Newly Discovered Mayan Calendar Contradicts 2012 Doomsday Myth

Posted on May 12, 2012

Archaeologists exploring the sprawling complex of Xultun, a 12-square-mile site in Guatemala's Peten region, have discovered a structure that contains a wall covered with unique tiny, millimeter-thick, red and black glyphs. Archaeologist William Saturno of Boston University, who led the exploration and excavation, says the glyphs appear to represent the various calendrical cycles charted by the Maya - the 260-day ceremonial calendar, the 365-day solar calendar, the 584-day cycle of the planet Venus and the 780-day cycle of Mars.

Archaeologist William Saturno of Boston University, who led the exploration and excavation, says, "For the first time we get to see what may be actual records kept by a scribe, whose job was to be official record keeper of a Maya community. It's like an episode of TV's Big Bang Theory, a geek math problem and they're painting it on the wall. They seem to be using it like a blackboard."

The discovery is reported in the June issue of National Geographic magazine (see here) and here in the journal Science. The project scientists say that despite popular belief, there is no sign that the Maya calendar - or the world - was to end in the year 2012. National Geographic says, "Contrary to the idea the Maya predicted the end of the world in 2012, the markings suggest dates thousands of years in the future."

The finding contradicts the belief that the Mayans intentionally ended their calendar on December 21, 2012, because they thought that's when the world was going to come to a violent end. This myth has pained NASA as they have to field numerous questions and dispel rumors about concern over the Mayan calendar. NASA even named Roland Emmerich's disaster film, 2012, as the most absurd sci-fi film ever made.

Anthony Aveni, professor of astronomy and anthropology at Colgate University, a coauthor of the paper published in Science, says, "It's like the odometer of a car, with the Maya calendar rolling over from the 120,000s to 130,000. The car gets a step closer to the junkyard as the numbers turn over; the Maya just start over."

You can view a high-resolution panoramic gigapan of the mural here. Here is a video about the find from National Geographic. Take a look:

ARCHAEOLOGY