Questions and Answers
1. Why are Aztec hieroglyphics used on calendars?
Aztec hieroglyphics were used in calendars for many reasons. In Aztec hieroglyphics, each period was denoted by a symbol, such as water, a rabbit, or a flint knife. Within each period, the passage of days was recorded by adding a dot to the hieroglyphic for each day that had passed. Each sign or symbol on th calendar stands for a day, in the Aztec month, there are twenty days and each day was represented by a different hieroglyphic. Those are some of the reasons why Aztec hieroglyphocs were used in calendars.
-Margot Siegel
2. What are some similarities between Aztec and Maya hieroglyphics?
There are many similarities between Aztec and Maya hieroglyphics. The Maya and the Atzec both used the same number system glyphs. The number system includes two different glyphs. The glyphs are a line which represents the number five, and a dot that represents the number one. For both Aztec and Maya hieroglyphics, there can be more than one glyph put together. Some glyphs are put into one because in order to tell a story. Another similarity between the two hieroglyphics is that they are both used in helping to find out more about our history today. Archaeologists are still finding evidence of this today. Those are some of the similarities between Aztec and Maya hieroglyphics.
-Margot Siegel
3. Where are most of the glyphs found?
Most of the glyphs are found in Mexico City for many reasons. Mmost of the Aztec glyphs are found in the ruins, underground, the present day city of Mexico City. Archaeologists find these glyphs by taking lots of time to find where Aztecs lived because wherever they lived, there will probably be ancient ruins of their artwork which contained many glyphs in it. Also, on ancient cave walls, the Aztec people wrote stories with glyohs on the cave walls so if archaeologists can uncover these caves then we will find many new glyphs and stories to help us uncover more about the Aztec. Tehse are some of the reasons why Aztec hieroglyphics were mostly found in Mexico City.
-Margot Siegel
4. How do archaeologists know what each hieroglyphic means? The archaeologists knew what each glyph meant because of many different things. Archaeologists know what glyphs mean because they can identify the picture or pictures hidden in the glyph. Once they have identified what the picture is, they can make connections and look at the whole glyph group because usually there is more than one glyph put together. After identifying what each picture is, they can try to put them all together and make a story or figure out the meaning of it. Those are some of the reasons how archaeologists knew what each hieroglyphic meant.
-Margot Siegel
1. Why were the Glyphs designed the way that they were?
The Glyphs were designed for a very special reason and they represented many important things. The way that they were designed was to represent valuable people, animals, and any other precious things in their life that loved during their time. This was the way that they thanked them and payed them back for what they thought was a great gift or thing that they did. This is the way that the glyphs were designed and it is a way that we can see what they valued.
- Sydney K
2. How did they come up with the idea to invent Hieroglyphs?
They came up with the idea to invent hieroglyphs, which was a very successful invention. The idea came because they originally had a language that was called Nahuati and it was really confusing and hard to understand. To fix this problem they came up with the idea to invent a writing system that would help them with their communication. They fixed this problem and had a writing system that has been a part of history for a very long time. This is where one of the ideas started, and this is the how they came up with the idea to invent glyphs.
- Sydney K
3. What were Glyphs used for and what was their purpose?
Glyphs had many purposes. The most common ones were to make calculations, to write names, to represent places and people, to write history of their past, priests used them to record images of temples and buildings, keep accounts of theirs goods, and to pay and collect taxes. This is all information that we would want to know so that when we want to know what they are representing and what their view is on history we can figure it out by reading what the Glyphs mean. These are just a few things that they glyphs are used for.
- Sydney K
4. How did they make the paper and did they use any specific colors to write with?
Hieroglyphs were not that easy to just write, they also had to make the materials to write hieroglyphs a very precise and particular way. They started off by making the paper. First, they made the paper by taking off strips of bark from the trees around them and pounding them very hard on pieces of wood. This process began to thin out the bark, so that they could write on it. Then the bark was soaked in a river. This made the fibers separate from the pulp and then, the final thing left to do was to let it dry. The ink colors that they used were the principal colors, which were yellow, green, blue, and red. This is what they had to do in-order to write glyphs.
