2012:
Mayan Prophecy and the Long Count Calendar
With
the year 2012
looming large in our immediate future, the words “Mayan,” “Mayan
Prophecy” and the “Mayan Long Count Calendar” are seemingly on the tip
of every tongue.
Research
into the ancient Maya reveal them to have been an enigmatic people
their exact beginnings and place of origin rather vague, and although
Radiocarbon dating of certain artifacts at Ceullo in
northern Belize does indicate a possible presence as early as 2600 BC,
the
generaly held and probably more realistic consensus of most mainstream
archaeologists place
the first clearly Mayan settlements
at around 1800 BC in the Soconusco region
of Chiapas the most southerly state of Mexico.
The
classical period of the Central (Lowland) Maya spanned the years
between 250 AD and 900 AD, ending when cities such as Tikal and Copan
were abandoned by their inhabitants for reasons still not completely
understood (social and political discord, war, climate change,
degradation of the agricultural landscape and disease are all
possibilities), it and the post-classic era, where northern cities such
as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapan continued until the arrival of the
Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century is the picture/postcard world
of pyramids and palaces with which the average person is most familiar.
Other
than their architectural achievements which were impressive to say the
least, it is their calendar for which they are arguably the most
famous. When one’s very survival is dependent upon knowing the time to
seed, cultivate, harvest and store crops an accurate means of
measurement is obviously necessary. But to the Maya it was more than
that, time was a sacred force involving gods with the power to create
and destroy, to know which of these gods was currently controlling
events was a necessity and they believed that being in possession of
an extremely precise calendar was one of the means by which they could
influence these deities (human sacrifice being another) and therefore
their destiny.
The
Mayan Long Count Calendar (for this world cycle) begins August 11,
3114, BCE (Gregorian
calendar), September 6 (Julian calendar), a date believed by some to
be that of a distant historical event [1] while others believe the
starting point to be purely mythical.
Long
Count Units are as follows:
20
days =1 winal
360
days =1 tun
7,200
days =1 katun
144,000
days =1
baktun
And
presumably considering the dates in the Long Count Calendar run in
cycles of thirteen baktuns, the world, at least insofar as Mayan
prophecy and the Mayan calendar is concerned, will end
(some say will be destroyed) on December 21, 2012, following
which there will be a new dawn and the
Long Count will begin again. [2]
[1]
Perhaps a racial memory of some long past catastrophe handed down
generation to generation.
[2]
If instead we wake up safe and sound in our beds December
22 expect
the excuses as to why the sky didn’t fall and we still exist to begin
in earnest.
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