruction of the world by monkeys or hurricanes, the third sun signified the world was destroyed by a rain of fire, the fourth destroyed by blood, and the fifth sun, which represents the Aztecs' present world, was to be destroyed by earthquakes. The first four suns were placed into corners that corresponded to the cardinal directions, and the fifth sun was placed in the middle of the other four. Surrounding the central suns are rings of date glyphs that symbolize different markers of time. Complimentary to Aztec ideology, these date glyphs were representations of physical attributes from nature that were of importance to the Aztecs (rabbit, flint knife, death, water, house etc).

Calendar stones are intricately carved sculptures that encapsulate the Aztec belief that time and space are interconnected. Calendar Stones were monumental in size, and they contained low relief carvings of symbols representing date glyphs. Among these symbols, the sun was a popular motif to appear in the Calendar Stones. At the center of the Calendar Stones, five suns are included to symbolize the five eras in which the Aztecs lived and the corresponding ways in which these worlds were destroyed: the first sun signaled destruction by jaguars, the second sun by monkeys or hurricanes, the third sun by a rain of fire, the fourth sun by blood, and the fifth - which was the Aztec's present world - was to be destroyed by earthquakes. the central sun must be fed by the sacrifice of human hearts. (townsend, 1992:118). The first four suns were placed into corners that corresponded to the cardinal directions, and the fifth sun was placed in the middle of the other four. Solar rays point out from the central disk, symbolizing thee four directions of the cosmos. Surrounding the central suns are rings of date glyphs that symbolize different markers of time. Complimentary to Aztec ideology, these date glyphs were representations of physical attributes from nature that were of importance to the Aztecs (rabbit, flint knife, death, water, house etc). The first ring surrounding this central disk comprises of the 20 date glyphs representing the 20 days within an Aztec month. There are 18 months in total. The symbols read counterclockwise. The ring surrounding the first ring depicts symbols representing turquoise and jade, the equinoxes and solstices, and the colors of the heavens. (Miller, M.E. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. (Thames & Hudson, 1993). The outermost ring of the sun stone shows the depiction of two fire serpents, or Xiucoatls (Cecilia F Klein). The two heads of the serpent face each other at the bottom of the stone, and the two ends of the tail meet at its top.

Particularly famous monumental rock sculpture includes the so-called Aztec "Sunstone" or Calendar Stone discovered in 1790; also discovered in 1790 excavations of the Zócalo was the 2.7 meter tall Coatlicue statue made of andesite, representing a serpentine chthonic goddess with a skirt made of rattlesnakes. The Coyolxauhqui Stone representing the dismembered goddess Coyolxauhqui, found in 1978, was at the foot of the staircase leading up to the Great Temple in Tenochtitlan.[119] Two important types of sculpture are unique to the Aztecs, and related to the context of ritual sacrifice: the cuauhxicalli or "eagle vessel", large stone bowls often shaped like eagles or jaguars used as a receptacle for extracted human hearts; the temalacatl, a monumental carved stone disk to which war captives were tied and sacrificed in a form of gladiatorial combat. The most well known examples of this type of sculpture are the Stone of Tizoc and the Stone of Motecuzoma I, both carved with images of warfare and conquest by specific Aztec rulers.