Experts: Mayas prophesized, but not end of world

From Huff Post: Experts: Mayas prophesized, but not end of world

MEXICO CITY — As the clock winds down to Dec. 21, experts on the Mayan calendar have been racing to convince people that the Mayas didn't predict an apocalypse for the end of this year.
Some experts are now saying the Mayas may indeed have made prophecies, just not about the end of the world.
Archaeologists, anthropologists and other experts met Friday in the southern Mexico city of Merida to discuss the implications of the Mayan Long Count calendar, which is made up of 394-year periods called baktuns.
Experts estimate the system starts counting at 3114 B.C., and will have run through 13 baktuns, or 5,125 years, around Dec. 21. Experts say 13 was a significant number for the Mayans, and the end of that cycle would be a milestone – but not an end.
Fears that the calendar does point to the end have circulated in recent years. People in that camp believe the Maya may have been privy to impending astronomical disasters that would coincide with 2012, ranging from explosive storms on the surface of the sun that could knock out power grids to a galactic alignment that could trigger a reversal in Earth's magnetic field.
Mexican government archaeologist Alfredo Barrera said Friday that the Mayas did prophesize, but perhaps about more humdrum events like droughts or disease outbreaks.
"The Mayas did make prophecies, but not in a fatalistic sense, but rather about events that, in their cyclical conception of history, could be repeated in the future," said Barrera, of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Experts stressed that the ancient Mayas, whose "classic" culture of writing, astronomy and temple complexes flourished from A.D. 300 to 900, were extremely interested in future events, far beyond Dec. 21.
"There are many ancient Maya monuments that discuss events far into the future from now," wrote Geoffrey Braswell, an anthropologist at the University of California, San Diego. "The ancient Maya clearly believed things would happen far into the future from now."
"The king of Palenque, K'inich Hanaab Pakal, believed he would return to the Earth a couple of thousand years from now in the future," Braswell wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "Moreover, other monuments discuss events even before the creation in 3114 B.C."
Only a couple of references to the 2012 date equivalency have been found carved in stone at Mayan sites, and neither refers to an apocalypse, experts say.
Such apocalyptic visions have been common for more than 1,000 years in Western, Christian thinking, and are not native to Mayan thought.
"This is thinking that, in truth, has nothing to do with Mayan culture," said Alexander Voss, an anthropologist at the University Of Quintana Roo, a state on Mexico's Caribbean coast. "This thing about looking for end-times is not something that comes from Mayan culture."
Braswell compared the Mayan calendar, with its system of cycles within cycles, to the series of synchronized wheels contained in old, analogue car odometers.
"The Maya long count system is like a car odometer," Braswell wrote. "My first car (odometer) only had six wheels so it went up to 99,999.9 miles. That didn't mean the car would explode after reaching 100,000 miles."

Mexico's Riviera Maya will party on Dec. 21

From MercuryNews Travel:  Mexico's Riviera Maya will party on Dec. 21

The reports of the world's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

All it took was the rock-carved inscription of Dec. 21, 2012, on a single ancient Maya artifact, and doomsday prognosticators became wild-eyed.

But no, experts say, there is no apocalypse coming that day. Rather, the inscribed stone is more like an ancient "Save the Date" that marks the end of the Maya Long Count calendar and the start of a new one.
It's high time to ring in the new. This current calendar has been slogging along for a dreary 5,126 years.
Did someone say "Let's party"?

The Maya 2012 celebration is under way in the Riviera Maya region of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, and tourism is up 7 percent. As if anyone needed an excuse to visit. The 80-mile stretch south of Cancún is the stuff of travel brochures, with white-sand beaches, great snorkeling and diving -- and some of the best-excavated Maya ruins, including Chichén Itzá, Tulum, Cobá and Muyil, within an easy drive.

I was checking out the Riviera Maya in June, with winter tourists gone and weather bearably hot. One day it rained refreshing sheets at the Muyil ruins in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Wearing pink plastic ponchos, we sped across a rain-lashed lagoon in a motor boat to Xlapak, a Maya temple. Our boatman steered with one hand and bailed with the other. In better weather, from here we would have donned life jackets nd floated along a crystalline river through mangroves, spotting all kinds of birds (336 known species) in this 1.3 million-acre reserve, where a "No Mas Plastik Party" sign signals the tendrils of the Riviera Maya's ecotourism.


Sian Ka'an translates as "where the sky is born," and Maya culture is famous for its knowledge of the night sky -- movement of planets, sun, moon and stars.

By December, watching the night sky with an astronomer will be a popular event. Look for astronomy events offered by tour operators and perhaps even at some of the ruins (www.rivieramaya.com).

The Viceroy Riviera Maya Hotel already is running a series of Observatory Dinner Nights on the 21st of each month, with a Maya-inspired menu and observation of the night sky.

Another place to check out the sky is Xel-Há, an eco-park around a beautiful lagoon. Xel-Há (pronounced shell-ha) will be lighting up the night sky and shimmering waters with a thousand floating candles on Dec. 20 and Dec. 22. They're also throwing Grand Dinners from Dec. 17 to 22, with stargazing and explanation of the Maya astrological predictions.

Ultimate party

Of course, if you still think the world is going to end, you might as well go for broke. Hang out with archaeologists and a Maya shaman and go to a Dec. 21 party on the beach at the Rosewood Mayakoba. The package costs $79,000 per couple for Dec. 20 to 24. Helicopter to the ruins with an archaeologist; later meet with a Maya shaman priest for purification and personalized enlightenment for the New Era.

