You can stop having those awful thoughts for next year Although some investors might have to hedge their bets

2 December 2011 Last updated at 06:37 ET

Mayans 'did not predict world to end in 2012'



The Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza in Mexico The Mayan civilisation developed a complex system of calendars


The calendar used by the ancient Mayan civilisation does not predict the end of the world in December 2012 as some believe, according to experts.

A new reading of a Mayan tablet mentioning the 2012 date suggests that it refers to the end of an era in the calendar, and not an apocalypse.

The date was "a reflection of the day of creation", Mayan codes researcher Sven Gronemeyer told AP.

The day also marked the return of a Mayan god, Mr Gronemeyer added.

Bolon Yokte, the god of creation and war, was expected to return, according to Mr Gronemeyer's reading of a Mayan text carved into stone 1,300 years ago.

The date marks the end of one of the periods of roughly 400 years into which the Mayan calendar is divided.

Mexico's National Institute for Anthropological History has also tried to counter speculation that the Mayans predicted a catastrophic event for 2012.

Only two out of 15,000 registered Mayan texts mention the date 2012, according to the Institute, and no Mayan text predicts the end of the world.

"There is no prophecy for 2012. It is a marketing fallacy," Erik Velasquez, etchings specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told Reuters.

Wait.



You mean all those idiots who believe that crap were wrong?



Wow......Who da thunk it?

There is a documentary on this running on the History Channel. Its worth a watch and shows that the Mayans had an impressive understanding of the stars and planets.

21 December 2011 Last updated at 16:28 ET


Mexico Maya begin 2012 'end of era' countdown



Mayan priests make offerings before a fire in San Andres, El Salvador Mayan priests in El Salvador have also held ceremonies to mark the occasion

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Indigenous Maya communities in southern Mexico have begun a year-long countdown to 21 December 2012, which will mark the end of a five-millenia cycle in the ancient Mayan calendar.

Some people have interpreted the prophecy as predicting the apocalypse.

But experts say it signifies the end of an era, not the end of the world.

Maya priests have been holding special religious ceremonies, and Mexican tourism officials are preparing for a surge in visitors to the region.

Mexico's tourism agency says it hopes to draw around 52 million visitors in 2012, with many heading to the Maya heartland in the southern states of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Tabasco.
Powerful god

The Mayan civilisation, which reached its peak between 250 and 900AD, was fascinated by astronomy, mathematics and the cycles of time.

Its Long Count calendar began in 3114BC and moves forward in 394-year periods known as Baktuns.

The winter solstice in 2012 marks the end of the 13th Baktun, a date of special significance that reflects celestial alignments recognised by modern astronomers.

The idea that it could mean the end of the world - based on a Mayan text carved into a stone 1,300 years ago - has been spread on thousands of websites.

But archaeologists and Maya experts say the prophecy predicts the return to Earth of a powerful god and the start of a new era, not a global catastrophe.

They point out that other Maya prophecies refer to events far in the future.

This has not stopped the spread of millennial fears around the world.

Tourism officials are hoping that some of those who believe the end of the world is nigh will take the opportunity to visit the Maya region before it is too late.

The end is nigh, so party on!

December 21 2011 at 04:00pm
By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON



ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Mayan priest taking part in a ceremony.

Seize the day.

Only 52 weeks and a day are left before December 21, 2012, when some believe the Maya predicted the end of the world.

Unlike enthusiasts of other doomsday theories who suggest putting together survival kits, south-east Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, plans a yearlong celebration.

Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors by next year only to the regions of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche. All of Mexico usually lures about 22 million foreigners in a year.

It's selling the date, the Winter Solstice in the coming year, as a time of renewal. Many archeologists argue that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar.

“The world will not end. It is an era,” said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun. “For us, it is a message of hope.”
iol travel dec 21 mayan celebrations2

People watch as Mayan indian priests participate in a ceremony while one holds up a crystal skull at the Mayan ruins of Palenque, Mexico.

