New Mayan calendar: World not ending in 2012
Proof the world will not end in 2012.
Good news for those looking forward to Christmas, the world’s not ending in December 2012!
Archaeologists not working for some lame cable TV program have discovered a new, but really old Mayan calendar that extends our purchasing power into George Jetson territory.
The Mayans, best known for crackpot misinterpretations of their Mesoamerican scribblings, were obsessed with time, and some had theorized the ancient culture, which had not predicted Spaniards, had somehow predicted The End of Time.
Not so, says someone really smart about this sort of thing.
“The Mayan calendar is going to keep going for billions, trillions, octillions of years into the future,” said archaeologist David Stuart of the University of Texas, who worked to decipher glyphs found in 2010 in the ancient Maya city of Xultun in northeast Guatemala.
The calendar, the oldest Mayan one ever discovered, features stacked bars and dots that count lunar cycles. It was likely drawn up in the 800s, about the time Pope Leo III (who used the more accurate Julian calendar) crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
The original article on the discovery appears in Science magazine. LiveScience.com has a good writeup online.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
39 comments Add your comment
ryan
May 10th, 2012
6:43 pm
Can’t these guys make up there mind first you had that crazy priest out in California who kept making up end of the world dates now Mayans its just best to go about going about living life and not worry about this stuff because no one can predict it .
Class of '98
May 10th, 2012
6:55 pm
“some had theorized the ancient culture, who had not predicted Spaniards, had somehow predicted The End of Time.”
LOL… that is funny.
fred
May 10th, 2012
6:56 pm
Crap!!!! I guess taking out those extra loans was a bad idea!!!
My Ann Burrito
May 10th, 2012
6:56 pm
Your world will end when you go into the ground….until then, enjoy.
Class of '98
May 10th, 2012
7:09 pm
Interestingly, the Aztecs DID predict the Spaniards… kind of. The Aztecs adopted, after they conquered them, the ancient Toltec prophesy of the reincarnation of the great Toltec king Quetzalcoatl. Interestingly, the prophesy said Quetzalcoatl would retun as a pale-skinned, bearded man. Of course, native Americans do not have facial hair, so this prediction was quite peculiar.
When Hernando Cortes showed us, as a relatively white man with a red beard, the Aztecs worshipped him as the reincarnated Quetzalcoatl and made it that much easier for the Spaniards to conquer them.
David Bala
May 10th, 2012
7:29 pm
Surely world is going to be end on 21-12-2012, but do not leave your self confidence. Be happy for every seconds. Do not waste your day “Today”.
DS
May 10th, 2012
7:45 pm
Actually, LEGITIMATE archeologists, etc. will tell you that the 2012 date is merely a change in epoch or whatever the Mayans would call it on the Mayan Calendar, and not necessarily the “end of the world.” In essence, like the Christian Calendar moving from the second millenia (1999) to the third millenia (2000). We also know how many gullible idiots came out of the woodwork during that.
A good, reliable, GENUINE, academic over on the Mayan Calendar is contained in the book 1491 by Charles C. Mann, who provides an indepth look into the various interpretations on the history of pre-Columbian America. The author more or less calls those predicting the end of the world as crackpots (without stating as such).
DS
May 10th, 2012
7:47 pm
Actually, LEGITIMATE archeologists, etc. will tell you that the 2012 date is merely a change in epoch or whatever the Mayans would call it on the Mayan Calendar, and not necessarily the “end of the world.” In essence, the date is tantamount to December 31, 1999/January 1, 2000, when the Christian Calendar moved from the second millenia (1999) to the third millenia (2000). We also know how many gullible idiots came out of the woodwork during that.
A good, reliable, GENUINE, academic overview on the Mayan Calendar is contained in the book 1491 by Charles C. Mann, who provides an indepth look into the various interpretations on the history of pre-Columbian America. The author more or less calls those predicting the end of the world as crackpots (without stating as such).
Anita
May 10th, 2012
8:03 pm
Does this mean that I have to pay my bills now? DARN!!!!
Dick Clark's Empire
May 10th, 2012
9:11 pm
Looks like we’re free to book Ryan Seacrest for NYE…