- Sydney K
1. How are the glyphs used in writing different than the glyphs used in the calendar?
The glyphs that were used in Aztec writing were very different from the number glyphs. The glyphs that represented words, symbols, and names were very detailed and picture like, that is the most distinguished feature of the Aztec glyphs. The writing glyphs also often appear as a picture of the animal or person that is being talked about. Generally the head is the only part of the body that is drawn. In other instances sometimes they would actually draw the entire animal or human because their arms, legs and other parts of the body could represent verbs or actions that the subject was doing. The glyphs used in making the calendars were very, very different. Instead of being detailed picture like symbols they were made up of simple dots and blocks. Because the Aztec calendar does not go past the number twenty those are the only number glyphs they used on the calendar. If they were recording information for example they would use the same type of glyph, but different symbols because the number would most likely go past twenty. The Aztecs had many different hieroglyphs used for different things.
-Abbi L
2. What were the main uses of the Aztec glyphs?
There were many uses of the Aztec hieroglyphics, but there were three that were the most common. First the glyphs were used in the Aztec calendars. They used dots, bars, feathers, flags, and many more symbols to represent numbers. The second main use of the Aztec hieroglyphs was to record mathematical calculations and other records. They also used the number glyphs for this reason. The last use was for writing names and places. They used logograms which were generally detailed pictures. For example if they were telling a story they would write the word conquered with certain glyphs and then put the logogram of the name of the city next to the word, meaning that city had been conquered. The Aztec glyphs were a very useful form of writing.
-Abbi L
3. What happened to all the Aztec codices?
A long time ago there were many Aztec codices filled with history of the Aztecs, written in intricate hieroglyphics. There are very few codices left today. During the Aztec rule there were quite a lot of codices made. Eventually when the Spaniards took over the capital city, Tenochtitlan, they burned almost every last codex. The most important codex that was destroyed was the Itzcoatl codex. It had oldest of all the Aztec hieroglyphics written in it. We don’t know a whole lot about the Aztec hieroglyphics anymore because the information filled codices were ruined. If the codices where not destroyed we would have so much more knowledge about the Aztecs and there way of life.
-Abbi L
4. Why don’t people today write with hieroglyphics anymore?
People all over world used to write in hieroglyphics, but not anymore. As years passed while people were writing with hieroglyphics, they began to realize that the glyphs take way too much time and effort to write. They soon created a simpler version of the hieroglyphics. This process of simplifying the hieroglyphs was continued until they got to the way people write today.
-Abbi L
Aztec hieroglyphics were used in calendars for many reasons. In Aztec hieroglyphics, each period was denoted by a symbol, such as water, a rabbit, or a flint knife. Within each period, the passage of days was recorded by adding a dot to the hieroglyphic for each day that had passed. Each sign or symbol on th calendar stands for a day, in the Aztec month, there are twenty days and each day was represented by a different hieroglyphic. Those are some of the reasons why Aztec hieroglyphocs were used in calendars.
-Margot Siegel
2. What are some similarities between Aztec and Maya hieroglyphics?
There are many similarities between Aztec and Maya hieroglyphics. The Maya and the Atzec both used the same number system glyphs. The number system includes two different glyphs. The glyphs are a line which represents the number five, and a dot that represents the number one. For both Aztec and Maya hieroglyphics, there can be more than one glyph put together. Some glyphs are put into one because in order to tell a story. Another similarity between the two hieroglyphics is that they are both used in helping to find out more about our history today. Archaeologists are still finding evidence of this today. Those are some of the similarities between Aztec and Maya hieroglyphics.
-Margot Siegel
3. Where are most of the glyphs found?
Most of the glyphs are found in Mexico City for many reasons. Mmost of the Aztec glyphs are found in the ruins, underground, the present day city of Mexico City. Archaeologists find these glyphs by taking lots of time to find where Aztecs lived because wherever they lived, there will probably be ancient ruins of their artwork which contained many glyphs in it. Also, on ancient cave walls, the Aztec people wrote stories with glyohs on the cave walls so if archaeologists can uncover these caves then we will find many new glyphs and stories to help us uncover more about the Aztec. Tehse are some of the reasons why Aztec hieroglyphics were mostly found in Mexico City.
-Margot Siegel
4. How do archaeologists know what each hieroglyphic means? The archaeologists knew what each glyph meant because of many different things. Archaeologists know what glyphs mean because they can identify the picture or pictures hidden in the glyph. Once they have identified what the picture is, they can make connections and look at the whole glyph group because usually there is more than one glyph put together. After identifying what each picture is, they can try to put them all together and make a story or figure out the meaning of it. Those are some of the reasons how archaeologists knew what each hieroglyphic meant.