You can knock the price to $6,400 a couple, still touring the ruins with an archaeologist, but no copter or shaman. There's consolation with a private tequila tasting with a master tequilier -- and tequila has been known to both purify and enlighten.

Lots of resorts and hotels are offering Maya-themed massages using everything from lovely smelling herbs to a chocolate mask body wrap (ka'kaw is the Mayan word for chocolate). 

Some resorts offer Temazcal sessions with a shaman (Blue Diamond resort; Viceroy Riviera Maya). This involves sitting in a cave or sauna with hot stones and a shaman, who helps rebalance the body and does a blessing with incense. Temazcals are intense and in close quarters; it's the kind of thing you either love, or it freaks you out.

Legendary ruins

Whether you go in December or another time of year, the ruins are a must-see for understanding the brilliance of the Maya people. Start the two-hour drive to most-visited Chichén Itzá early, as it gets hot and crowded.

At Chichén Itzá, those clever Maya built the 79-foot pyramid, Temple of Kukulcan, in such perfect alignment that during the spring and fall equinoxes, a serpent-shaped shadow slithers down the steps. The temple, commonly called El Castillo, is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Our Maya guide, Pablo Acosta with Best Day tours, gave us a good grounding in the workings of the ancient Maya culture and the lowdown on the ball court and its gruesome sacrificial rites.

On another day, we visited the ruins at Cobá, which spread out for more than a mile. You can bicycle or hire a bicycle cart to get around. Two pyramids and ball courts have been excavated at this once-large city. You can climb Nohoch Mul pyramid, clinging to a rope for balance.

Following Cobá, our tour took us down into a cenote (cavern) to watch a dramatic group perform an interpretation of a Maya ball court game that evolves into a battle with the underworld. It's quite an experience, watching the painted warriors do battle as dusk falls above the cenote.

These caverns date back to when the Yucatán Peninsula was royally smacked by a meteor 65 million years ago, shattering its limestone top layer like a dropped egg. Rain seeped down, carving out the world's largest underground river system, along with caves and places where limestone roofs collapsed, creating cenotes.
From above, cenote water looks very dark because it's so deep. It's actually fresh and clear, which scuba divers love because they can see for hundreds of feet. Scuba divers also gain bragging rights by diving from cave to cave, following established roped routes.

There are many cenote pools in open caverns where locals go for a swim; in the growing heat after trudging around the hot ruins, a dip looked refreshing.

But I didn't like the deep black look of the water. Ancient Maya thought it led to the underworld, and I could see why.

After all, the Maya had such keen knowledge of celestial movement, they could predict planetary alignments more than 10 centuries ahead to 2012.

They didn't have the same keen fix on what goes on below. And nowhere does their "rock literature" predict the demise of their own empire from A.D. 1000-1200.

Still, I didn't want to test the waters and miss partying Dec. 21 to welcome the New Era.


 

Mexico Prepares For 'The Mayan Apocalypse' On Dec. 21, 2012

International Business Times:  Mexico Prepares For 'The Mayan Apocalypse' On Dec. 21, 2012

3114BC and moves forward in 394-year periods known as bak’tuns. The winter solstice in 2012 marks the completion of the 13^th bak’tun.
The occasion, however, has offered Mayanists and the local Maya themselves (many of whom work in the tourism industry) a soapbox from which to show the world the intricacies of one of its greatest and still mysterious civilizations. And where better to drum up interest, where better to place that soapbox than southern Mexico?

Epigraphists and Maya experts like Stuart say the prophecy foretells the beginning of a new era, according to the traditional Long Count calendar, but they argue that the Maya never mentioned that the world nor time would end. Several other Maya ruins, after all, describe dates far beyond 2012.

Many who’ve dedicated their lives to studying and promoting Maya culture can be quite defensive about the subject of a doomsday scenario. Take Brendon O'Brien of the Albuquerque -based Maya Sites Travel Services, whose December 2012 tours, he says, are already 75 percent full. When asked about his upcoming trips, O’Brien said “the hoopla is media fabricated and our clients know better.”

“Mayanists are generally smart … a cut above the average bear,” he added. “We have been doing tours to the Maya regions for 12 years and never had a ‘kook’ or fanatic on our tours that I know of. We have had no one express any concerns about being in a foreign country on those dates or some end-of-the- world scenario.”
The Mexican government, too, is trying to give prospective travelers something a bit more substantial -- and much less stressful -- to ruminate on than the “end of the world.”

López Negrete Coppel said the administration decided on the following elucidation: There will an end of an era, so to speak, but there will also be a new beginning.

To hear it in his words, this fresh start sounds pretty good.

“This new era is predicted to be full of prosperity, economic growth and peace,” López Negrete Coppel enthused. “That is our interpretation, and the reaction to that has been very positive.”

And why wouldn’t it be? In the five Mexican states covered under the Mundo Maya campaign -- Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Yucatan -- López Negrete Coppel said he expects a full season with the hotels running at 100 percent by the second week of December and the biggest numbers the nation has ever seen.

Mexico, whose travel and tourism industry now contributes 13.2 percent of the GDP, set aside $10 million for the Mundo Maya 2012 initiative last summer and invited four neighboring countries with historic Maya ties -- Belize, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala -- to collaborate. The campaign includes aggressive infrastructure investment in roads and facilities to improve access to archeological sites and develop projects like a Palace of Maya Civilization at Chichen Itza and the Museum of the Mayan World in Merida, both set to open by the end of this month.

