This Mayan calendar necklace shows the carved disk known as the Aztec Sun Stone. The design is the one most people picture when they think of a Mayan calendar. The original is Aztec (Mexica) and dates to about 1500 CE. Its center holds a face often read as the sun god Tonatiuh.
Each Mayan calendar necklace is cast in lead-free pewter with deep relief. The Sun Stone records cycles of time in concentric rings. Aztec timekeeping used a 260-day round and a 365-day year. The original disk was unearthed in Mexico City in 1790.
The Sun Stone is a carved basalt disk nearly 12 feet across. It was made in the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlan. Rings of glyphs mark day-signs and past world ages. The original now sits in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.