SYMBOLS FOR GEOLOGIC PHENOMENA IN ROCK ART – EARTHQUAKES REVISITED:

"Pictogram representing an earthquake that took place on the year 2 Reeds or 1507. The gloss describes that the pictogram recounts the drowning of 1800 warriors in an unidentified river, presumably in southern Mexico, the termination of the temple of the New Fire, where the ceremony of the new cycle of life was celebrated, and a solar eclipse as a circle with rays emanating from it in the upper right-hand side, below the date sign." Suarez and Garcia Acosta, 2021, Fig. 7, page 5.

On Saturday, October 19, 2013, I posted a column on RockArtBlog titled “An Earthquake Symbol Pictograph” about a pictograph in the Stein River Valley of British Columbia, Canada, that was interpreted by a First Nations informant (Annie York) as a symbol for an earthquake. Now a 2021 paper by Gerardo Suarez and Virginia Garcia-Acosta (see references) has identified an Mesoamerican earthquake pictogram and illustrated a number of instances of its use in codexes (actually codices).

“The first written evidence of earthquakes in the Americas is represented as pictograms in codices and annals drafted in the first few years after the Spanish Conquest. The main source of earthquakes in pre-Hispanic times comes from the codex Telleriano-Remensis. There are 12 earthquakes reported in the Telleriano-Remensis, from 1460 to 1542.” (Suarez and Garcia-Acosta 2021:1)

The earthquake symbol from the preceding illustration.

“The Codex Telleriano-Remensis, produced in sixteenth century Mexico on European paper, is one of the finest surviving examples of Aztec manuscript painting. The Codex Telleriano-Remensis is divided into three sections. – The third section is a history, itself divided into two sections which differ stylistically. Pages 25 to 28 are an account of migrations during the 12^th and 13^th centuries, while the remaining pages of the codex record historical events, such as ascensions and deaths of rulers, battles, earthquakes, and eclipses from the 14^th to the 16^th century, including events of early Colonial Mexico.” (Wikipedia)

Movement (ollin) and Earth (tlalli) symbols. Suarez and Garcia- Acosta, 2021, Fig. 7, page 5.

"An earthquake is shown on the year 2 Reeds or 1507. Between the earthquake glyph and the date is the representation of a solar eclipse depicted by a shadow on the Sun." Suarez and Garcia- Acosta, 2021, Fig. 5, page 4.

Suarez and Garcia-Acosta (2021) describe the earthquake glyphs as follows. “Earthquakes, or tlalollin in the original Nahuatal language, are represented by two associated glyphs: movement or ollin and Earth or tlalli. Thus the two signs depicted together represent an earthquake. The glyph ollin represents movement. It is portrayed as four helices and a central circle or eye. The Earth is represented by one or several layers filled with dots and colored in different hues. The time of occurrence of an earthquake is depicted by the central part of the ollin or eye. For earthquakes occurring during the day, the eye is open; it is shown as closed for other earthquakes occurring at night.” (Suarez and Garcia-Acosta 2021:2-3) Now any definition I can find of the word helix or helices refers to them as spirals in form and the projections from the central circle of the ollin are obviously not helices, I would describe them as projecting forms on either side, each side divided by notches into three portions for a total of six sections.

We take it as an article of faith that the cultures of the American southwest and of Mexico and Mesoamerica knew something of each other, traded with each other, and had some influences of each other’s cultures.

Petrloglyph from Glorieta Mesa, New Mexico. USDA Forest Service photograph.

I have found an image of a rock art symbol at Glorieta Mesa, New Mexico, which actually looks remarkably like this a portion of this earthquake symbol. In 2008 Larry Loendorf wrote of the Glorieta Mesa petroglyphs -“Many circles are simply concentric, but they can also be embellished by rays projecting from their outer ring. In some instances circles are divided into segments by lines radiating from the center, which make s them look like another natural form, the sand dollar. Some concentric circles have smaller, irregularly shaped ‘petals’ at intervals around the outermost ring.” (Loendorf 2008:61)

This symbol from Glorieta Mesa also has central concentric circles with six projections coming from the outer circle. Is this actually intended to be a copy of the Aztec ollin or Earth glyph? I really cannot say, but it is intriguing. It might not deserve the cigar but it is close.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Loendorf, L., 2008, Thunder and Herds: Rock Art of the High Plains, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California.

Suarez, Gerardo, and Virginia Garcia-Acosta, 2021, The First Written Accounts of Pre-Hispanic Earthquakes in the Americas, Seismological Research Letters, www.srl-online.org, Volume XX, No. XX

Wikipedia, Codex Telleriano-Remensis, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Telleriano-Remensis

York, Annie, Richard Daley and Chris Arnett, 1993    They Write Their Dream on the Rock Forever: Rock Writings of the Stein River Valley of British Columbia, Talonbooks, Vancouver, B.C.