Continuing on the celebratory (and less apocalyptic) path, Cancun tourism officials have sponsored a “Pyramid of Positive Thinking” in Tulum, about 82 miles south of Cancun’s hotel zone. The modern pyramid, the brainchild of Mexican artist Xavier de Maria y Campos, is to be composed of up to 700,000 “positive thoughts” placed in recycled polyethylene terephthalate bottles. The bottles will be layered with soil containing regional plant seeds that will eventually blanket the pyramid in green foliage and usher in a “new era of positive thinking” when complete on Dec. 21, 2012.

Over 500 Maya-themed events will take place in southeastern Mexico by the close of 2012, including blowout celebrations at the two most renowned Maya sites in each of the five Mexican states covered in the Mundo Maya circuit.

But beyond the money and attention, what Mexico really hopes to get out of the Year of the Maya is a little respect. Sure, the government acknowledges that just 40,000 of its estimated 200,000 archeological sites are properly registered. Sure, just 200 of those are open to the public. But the more Mexico can diversify its tourism offerings away from the beach and into the interior, the more it can protect its heritage, draw international crowds from beyond North America and ultimately prosper.

One of the beauties of tourism is that it spreads social wealth,” López Negrete Coppel noted. “It reaches the farthest corners of the country, reaches deep in the jungles and to the little villages.”

The Mundo Maya campaign, he said, is like a rallying cry: We’re not just America’s playground south of the border. We’re not just sun, sand and too many tequila shots. We’re a nation with a cultural wealth on par with China or Egypt.

That, he said, is Mexico’s plan for the new era.  And who knows, if the doomsday bloggers hadn’t raised such a fuss, Mexico might have had the impetus to realize it.

 

Posts resume 24 Sep 2012

My mom, who is 75, wants to go up to teeny tiny town near Rapid City, to see her sister, who is 80. They live in a house in the boonies and have no internet.

I'll be back online on Monday the 24th and promise not to miss another day.

Please bear with me, your patience is appreciated!

100 days till Mayan apocalypse?

From NewsOk.com: 100 days till Mayan apocalypse?

PHILADELPHIA — Thought we'd give you a heads-up.
In case you had affairs to get in order, amends to make, Super Bowl tickets on your shopping list, or plans to view an entire TV series on Netflix.


Thursday — or Friday — marks 100 days till the end of the world as we know it. Assuming we make it through the presidential election.
On Dec. 21, or maybe the 23rd, a very long cycle of the Mayan calendar will run out, and that means, reports and other rumors have it, it'll be time to kiss your grass goodbye.
Unless you can outdrive earthquakes like Jon Cusack in the Mayan apocalypse movie, “2012.”
Actually, the wild claims reveal more about American culture than Mayan, says Elin Danien, a consulting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The museum's exhibit, “Maya 2012: Lords of Time,” explores the controversy, and confidently expects to continue through Jan. 13.
“I'm planning to have a very good New Year's Eve party,” Danien said.
The claims of predictions are, well, baloney.
“It has nothing to do with reality,” she said. “They weren't in the business of predicting things.”
Basically, a couple of calendar artifacts just stop at the end of a cycle. No image of a fiery collision with a rogue planet. No invitation to Earth's going-away party.

If the Maya believed in a max-disaster date, it would appear on thousands of relics, not just two, said museum scholar-in-residence Ricardo Agurcia, who hails from Honduras.
“I don't know why, but Americans are fascinated by destruction” and legends like Atlantis, Danien said.
Rolling crystal balls seem to gather momentum.
“Once a fantasy takes hold, there's no stopping it,” she said.
At least until the world doesn't end.
By the way, British bookmaker William Hill accepts bets on dates we're all due for extinction.
“The end of the world is the one betting subject for which we permit customers to name their own odds,” said spokesman Graham Sharpe.
“The odds we have offered range from very short to 1,000,000,000 to 1!”
Those wagering mostly want the betting slips for an artwork or a conversation piece with friends, Sharpe said.
After all, if the world truly ends, nobody's left to pay, nobody's left to collect.

 

A Mayan Long Count Calendar ends in 2012

From ExoNews:  A Mayan Long Count Calendar ends in 2012

Perhaps the Mission Rahma Contact Experience Offers Snippets of What Might be Going On

Many interesting themes were covered in an interview made to Richard Hoagland by the dedicated, independent exopolitical research journalist Paola Leopizzi Harris (click here for list of interviews) go to: However, most people (and Richard seems to be one of them) still hold on to the notion that there’s an end to ‘THE’ (one and only) Long Count Mayan Calendar, an event expected to occur (if calculations are true and accurate as most scholars think they are) in Dec 21st 2012. This prompts me to the following commentary. Not long ago, another “long count” version (extending perhaps another 7000 years into the future) was found in Xultún, Guatemala, by a bona fide archeological team from Boston University led by William A. Saturno.

