Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Ancient and ArchaeologyΒ  permalink

Mayan Calendar

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by TonyG (U1830405) on Wednesday, 16th December 2009

  I see the doom merchants are predicting the end of the world on 21st December, 2012. The basis for this? Apparently the ancient Mayan calemndar stops on that date. I watched a documentary during which some rather vague "evidence" was presented to the accompaniment of images of explosions, raging fires, torrential rain and devastating floods. A lot of the belief seemed predicated on the basis that some climactic disaster had affetced South America just before the Mayan calendar began, so that there must therefore be another one predicted when the calendar ends. Symmetrical thinking, although not perhaps very logical.
  
  It strikes me that there are two points the programme makers did not consider. First, the Mayans clearly survived the first "end of the world" otherwise they would not have been able to begin keeping a calendar. So, while perhaps serious, the catastrophe was not entirely fatal.
  
  Second, perhaps the Mayans just got fed up, or ran out of stone to carve their calendar on.
  
  I know it is dangerous to attribute modern sentiments to ancient races, but human nature does not change all that much. If you had the job of making up a calendar for centuries ahead and you did not have the aid of a computer but had to carve it all on stone, wouldn't you want to stop somewhere in the distant future?
  
  I don't know much about the Mayans, and there may have been mystic or spiritual reasons behind their calendar, but I fail to see why this should be used as "proof" that they were somehow able to predict the end of the world.

  Link to this forum: Mayan Calendar

  Report message1

• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by rooster (U14062359) on Wednesday, 16th December 2009

  I agree with you Tony. I wonder what it is that makes certain people read gloom and doom into simple archaic writing. The Mayans, Incas, and even the Egyptians were simple, non mechanical societies. Like today, they probably had 'science fiction' writers who put their ideas down for posterity. Should we take what they wrote at face value? I think not.

  Link to this forum: Mayan Calendar

  Report message2

• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by cloudyj (U1773646) on Monday, 21st December 2009

  I see the doom merchants are predicting the end of the world on 21st December, 2012. The basis for this?Β 
  
  Maybe I'm too cynical, but wishful thinking and a desire to sell books is probably behind it all.
  
  Our society always seems to produce a section yearning (to greater and lesser extents) for a mythical golden age of the past. A time when man was "uncorrupted" by "evil" modern or mechanical things. The Mayans are simply the latest idealised society which fulfills the need for a society which was "better". Therefore all their hidden knowledge is rolled out as proof that they knew better than us.
  
  Of course, such wishful thinking is highly selective about the Maya. It usually also says far, far more about the author and modern readers than it does about Maya themselves. Their historical over-exploitation and deforestation of the natural environment is forgotten (except when it serves a need as a moral lesson for the "evils" of being human). As is their almost continuous state of warfare in the pre-columbian period. As Mayan texts are now translatable, expect the Mayans to lose their golden aged, all knowing, perfect status just as soon as people start to see the Mayan's own descriptions of how one city waged war against its neighbour for 100 years.
  
  Oddly, those promoting this myth don't often talk to the Maya themselves. Otherwise they'd see the Maya hold pretty much the same range of views as most other modern civilizations. Nor is this the first time the Mayan world has "ended": so very, very few Maya expect a "disappearing into the void" style ending. For many it's a philosophical "rebirth" more akin to our millenial introspection of where society was and where's it going. And in the past they had the added excuse to bang another layer on the pyramid and get drunk. And of course for a chance to shout about the Mayan version of the Y2K bug (much harder to fix when carved in stone).

  Link to this forum: Mayan Calendar

  Report message3

• Message 4

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by MendipTim (U13707598) on Sunday, 27th December 2009

  It is some years since I looked into this subject, so my memory may be playing tricks with me.
  
  Noon (Mayan time zone) on 21-12-12 or the second after peak solstice is the START of the new Mayan calender; the 13th out of at least 15 predicted. The last calender finished sometime in the 1990s. The in-between years don't get included in any calenders: they are the years that the world re-shapes itself & prepares for the new calender. The time of Dome & Gloom is in these years & then the good times should start coming back again soon after the start of the new calender. So if we can survive until the 22nd Dec 2012 we'll be OK.
  
  The mystical reshaping of the World that has been going on since the end of the last calender will only become apparent shortly before the new calender starts (sounds like the 2012 Olympic Logo) & the new age will be heralded by fire in the Dragon in the East. Many doom-mongers add these 2 events together & predict huge massive volcanoes & Earthquakes along the Asian rim that are going to wipe out everything. However Asia would be in the West to the Mayans.
  
  The Dragon is far more likely to be Draco the eternal guardian of the northern stars, so any event is likely to be celestial in nature. The Mayans may have based their calenders on Solar cycles in which case it is interesting to note that Solar Activity over the last decade has been very low & is predicted to remain so for a few more years.
  
  A steady Solar wind keeps the upper Atmosphere in check which in turn keeps our main weather systems stable. In the last decade the Solar wind has been low which has indirectly led to erratic weather systems developing on Earth. If only Michael Fish had understood Mayan!
  
  So to sum up: We're going to have atrocious weather for the next 3 years, something is to change somewhere then there will be a comet or exploding star in the NE sky & then the biggest disaster - especially for the English - the weather will be fine!; just when we will need it to be bad to stop the Aussies from thrashing us in the 2013 Ashes.
  
  Oh! I forgot to mention about "Planet X".
  
  Have a great New Year,
  & don't let the sky fall on your head.

  Link to this forum: Mayan Calendar

  Report message4

Back to top