Aztek Glyphs/Symbols

Continuing to look at traditional examples of Aztek/Mayan art and symbols. They had a the most complicated symbol/glyph system to represent their days,months,years & numbers that i haven't a clue how to work out. Did find an online generator that did the work for me,but was attracted to the combos of graphical looking animal icons, dots & bars.

The aztec calendar works with 20 signs related to animals or elements, and 

cycles of 13 days called Tercena.

The tonalpohualli ("day count") consists of a cycle of 260 days, each day signified by a combination of a number from 1 to 13, and one of the twenty day signs. With each new day, both the number and day sign would be incremented: 1 Crocodile is followed by 2 Wind, 3 House, 4 Lizard, and so forth up to 13 Reed, after which the cycle of numbers would restart (though the twenty day signs had not yet been exhausted) resulting in 1 Jaguar, 2 Eagle, and so on, as the days immediately following 13 Reed. This cycle of number and day signs would continue similarly until the 20th week, which would start on 1 Rabbit, and end on 13 Flower. It would take a full 260 days (13×20) for the two cycles (of twenty day signs, and thirteen numbers) to realign and repeat the sequence back on 1 Crocodile.

Simple, right(!)

(my own birth date)

Calendar Stone

The image carved on the Calendar Stone shows a face surrounded by a series of concentric rings. The figure at the center has been identified as either the sun deity Tonatiuh, the earth god Tlaltecuhtli, or some hybrid of the two. The Aztecs believed that they had been ordained by the gods to keep the sun moving across the sky by feeding it with the hearts and blood of warriors. The earth also required similar sacrifices. The claws we can see to the right and left of the central face probably originally grasped human hearts, today much eroded or damaged.

The central face and the X-like form around it together present the Aztec hieroglyphs for the five successive creations of the world, from the earliest to the present (or at least the present in 1500). The first creation, or Sun, as the Aztecs called them, is shown in the box to the upper right of the central face, and was named Nahui Ocelotl, 4 Jaguar, for the day in the Aztec 260 day calendar on which it ended. Continuing counterclockwise, with the upper left box, the next creation was Nahui Ehecatl, or 4 Wind. Then at lower left, Nahui Quiahuitl, 4 Rain, and at lower right, Nahui Atl, or 4 Water. The Jaguar Sun was destroyed by giant jaguars; the Wind Sun by terrible hurricanes; the Rain Sun by a rain of fire; and the Water Sun by a great flood.

All this is interesting, if not super complex to read about - how beneficial to any practical work i produce it will be i'm not too sure, but i feel if i'm going to base my practical response around aztek symbols i should at least have a vague clue about what it is i'm drawing.