Archive for the ‘mayanists’ Category

Posted on December 1, 2011 - by admin

A second reference to 2012 in Mayan inscriptions? (Answer: probably not)

A bit of extra excitement for the world of Mayan scholarship and 2012-watchers: from the blog of Johan Normark, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Historical Studies at University of Gothenburg.

“Yesterday the news spread around the 2012 world that there is another ancient Maya inscription that mentions December 21, 2012 on the so called Comalcalco bricks. For example, Rob Bast wrote an entry called Dec 21, 2012: Second Mayan reference.”

Normark goes on to explain why a) this isn’t actually the significant ’second reference’ that it seems to be and b) even if so, big deal! It would make only two references in the Mayan canon (admittedly somewhat minimal after the efforts of Diego de Landa), to the supposed cataclysm of 2012. (which should surely merit a bit more prominence, if it was indeed an over-arching prediction of doom!)

My advice to people who want to be fascinated with the 2012 apocalypse and lost Mayan documents with ancient prophecies?

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Posted on October 16, 2009 - by admin

FAMSI - What the Ancient Maya Tell Us About 2012

That terrific resource for all things ancient and MesoAmerican, the Website of the Federation f0r the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc, has published an excellent paper by MarK Van Stone about What the Ancient Maya Tell Us About 2012. And it’s not the end of the world…

Here’s a quote:

First, let me affirm that the year 2012 does hold particular significance in Mayan scholarship. Those of us who study the ancient and modern Maya — anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, linguists, historians, amateurs, collectors — have been anticipating the end of the Maya Great Cycle for some time. We write it 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in. We have known for half a century that this date probably correlates to December 21 (or December 23) in the year 2012 in the Gregorian calendar.

If you’re interested in 2012-ology, I can highly recommend this well-argued, comprehensive document.

Posted on October 12, 2009 - by admin

Q&A about 2012 from a leading Mayanist

That genius Mayanist, David Stuart has written a terrific summary of what the Maya actually wrote about 2012 (not much!) and where the whole hoo-hah originated.

Here’s a quote:

Does the Maya calendar end in 2012?

No it doesn’t. What will happen is a recurrence, an anniversary of sorts, of a key mythological date in the distant past. …(snip) In fact, the numerology of the calendar demands that there will be other similar recurrences of this same date in the far distant future, on a scale of octillions of years. The scale of Maya time reckoning dwarfs anything in our own cosmology by many orders of magnitude.

Read the whole Q&A about 2012 article.