We have to know that when we speak of “December 21st 2012,” we refer to what was found in the Dresden Codex’s version of the Mayan Long Count but it is likely that other calendar lengths were devised and interpreted in different Mayan cities like as the XULTÚN finding suggests. This has to be taken into account in any serious reckoning of what may be going on and in any future concomitant research.
If the (however “advanced,” also warrior-like and quite bloody) Mayans were indeed advanced seers into aspects of nature more fundamental than those normally explored by modern science, one or more “longer counts” may have other such fundamental meanings not currently explored by UFO-New Age-Exopolitics receptive communities. I wonder what would have happened if news of the lengthier long count found in Xultún had reached the intellectual leaders (like Terence McKenna and John Major Jenkins) of those open-minded, alternative communities twenty years ago. Regardless, it might still be that those authors may at least be partially right and that the 2012 particular alignment: Including the Earth-Sun-Dark Rift-and (from an angle above the level of the plane of the galaxy) somewhere towards the Center of the Milky Way Galaxy (considered its center of rotation) may be quite important after all (even if the 1998 alignment is considered to have been astronomically more precise). However, I think that any normal physical forces (like gravity from the galaxy’s main black hole) or gamma and x-ray radiation are not likely to affect us because of their weakness due to (an approximate 26,000 light year) distance.
Again, we have to be clear that neither our planet nor our Sun will be going through the Galactic Plane (sometimes also called the “Galactic Equator” for convenience). We are currently located several degrees to the north or “above” this “Galactic Plane” and about 27 parsecs distant from it. As we are currently cycling up and away from this plane, it will take millions of years to pass once again through it. In fact what we should be talking about is of an approximate alignment with some important place in the actual center of the galaxy or somewhere in the vicinity of the center of the galaxy.
Not only is this alignment from an angle “above” but the same overall positioning (with moderate differences) occurs every 21st of December (with the Sun between the approximate center of the galaxy and the Earth). In fact the same alignment (but with the Earth opposite to the Sun in relation to it) occurs during June 20^th. In both cases we experience a “SOLSTICE” which in Latin basically means “stationary Sun” since during those days there’s a moment in which the Sun seems to stop before reversing the horizontal component of its sunrise-sunset path across the sky. This moment in which the Sun STOPS was perhaps regarded by several ancient cultures as a special moment in which an important aspect of the sense of movement or “TIME” also “froze.” In a sense, it might also be considered a “moment out of time” and this will also be a factor to consider on December 21^st, 2012.
In all these observations I think that we must consider that the “alignment” with the estimated rotational center of the Milky Way Galaxy on the December 21^st, 2012 date will not be exact but off by about 6 degrees, 38 minutes.
We may also have to distinguish whether we expect any signal, radiation, force, information pulse or an anomaly to stem from the approximate rotational center of the galaxy, from where the great black hole near the galactic center looms or perhaps from the so-called “Great Central Sun of the Galaxy” which is recognized by some esoteric traditions following guidance from Alice Bailey’s neo theosophical tradition. In fact, I don’t discard the possibility that an alignment with a source of internally codifying information akin to the alleged (and apparently still undiscovered) “Great Central Sun of the Galaxy” might be where our Earth could align with in December 21^st, 2012.
Regardless, the year 2012 might be different. Some contactee friends of mine (Ricardo Gonzalez from Perú and Luis Fernando Mostajo from Bolivia, friends whom I consider responsible, level-headed and genuine) seem to have been basically told that this year’s alignment signals the POINT OF NO RETURN TOWARD A GRADUAL BUT FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT. According to them, our “reality” may begin reconnecting with the time frequency of another and more original physical universe from which our known physical universe derives. I think that, if there’s any truth to any of this (something which I think is quite possible, even while trying not to fall into a fanatical, absolutist or “true believer” mindset) in any one particular interpretation of a contact experience), there might be a subquantum, re-codifying, information signal stemming from the center of the galaxy, a signal connecting with our sun, the Earth-Moon system and us non-locally. The work of Nicolai A. Kozyrev in “torsion physics,” of physicist Claude Swanson, PhD and his hypothetical sub-quantum “phitons” and that of Basil Hiley on David Bohm’s “Quantum Potential” being like an “active information potential” in “pre space” comes to mind. There may be geometric cycles in “pre-space” through which other forms of subtler physical energy-information patterns could flow. In fact, this “pre-space” may be more like a reciprocal “time-frequency domain” as proposed by Professor William A. Tiller, PhD or like what could be called (according to David Wilcock in The Source Field Investigations) a “reciprocal Time-Space” as proposed Dewey Larson’s “Reciprocal System Theory.” In my view, greater evidence for this complementary/reciprocal level of physical reality will accrue and scientists may also soon discover that this level constitutes a link with a non-physical, information-cohering Subtle-Mental Realm from which physical universes derive.
At any rate, there’s no need for a straightforward “end of the world” and there’s no clearly distinguishable “end of the world” Mayan prophecy as in the apocalyptic Christian sense which is culturally projected as a stable expectation by some people exploring alternative visions of reality. I also think most Mayans nowadays are not excessively worried about the “crucial date.” Many expectations of fast, radical shifts within UFO-ET receptive communities have normally ended up in disappointment, hiding failure “under the rug” and-or in re-directing the expectations. Books like When Prophecy Fails (by L. Festinger) and When Prophecy Never Fails (by D. Tumminia) illustrate some of this recurring situation. There either are social pressures for creating self-deceit and for holding on to a mythic story line structure (on which the sense of personal identity in an emotionally bound group depends) or, perhaps, the interactive nature of contact with different Time frequencies (and perhaps more intense) physical energies cannot be easily interpreted from our regular embodied experience in our particular Time frame and extra interpretive efforts must arise in the personal and the collective unconscious. Perhaps both factors are inextricably linked if contact with higher/subtler physical universes not directly (but perhaps subconsciously) correlated with our subjective experiences force us to experience a mismatch.
Nevertheless, according to both of my friend’s accounts (their contact experiences occurred in separate physical locations), this Dec 21, 2012 event might actually be the beginning of the end of a way to live in “Time” and-or to experience “Time.” How this may arise could be gradual but unexpected and it might include new scientific discoveries on the importance of underlying “coherent information” as the basis sustaining our universe. It might also include an increase interactive awareness with other realms and universes. I speculate like this because of being acquainted with the -by and large- emotionally calm and socially healthy participants in the Mission Rahma, predominantly Latin American contact groups supporting the more intense contact experiences of these and other friends since 1973-74. Such groups are probably part of a more effective interpretive support system promoting more level-headed and interpretively clearer contacts with beings whom –even if friendly and proven as thoroughly respectful over time- may be easily misunderstood because of primarily moving in other Time frequencies under differently cohering and –quite likely- more intense energies.
Interestingly, when in the 1970’s the interactive contact events were more intense and felt like “recent news” the various Mission Rahma contact-experiencing individuals and support groups also tended to interpret ET messages more dramatically and with a greater sense of urgency. Their counter balancing group support (along with well-established, culturally-cohesive patterns) was small and the charismatic leadership of the main contactees (mostly the Paz Wells brothers) was much more influential. Enthusiasm reigned and they also experienced a greater degree of radicalism as might be expected from other contact groups in similar situations. In this stage dominated by strong personalities manifesting “party lines” and followership many mistakes were committed. Nevertheless, intense (physical and otherwise) contact experiences were not (purposefully or otherwise) limited to the main group leaders and, in time, other important contactees came to the fore. In spite of the non-intellectual/non-skeptically analytical but, instead, rather idealistic nature of most (even if well-intended) participants throughout the years, other forms of decency and reasonableness apparently elicited through harmonizing group processes served to gradually hone or perfect interpretive skills and capacities with a tendency towards moderation. This may be why the contacts have (according to my participant-observer’s assessment) continued being evidential as much as life-enhancing (or health promoting), informing, mostly coherent and productive over the years and why the particular messages received pertaining to December 21^st, 2012 may be worth considering.
There’s no doubt that these contacts will continue and that new information will be gradually forthcoming and added to a growing and maturing corpus. For instance, the somewhat naïve, over-idealized and exclusivist attitude of considering that abduction events were “not genuine ET contact events” was gradually outgrown. New contactees (in personal or group contacts) do regularly arise in this long-lasting, friendly experience which transcends the multifaceted but power-driven contact styles harbored in larger, more individualistic, impersonal, competitive and developed cultures functioning under rigid social systems geared to impose order. This contact information should be studied, compared and analyzed along with that also apparently given to other contactees that have shown evidence of objective and evidential physical contacts preferably within a support group which is integrally respected and –also preferably- which was also given ample opportunities to elicit their own verifying experiences.
While Mission Rahma’s received corpus of information (sometimes identical or complementary information was simultaneously received by separate individuals) may also suffer from an unknown degree of distortion and misinterpretation it certainly is a work in progress. In contrast with individualized contact experiences, with sporadic apparently unintended contacts and with many different kinds of abduction-related experiences, the predominantly cohesive, friendly, healthy, easygoing but hardworking and altruistically dedicated processes these contact groups undertook through the years could be taken as models for healthy contact procedures.