AP

Cities and towns in the Mayan region on Wednesday will start the yearlong countdown. In Chiapas the town of Tapachula on the Guatemalan border will start a countdown on an 8-foot digital clock in the main park exactly a year before the mysterious date.

In the nearby archaeological site of Izapa, Maya priests will burn incense, chant and offer prayers.

In the tropical jungle of Quintana Roo, between the resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, people are putting messages and photos in a time capsule that will be buried for 50 years. Maya priests and Indian dancers will perform a ritual at the time capsule ceremony.

Yucatan state has announced plans to complete the Maya Museum of Merida by next summer.

“People who still live in Mayan villages will host rites and burn incense for us to go back in time and try to understand the Mayan wisdom,” Zaldo said.

The Maya reputation for wisdom has people taking the alleged prediction seriously.

The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy

Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. 21, 2012.

The doomsday theories stem from a stone tablet discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describes the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period.

Believers have taken the end-of-the world fears to the Internet with hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs.

“The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folks that were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge,” said Mayan scholar Sven Gronemeyer. “What happens is that our expectations and fears get projected on the Maya calendar.”

Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia compares the supposed Mayan prophecies to the “Y2K” hype, when people feared all computer systems would crash when the new millennium began on Jan. 1, 2000.

For some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidence that dates beyond 2012 were recorded.

The blogosphere exploded with more speculation when Mexico's archaeology institute acknowledged on Nov. 24 a second reference to Dec. 21, 2012, on a brick found at other ruins.

“Human beings seem to be attracted by apocalyptic ideas and always assume the worst,” Gronemeyer said.

It's all a bit frustrating for serious Mayan researchers whose field has made huge strides in recent years.

“This new historical and archaeological knowledge is so much more interesting and mind-blowing than the fantastical claims about Maya prophecies one sees on TV, books or on the Internet,” David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin, said in an email to The Associated Press. “We're dealing with thousands of newly deciphered texts and trying to weave together a coherent picture of Maya history and culture, which to me is as exciting as it gets.”

While the 2012 hype might increase interest in the Maya, “that will probably be offset by the long and difficult effort ahead to correct the ubiquitous lies and misconceptions, even after 2012 has come and gone,” he wrote.

Jonnie Channell of Albuquerque, New Mexico, says that 2012 “is going to be one of those things where people are definitely going to have to plan,” not because of impending apocalypse, but because hotel rooms in the Maya region are probably going to be full.

Channell, who owns Maya Sites Travel Services, is surprised that she already has 24 reservations for three tour packages she is offering to major Mayan ruin sites in the week leading up to the solstice.

She named one “Beginning the New Calendar Era Under the Yucatan Stars.”

“We put together these tours, and we've got lots of signups, and people are excited about it,” she said. “If anybody think it's going to be the end of the world, then they better stay home.” - Sapa-AP

10 May 2012 Last updated at 14:02 ET

Mayan art and calendar at Xultun stun archaeologists


Wall of the Xultun find The preservation of the artwork surprised archaeologists, given the dwelling's shallow depth


Maya treasure found in Guatemala
Historic Mayan mural found 'by chance'
'No 2012 doom' in Mayan prophecy

Archaeologists working at the Xultun ruins of the Mayan civilisation have reported striking finds, including the oldest-known Mayan astronomical tables.

The site, in Guatemala, includes the first known instance of Mayan art painted on the walls of a dwelling.

A report in Science says it dates from the early 9th Century, pre-dating other Mayan calendars by centuries.

Such calendars rose to prominence recently amid claims they predicted the end of the world in 2012.

The Mayan civilisation occupied Central America from about 2000BC until its decline and assimilation following the colonisation by the Spanish from the 15th Century onwards. It still holds fascination, with many early Mayan sites still hidden or uncatalogued.

