Olin. Zur Bedeutung von Erdbeben und deren Registrierung bei den Azteken

Abstract

In summary, we can observe that not only in pictographic representations, but also in the Aztec texts recorded in the early colonial times, distinctions were made by different depictions and formulations. The Aztecs recorded different sizes of earthquakes and assessed the damages occurred. In doing so, not only were the ideograms passed down from ancient times standardized in certain ways with regard to their usage, but also the groups of words bearing little stylistic variants. To the Aztecs, besides the ruin of their homes, the destruction of the mountains was of serious importance. Serious damages had been suffered due to mountain landslides that resulted from earthquakes and buried the villages on the mountain sides. Moreover, it is stated that large earthquakes produced chasms. However, casualties were not reported. Their number was obviously not known by the commentators, since it may be assumed that people were killed by the landslides that buried their villages. On the whole, efforts were made to explain the phenomenon of the earthquakes by keeping register, hoping to gain ritual control of it to ensure their own future. This represents a very modest attempt at a scientific world view stemming from the religious nature of their cosmogony.