Further Reading
A complete “Physical Contact Report” written by Ricardo Gonzalez about the most recent contact event and translated into English is forthcoming. Nevertheless, some Facebook posted images can now be seen here.
There’s an informative skeptics blog regarding misconceptions about the 2012 alignment here.
The outstanding researcher William Hamilton III also gives us an interesting perspective here.

 

 

Ancient Mayan Murals Found When Guatemalan Family Renovates Kitchen

From Inquisitr:  Ancient Mayan Murals Found When Guatemalan Family Renovates Kitchen



Lucas Asicona Ramirez had no idea that a kitchen remodeling project would lead to ancient Mayan murals being found in his home, but as the plaster fell away, a multi-wall Maya mural was seen for the first time in centuries.

The paintings, which have been studied by archaeologist Jarosław Źrałka, depict figures in a procession who are wearing a mix of traditional Maya and Spanish garb, reports The National Geographic.
Źrałka, who was working on the other side of Guatemala when a colleague told him about the kitchen murals, stated that some of the figures may even be holding human hearts. The mural’s exposure to light has faded the ancient Maya artwork considerably, leaving little time to discover its secrets before it may fade away entirely.
Boston University archaeologist William Saturno, who has examined the pictures and believes the art is authentic, stated that the fact that the paintings are still there at all is “a fairly remarkable thing.” Saturno went on to say that:

“We don’t get a lot of this type of artwork; it’s not commonly preserved in the New World. It’d be neat to see who the folks were who painted on the wall and why.”

Yahoo! News notes that the Mayan mural found inside the family’s kitchen is believes to have been painted after the 16th century Spanish conquest of Guatemala. Jarosław Źrałka added that it has been a long and difficult process trying to get permission to examine homes in the impoverished village of Chajul, where the murals were discovered. Źrałka explained that, “I think they were afraid of us.” Saturno added that:

“There’s 500 years of history in this town. See whose [house] it was. It’s unlikely to be just Joe Schmo’s house—it’s probably an important person’s house.”

Mayan murals being found in a Guatemalan kitchen are not the only ancient discovery to be made in someone’s house, as a family in England recently dug out a 16th century well that was hiding under their living room floor.

In Focus with Martin Sheen to Premiere on PBS with Mayan Prophecies Investigation

From Talk TV World:  In Focus with Martin Sheen to Premiere on PBS with Mayan Prophecies Investigation

The producers of In Focus with Martin Sheen have announced details of the premiere episode - an exploration of the concern over Mayan calendar suggestions of a coming global calamity.

In Focus with Martin Sheen is an independently produced television program appearing on public television stations. The program airs in markets around the country and is hosted by the legendary Martin Sheen. The iconic actor has appeared in more than 60 feature films and is one of the most recognizable faces in American entertainment. In Focus Martin Sheen explores a wide range of issues facing society including how science is colliding with many people’s beliefs as 2012 draws to a close.

