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Aztec Symbols

Aztec Symbols and their meanings

The form of Aztec writing was through a series of complicated symbols. Aztec symbols are much like hieroglyphs, but many archeologists speculate that the symbols of the Aztecs were even more advanced and detailed. By deciphering this intricate system of symbols, archaeologists were able to obtain a much more in-depth look at the Aztecs lives than ever before. Aztec symbols were their form of writing. They used to write on scrolls, much like the biblical times, and they also used the symbols as art for walls of important passageways and decoration for the palace. Symbols were everything to the Aztecs, yet only few were actually literate. There were people actually appointed by the king to be readers, and that was their occupation: to translate all of the Aztec symbols the king might have wanted. There were also writers, who went to all of the royal meetings, taking notes all the while, and they also travelled to other lands to form alliances and treaties. They would record all the information in the form of symbols in scrolls and then bring them back for the king to be informed.

The ancient Aztec sun symbol is by far the most important of them all. The sun represents the calendar they followed, which in turn was the pattern of the circle of life. The sun symbol is probably the first symbol that comes to mind when you think about Aztec symbols. Ancient Aztec symbols can be found all over Teotihuacan, and in other places where Aztecs lived in heavy population.