-Margot Siegel
1. Why were the Glyphs designed the way that they were?
The Glyphs were designed for a very special reason and they represented many important things. The way that they were designed was to represent valuable people, animals, and any other precious things in their life that loved during their time. This was the way that they thanked them and payed them back for what they thought was a great gift or thing that they did. This is the way that the glyphs were designed and it is a way that we can see what they valued.
- Sydney K
2. How did they come up with the idea to invent Hieroglyphs?
They came up with the idea to invent hieroglyphs, which was a very successful invention. The idea came because they originally had a language that was called Nahuati and it was really confusing and hard to understand. To fix this problem they came up with the idea to invent a writing system that would help them with their communication. They fixed this problem and had a writing system that has been a part of history for a very long time. This is where one of the ideas started, and this is the how they came up with the idea to invent glyphs.
- Sydney K
3. What were Glyphs used for and what was their purpose?
Glyphs had many purposes. The most common ones were to make calculations, to write names, to represent places and people, to write history of their past, priests used them to record images of temples and buildings, keep accounts of theirs goods, and to pay and collect taxes. This is all information that we would want to know so that when we want to know what they are representing and what their view is on history we can figure it out by reading what the Glyphs mean. These are just a few things that they glyphs are used for.
- Sydney K
4. How did they make the paper and did they use any specific colors to write with?
Hieroglyphs were not that easy to just write, they also had to make the materials to write hieroglyphs a very precise and particular way. They started off by making the paper. First, they made the paper by taking off strips of bark from the trees around them and pounding them very hard on pieces of wood. This process began to thin out the bark, so that they could write on it. Then the bark was soaked in a river. This made the fibers separate from the pulp and then, the final thing left to do was to let it dry. The ink colors that they used were the principal colors, which were yellow, green, blue, and red. This is what they had to do in-order to write glyphs.
- Sydney K
1. How are the glyphs used in writing different than the glyphs used in the calendar?
The glyphs that were used in Aztec writing were very different from the number glyphs. The glyphs that represented words, symbols, and names were very detailed and picture like, that is the most distinguished feature of the Aztec glyphs. The writing glyphs also often appear as a picture of the animal or person that is being talked about. Generally the head is the only part of the body that is drawn. In other instances sometimes they would actually draw the entire animal or human because their arms, legs and other parts of the body could represent verbs or actions that the subject was doing. The glyphs used in making the calendars were very, very different. Instead of being detailed picture like symbols they were made up of simple dots and blocks. Because the Aztec calendar does not go past the number twenty those are the only number glyphs they used on the calendar. If they were recording information for example they would use the same type of glyph, but different symbols because the number would most likely go past twenty. The Aztecs had many different hieroglyphs used for different things.
-Abbi L
2. What were the main uses of the Aztec glyphs?
There were many uses of the Aztec hieroglyphics, but there were three that were the most common. First the glyphs were used in the Aztec calendars. They used dots, bars, feathers, flags, and many more symbols to represent numbers. The second main use of the Aztec hieroglyphs was to record mathematical calculations and other records. They also used the number glyphs for this reason. The last use was for writing names and places. They used logograms which were generally detailed pictures. For example if they were telling a story they would write the word conquered with certain glyphs and then put the logogram of the name of the city next to the word, meaning that city had been conquered. The Aztec glyphs were a very useful form of writing.
-Abbi L
3. What happened to all the Aztec codices?
A long time ago there were many Aztec codices filled with history of the Aztecs, written in intricate hieroglyphics. There are very few codices left today. During the Aztec rule there were quite a lot of codices made. Eventually when the Spaniards took over the capital city, Tenochtitlan, they burned almost every last codex. The most important codex that was destroyed was the Itzcoatl codex. It had oldest of all the Aztec hieroglyphics written in it. We don’t know a whole lot about the Aztec hieroglyphics anymore because the information filled codices were ruined. If the codices where not destroyed we would have so much more knowledge about the Aztecs and there way of life.
-Abbi L
4. Why don’t people today write with hieroglyphics anymore?
People all over world used to write in hieroglyphics, but not anymore. As years passed while people were writing with hieroglyphics, they began to realize that the glyphs take way too much time and effort to write. They soon created a simpler version of the hieroglyphics. This process of simplifying the hieroglyphs was continued until they got to the way people write today.
-Abbi L