Many people are concerned that the end of the Mayan long calendar on December 21, 2012 is a signal of a coming global apocalypse. Despite the assurances of some of the world’s top scientists, archaeologists and historians, people are still preparing for the worst. Around the world, people are stockpiling supplies and building shelters in advance of what they believe will be a global catastrophe. In Focus with Martin Sheen will explore these groups, their beliefs, and what science has to say about the events of December 2012.

In Focus with Martin Sheen is planning on airing the pieces later this year. In Focus with Martin Sheen can be reached through the show’s official website at infocusptv.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/InFocusMartinSheen for more information.

 

Journey into Tulum and Cobá to uncover ancient secrets Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/05/4233290/journey-into-tulum-and-coba-to.html#storylink=cpy

From Fort Worth Star Telegram:  Journey into Tulum and Cobá to uncover ancient secrets

RIVIERA MAYA, Mexico -- Fascination with the mysteries of the Maya is at an all-time high this year, and while nearly 3 million Americans flew into Cancun last year to vacation along 100 miles of sparkling beaches extending south from Cancun to Playa del Carmen and on to Tulum, only about a third of tourists ventured outside the resort districts to explore the Mayan ruins nearby. This year, however, those numbers are rising.
Increased attendance at Tulum and many other Mayan ruin sites is due to a conglomeration of prophecies, said to have come from the ancient wisdom of the Maya, written down in their books and preserved from destruction through the centuries since the Spanish conquest in 1521.

They predict that the Earth and Sun will align with the center of the galaxy, the magnetic poles of the Earth may reverse, the god Quetzalcoatl will return, and then on Dec. 21, 2012 -- the winter solstice -- the world will end.

While I am skeptical of such doomsday predictions, I welcomed the opportunity to learn more about the history of the Maya, visit the ruins and be on-site at Tulum for what some say could be the last summer solstice.

I met others on a similar quest: to explore two of the most significant ruins located in the Mayan Riviera, Cobá and Tulum, and to solve the mysteries surrounding the ending of the Mayan calendar in 2012.

On our first evening, our group gathered at the Rosewood Mayakoba resort to get acquainted and meet archeologist Julia Miller, a tour guide with Catherwood Travels and an expert in ancient Mayan architecture and culture who would accompany us to two of the nearby ruins, beginning with Cobá, and share her wisdom about the Mayan calendar.

The ancient city of Cobá

Early the next morning, we left behind the beckoning beaches near our rooms to board an Alltournative tour bus for transport to Cobá, a 90-minute drive inland. Our Mayakoba hosts had arranged for us to take a mini version of Alltournative's 10-hour Cultural Mayan Encounter, one of several full- or half-day cultural and adventure expeditions into the Mayan world offered by the tour company.

During the drive, Miller gave us a crash course in the Mayan calendar. We learned that the Maya actually used lots of calendars, and that they didn't all begin on the same date. Unless you are a mathematician, the explanation of the Maya's intricate and very accurate system of calendars gets a bit tedious. But one thing is for sure: Time was very important to the Maya, and their calendars were used to place the actions of their rulers and gods firmly in time.

Cobá dates to the Classic period of the Mayan civilization (the years 200-900). It was home to an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 people at its peak, and covered an area extending over 50 miles, much like our present-day cities, with lots of suburbs branching from its center. While most of the hieroglyphic inscriptions found throughout the site on flat, upright stones called stelae date to the seventh century, Cobá remained an important site in the Postclassic era (900-1500). One of its many roads led to Tulum, an important seaport more than 25 miles away.

Cobá has been open to tourism only since the early 1980s, and much of it has yet to be restored. More than 400,000 tourists visit Cobá each year, less than half of the 1.1 million who find their way to Tulum, the beachfront walled city we will visit the next morning on the summer solstice.

The must-see sight at Cobá is the Nohoch Mul pyramid, the tallest in the Yucatan Peninsula at 138 feet. While I didn't climb its 120 steps to the top, others in our group did and were rewarded with panoramic views of the dense jungle, the tops of other pyramids rising through the treetops. Many climbers held onto a rope on the way down, as the rocks can be a bit unstable on the decline. Conserve your energy for the climb by renting a bicycle to get from one area to another, or do as I did: Rent a pedicab to the pyramid.

The Mayan world of today

Even though the Mayan civilization declined after the Spanish conquest, it didn't disappear. Mayan languages are still spoken, and many aspects of the culture continue. Our visit to a simple Mayan home, surrounded by tropical flower gardens, was like taking a trip back in time. Inside a small thatched hut, we found a Mayan woman forming tortillas from a corn masa mixture, thought by her ancient ancestors to be the stuff of human creation. Minutes later, we were eagerly accepting her offer of a taste, fresh from the griddle. It was like manna from heaven.

Next, we traveled a short distance to the Cenote de la Vida (Life Cave), one of hundreds of cenotes (see-NOTE-ays), sinkholes that are fed from underground streams and rivers found throughout the Yucatan Peninsula. We descended into the rain forest via a flight of slippery stone steps to reach the deep pools. A source of fresh water, they were considered by the Maya to be sacred entrances to the underworld.
As we emerged, a bit breathless from the climb, a Mayan shaman waited, ready to bless us in a traditional ceremony. We stood in a semicircle as he walked around us, surrounding us with smoke from incense burning in a chalice, chanting ancient words meant to purify us from any evil we may have picked up on our journey below.

Tulum on the solstice

Arriving at Tulum the next day, we entered through an opening in the 20-foot-thick, 13-foot-high walls that surround the ruins, built as a fortress on cliffs high above the Caribbean Sea. Tulum was a major seaport during the Postclassic period of Mayan civilization (900-1500), then was abandoned by the end of the 16th century.

