Cerro de las Mesas: Stela 4
In Veracruz, near La Venta, stands Cerro de las Mesas's Stela 4, a little known stela of the Late Classic period.. Because it bears Mixtec style dates that are not easily identified in the Handbook picture, I became interested in it. The main iconography further intrigued me because it apparently represents a Tlaloc-like figure holding a piece of shredded rope.
Such a complex set of icons that includes an early version of Tlaloc with a shredded rope reminds me of a vase that shows various sky gods each surrounded by a continuous but individual rope frame. The vase is thought to be the gods of the year, enclosed in the year cycle, represented by a rope.
The Aztec Calendar Stone has slightly later Tlaloc iconography for one of the Four Ages. It is not the Tlaloc of the rains and blue waters, but instead he is the Tlaloc of the fire stones that fell from the sky.
Alfonso Caso, in his version, names Quetzalcoatl as an avatar of Tlaloc and also an avatar of one of the frour Bacabs that hold up the sky. Neverthlesss, the Lady of the Blue Star (here called a Skirt) is mentioned in this section also.
Quetzalcoatl became a great wind (Ehecatl) and leveled the earth in Four Wind.
Quetzalcoatl became great fire and stones from heaven as rain. Men became birds in Four Lluvia. Maiz de agua or acecentli created here. Sister of Tlaloc was Chalchiuhtlicue "She of the Jade Skirt" goddess of water put "por sol" [near the sun] by Quetzalcoatl.
Four Agua [. . . . . .] When there was too much rain Quetzalcoatl held up the sky.
Since shortly after the Conquest of Mexico, there was much emphasis on the fact that Quetzalcoatl was supposed to be a European-type entity, his presence in Alonso Caso’s version was necessary, even though it was possibly not very truthful.
An unknown author at the INAH Museum gave a slightly different description of the Four Ages of the Sun that included Tlaloc as a different type of god, associated with a female consort, still he threw down fire and stones, not rain.
Quiauhtonaiuh (Sun of Fire Rain) The Third Cosmogonic Epoch, in which everthing was extinguished by the rain of lava and fire. Men were transformed at this time into birds, thus saving themselves from the slaughter. . .
Regardless of the source, this tells us that there was a good reason for the frayed rope in Blue Tlaloc’s hand. It was the rope that bound the years. The great stones that fell from the blue skirted goddess’s realm, where Tlaloc lived, altered the earthlings view of the sky. The star sightings of the old calendar were no longer was valid. It had to be changed.
Here, men indeed changed themselves into birds, not a true transformation, but instead, with the help of masks and feathered cloaks. One only has to see carving of the birdman perched on top of the cave of the serpents in Guerrero to recognize the actions of the "new" bird government which took over that of the "cave" serpent people. Pacal's son inherited both, so his transition from serpent-leg person to bird K'awiil-headed human governor was shown on the wall at Palenque.
According to the Codex Riós,there were four different times that stones fell from the skies, but only one of those times did fire accompany them. And that was during the third episode when the blue-green serpent of the false sun appeared with a feather (fire) fan and a scythe in his hands. It was the time, all people fled to the caves. It was a time of a great wind and deer died, but monkeys appeared to thrive in the turmoil. Leon-Portillo researched this event and came up with four different sets of intervening years. I recorded them in my notes, but thought no more about them, since the combination of two intervals equaled the number of years for the first and the last interval.(676). It did not make any sense at that time.
Researching medieval astronomy documents, I came across an obvious cipher: the number three (3), in the back of the book as sets of longitude and latitude of well-known cities. One three was upside-down and reversed. If that longitude was Paris, (23°) as indicated in the list, but Lisbon was only 21°, then Paris would be sitting above Lisbon in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It was obvious that the Paris longitude had a different purpose than just a location. That definition is not necesssary here, just that fact that it was inferred as an important aspect of a possible cipher during a time of oppression, the same type of oppression that continued after the Conquistadores took Mexico, that ofthe Spanish Inquisition.
In Leon-Portullo’s numbers, two of them were 676 while the other two added up to 676. That would give three different intervals with the same number of years. When there are three similar numbers for four intervals of time, what if there was only one number to be considered, that of 676. Especially since the attributes of three interval numbers—nearness of the Sun, the great wind, the fires— are all part of the single third age of the Sun as represented in the Codex Riós.
As for the shredded rope, countries beside Central America changed their calendars. Those in Copan, China, and India were changed in the seventh century AD, either as a joint effort or independent ones. Regardless of the connection or lack of a connection, it occurred durin -312 fires g the same century; a century that would include the number 676 if it indicated a year instead of a interval of many years. If this was the year of that the nova put on such a display of power to be used by a certain group of people to impress others of their own power and magic, then such a date would have to be suppressed by the opposition. It would be up to the ingenuity of the defeated, to record that “sacred” year in spite of their status as conquered.
Leon-Portilla, M. (1977) Los Antiguos Mexicanos através de sus crónicas y cantares Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, p. 40
-676 Apollo sun too close
-364 wind - monkeymen
-312 fires
-676 water