The ruins at Xultun were first discovered in 1912 and mapping efforts in the 1920s and 1970s laid out much of the site's structure.
Diagram of Xultun find Three of the four walls of the structure are remarkably well preserved

Archaeologists have catalogued the site's features, including a 35m-tall pyramid, but thousands of structures on the 30 sq km site remain unexplored.

In 2005, William Saturno, then at the University of New Hampshire, discovered the oldest-known Mayan murals at a site just a few kilometres away called San Bartolo.

in 2010, one of Dr Saturno's students was following the tracks of more recent looters at Xultun when he discovered the vegetation-covered structure that has now been excavated.

When Mayans renovated an old structure, they typically collapsed its roof and built on top of the rubble. But for some reason, the new Xultun find had been filled in through its doorway, with the roof left intact.

Dr Saturno, who is now based at Boston University, explained that despite it being under just a metre of soil today, that served to preserve the site after more than a millennium of rainy seasons, insect traffic and encroaching plant and tree roots.

"We found that three of the room's four walls were well preserved and that the ceilings were also in good shape in terms of the paintings on them, so we got an awful lot more than we bargained for," he said.
'Different mindset'

The excavation was carried out using grants from the National Geographic Society, which has prepared a high-resolution photographic tour of the room.

It measures about 2m on each side with a 3m, vaulted ceiling, and is dominated by a stone bench, suggesting the room was a meeting place.

The east wall features a number of seated figures, nearly life-sized, dressed in black and wearing elaborate headdresses similar to a bishop's mitre.

They all look toward the north wall, on which a more elaborately dressed figure in orange holds a stylus in a hand outstretched toward a figure that Dr Saturno believes represented the king of Xultun.
Calendrical glyphs The astronomical cycles and corrections were used to predict lunar eclipses far into the future

"The seated figures that we see around them are involved in some narrative in which the king is being portrayed impersonating a Mayan deity and these guys are in attendance at that impersonation," Dr Saturno explained.

The relevance of the figure with the stylus seems clear: "We think this room was used as a writing room, that it's part of a complex associated with the work being done by Maya scribes."

Perhaps most intriguing among the finds were several finds related to astronomical tables, including four long numbers on the east wall that represent a cycle lasting up to 2.5 million days.

The east wall is mostly covered by tabulations of black symbols or "glyphs" that map out various astronomical cycles: that of Mars and Venus and the lunar eclipses.

The wall also features red marks that appear to be notes and corrections to the calculations; Dr Saturno said that the scribes "seem to be using it like a blackboard".

The Xultun find is the first place that all of the cycles have been found tied mathematically together in one place, representing a calendar that stretches more than 7,000 years into the future.

The Mayan numbering system for dates is a complex one in base-18 and base-20 numbers that, in modern-day terms, would "turn over" at the end of 2012.

But Dr Saturno points out that the new finds serve to further undermine the fallacy that this is tantamount to a prediction of the end of the world.

"The ancient Maya predicted the world would continue, that 7,000 years from now, things would be exactly like this," he said.

"We keep looking for endings. The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It's an entirely different mindset."

Too bad they couldn't get a grasp of simple free market economics.

The Mayans provide us with a good lesson.

A society that becomes so self-absorbed and places the society on the whole above the rights of the individual is doomed to collapse(SOCIALISM).


BTW Anyone who buys in to this Mayan or any other "Native Americans" lived better crap is an idiot.

They are all underachieving and failed societies. Those "great civilizations" were easily wiped out by a handful of Spanish Fortune seekers 1000's of miles from home.

Nothing to admire or emulate.

When they say "better", they do not mean in terms of Imperialism or in terms of armies.

Don't forget Longevity, Health, Justice and freedom.....All something the Mayans seriously lacked,

In comparison to what was going on with their contemporaries in Europe during the dark ages I'd say they were doing just fine. And the handful of treasure seekers were aided by many natives and smallpox, without either they would have stood no chance in taking over the empires they conquered.