Its rulers and priests once inhabited or worshipped in the buildings that we walked among; commoners lived outside the walls. Most impressive is Tulum's castle, El Castillo, standing at the highest point, and once used as a watchtower and a lighthouse to aid merchants coming to shore.

What better place to seek answers to a doomsday prediction, and what better time than this, the longest day of the year, to receive enlightenment? Like other date-setting prophecies that have come and gone, this one, too, our archeologist guide assures us, will pass.

Miller explained that many Mayan texts imply they expected life and the calendar to continue without interruption, far beyond 2012: "The completion of the Mayan Long Calendar's 13th bak'tun only marks the end of a cycle, making way for a great renewal -- much like the arrival of a new year, but on a grander scale."

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/05/4233290/journey-into-tulum-and-coba-to.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/05/4233290/journey-into-tulum-and-coba-to.html#storylink=cpy

Mayborn lecturer to talk Maya, world beyond 2012

From the Baylor Lariat:  Mayborn lecturer to talk Maya, world beyond 2012

It’s not the end of the world.

At least that’s what one man thinks.

Dr. Michael Callaghan, assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University, will give the first in a series of lectures at 3 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. today at the Mayborn Museum.
Callaghan’s lecture, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It and I Feel Fine,” centers on the date Dec. 21, 2012, and its role in the Mayan and Western worlds.

The lecture series will focus on the significance of Maya culture and religion in the Western world. It comes as the museum is unveiling an exhibit on the Maya.

Callaghan said understanding the Maya calendar is essential to those interested in the prediction the apocalypse will occur Dec. 21.

“I want to start with what the Mayan calendar is,” Callaghan said. “What are the problems with accuracy of the calendar? It’s not as accurate as we and pop culture make it out to be. Then I’m going to talk about what this date meant to the Maya.”

Callaghan said he will talk about archaeological artifacts that predict dates past Dec. 21, 2012.

“The Maya saw time continuing as far as 4772. Over 2000 years from now, the Maya saw time continuing,” Callaghan said.

The lecture series will continue at 3 p.m. on Sept. 13 with a presentation by Dr. Garrett Cook, professor of anthropology, called “Maya Religion in the 21st Century.”

“I’m doing two presentations,” Cook said. “One is a general overview of the mix of Spanish Catholicism and indigenous religion.”

Later that night, at 6 p.m., Cook is also going to present a DVD presentation called “The Dance of the Monkeys: A Video Documentary of a Maya Medicine Community.”

Cook said he made the video, which is about a traditional Maya dance, with Dr. Tom Offit.

“Dr. Tom Offit and I made the video four to five years ago with a small grant,” Cook said. “It’s an acrobatic performance on a tight rope by Maya men. It’s done as part of a religious vow for the patron saints.”

The lectures will be held in the SBC Theatre of the Mayborn Museum Complex. The lectures are free and open to everyone; however, seating is limited in the theater.

For more information, call (254) 710-7981.

 

Ancient Mayan theatre discovered in Mexico

From Business Standard: Ancient Mayan theatre discovered in Mexico

  Archaeologists have unearthed a unique 1,200-year-old theatre in Mexico which functioned not as a place for art and culture but as a political tool for Mayan elite.

Researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have found the Mayan theatre at the archaeological site of Plan de Ayutla, in Ocosingo, Chiapas.

The theatre did not seem a place for entertainment but was rather used by Mayan elite to legitimise their power and subjugate local minority groups, Discovery News reported.
"It was a unique theatre, since it was found in an acropolis, 137 feet above the other plazas. The stage lay within a palace complex," Luis Alberto Martos Lopez, director of the research project, said.

Located near the North Acropolis, the theatre was enclosed by buildings dating to 250-550 BC on all sides.

A 26-foot-long facade of one of these buildings was torn down around 850 AD to create the forum and make it work as an acoustic shell.

The unusual architecture makes the theatre stand out, Martos Lopez added.

"It's different from all the other theatres that have already been studied. These theatres were usually located in plazas and were built to entertain the crowds," Martos Lopez said.

In contrast, the newly unearthed theatre seated 120 people at the most.

Near the amphitheatre, the team found whistles, ocarinas and sculptures depicting Mayan deities. They most likely decorated the frieze below the building.

The scene probably represented the brutal ceremony of humiliation of prisoners, often ending in torture and decapitation.

According to Martos Lopez, around 850 AD a "multepal" or shared governance ruled in Plan de Ayutla and used political plays at the theatre to impose their ideologies on local minority groups.

The theatre might have also housed some sort of political rallies.

"We found that a temple northeast of the stage was dismantled to leave space to a small podium for an orator," Marts Lopez said.

Grow Your Family Tree Discover Discover Your Ancestry Start Looking Search Your Ancestry Indian Census Collection Learn About Genealogy Annual Ozarks Genealogical Society Conference The Annual Ozarks Genealogical Society Conference, Researching the Midwest and Beyond will be held September 14-15 at the Howard Johnson Motel, 3333 S. Glenstone, in Springfield, Missouri. Cost for the entire conference is $45 for Ozarks Genealogical Society members or… Scaling Your Brick Walls Intermediate Genealogy Classes Marcia Ford, head of the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library’s Genealogy & Local History Department, will be teaching Scaling Your Brick Walls, a six-week intermediate genealogy class beginning August 29 and ending October 3. Classes will be held from 6 to… Texas Library Holds Genealogy on Facebook Workshop The George Memorial Library, at 1001 Golfview Drive, in Richmond, Texas will hold two genealogy workshops in September. The first, Genealogy on Facebook will be held at 10 a.m. on September 1 in the computer lab. Attendees will learn how… Free Genealogy Workshops in Kansas The Augusta Public Library will hold two free genealogy workshops on September 6 at 1 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. The workshops will be identical and presented by the Augusta Genealogical Society in the Community Room at 1609 State Street in… Oklahoma Library Can Help With Tribal Heritage Research The Muskogee Public Library in Muskogee, Oklahoma has a number of helpful resources for those interested in researching their Native American heritage. Aside from having book and microfilm, the library staff is available to help fill out ancestor charts, check… Genealogy Workshops at San Francisco National Archives The National Archives at San Francisco have a number of upcoming genealogy workshops and programs scheduled. The next one is scheduled for September 14 and will focus on Preserving Your History All workshops will be held at the National Archives at… Free Genealogy Workshops in Fort Worth The National Archives at Fort Worth is hosting free genealogy workshops the first Friday of the month through November 2 from noon to 1 p.m. The classes will be held at the Montgomery Plaza at 2600 West 7th Street, Suite… Index to the Dawes Rolls Index-Final-Dawes-Rolls Index to the Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory (Dawes) See All See More Forest Service, Native Community Seek to Protect Sacred Site After Some Claim Mayan Connection

Frrom Indian Country: Forest Service, Native Community Seek to Protect Sacred Site After Some Claim Mayan Connection

Track Rock Gap—a 1,200-year-old archeological and Native American sacred site, located about 75 miles north of Atlanta, Georgia—has long gone undisturbed.
Yet, the site, which is home to a variety of Cherokee and Creek stone petroglyphs and located in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, has lately become the subject of national attention with claims that the area is connected to the Mayan people.
On December 21, 2011—one year prior to the supposed end of days, according to the Mayan calendar—an Examiner article ran that claimed Track Rock Gap has stone carvings identical to that of the Mayan people and that the Creek and Cherokee share some Mayan phrases.
As result of this claim, Track Rock Gap has seen over the past eight months an influx of Mayan enthusiasts, said James Wettstaed, heritage program manager and tribal liaison for the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Service.

Wettstaed anticipates many more will make the trek up to Track Rock Gap as December 2012 nears.
“[We] got a lot of interest from the public,” he said. “I’ve been out to the site since the summer of 2009 and there [were] no signs of visitation. A week after the article, user-created trails began to grow from a small footpath to something that was more obvious. Whenever I’ve been out there people are looking for the site.”
Wettstaed added that the area has recently been subject to vandalism.

“We started getting some impacts,” he said. “People were moving things around—rocks within the site.”
As a result of the disturbance, Wettstaed said the Forest Service decided to block a main user-created, unauthorized trail that lead up to the foliage-fortified archeological site by knocking down “dead and dying” trees.

“There was one primary unauthorized trail and that we blocked,” Wettstaed said, adding that there are still many more unauthorized trails leading to the site.

In July, another Examiner article ran that claimed the Forest Service knocked down more than one hundred trees and blocked the primary trail without the permission of the Creek and Cherokee people.

Wettstaed was quick to debunk the accusation.

“We went to [the nations],” he said. “I’ve kept them appraised with everything that’s going on. … They’ve all endorsed what we’ve done.”

Judy Toppins, public affairs staff officer with the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Service, said that in March not one hundred, but less than two-dozen trees were chopped down to obscure the user-created trail.
“The mitigation activity that we did for the unauthorized trail … included the taking of about 20 or so dead or damaged trees, non-merchantable timber,” she said. “There also was quite a bit of brush cut and pulled into that trail area. … Nothing was cut within the archeological zone.”

Lisa LaRue-Baker, acting tribal historic preservation officer with the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, affirmed that Wettstaed has been in consistent contact with the nation in reference to the site and trail.

“We consult with the Forest Service in our historic area of interest on a regular basis,” she said. “[They] made us aware of [the chopping down of the trees] and we didn’t object to it.”

LaRue-Baker said a film crew had submitted an application with the Forest Service to film a documentary within Track Rock Gap. LaRue-Baker told Wettstaed that the nation was adamantly opposed to the idea to filming at their sacred site.

“Our initial response was that we didn’t wish to see the permit be approved because it’s an archeological site that we would like to remain pristine,” she said. “It’s a sacred site and we don’t want sacred sites commercialized and exploited.”

She added that the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians do not want the site “violated and forever altered for curious and recreational purposes.”

LaRue-Baker, who said she’s “baffled” by the “fabricated Mayan-Cherokee connection,” said her nation, in partnership with the Forest Service, are working on a plan to further protect the site.

“It’s the last stronghold we have on our homeland,” she said. “It’s very near and dear to us.”

Wettstaed promulgated that there is no empirical or scientific data that links the Mayan people to Track Rock Gap.

Wettstaed added the Forest Service will continue to monitor the site and that he hopes that after December the hype for Track Rock Gap will all “go away.”

 

Waco, Texas, Sep 6, 2012

From KWTZ: Waco: Lecture Offers Insight Into Decoding The Mayan Calendar 

 WACO (September 3, 2012)--The first of a short series of lectures on decoding the Mayan 2012 calendar will take place at Baylor's Mayborn Museum Complex Thursday.

Michael Callaghan, Ph.D. an assistant professor in anthropology at Southern Methodist University will speak at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the SBC Theater at the museum.
The next lecture, to be about Mayan religion, will take place September 13 at 3 p.m., also in the theater.
"The Dance of the Monkeys: a Video Documentary of a Maya Medicine Community" will be presented at 6 p.m.
Lectures are free and will be open to the public.