Does This Recently Discovered Mayan Mural Further Prove 2012 Doomsday Wrong?
- Posted on May 11, 2012 at 10:46am by
Liz Klimas
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Photo: Tyrone Turner/National Geographic)
NEW YORK (The Blaze/AP) — Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society’s intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago.
The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.
Astronomical records were key to the Mayan calendar, which has gotten some attention recently because of doomsday warnings that it predicts the end of the world this December. Experts say it makes no such prediction. The new finding provides a bit of backup: The calculations include a time span longer than 6,000 years that could extend well beyond 2012.
(Related: Worried about the world ending in 2012? NASA releases video saying don’t)
“Why would they go into those numbers if the world is going to come to an end this year?” observed Anthony Aveni of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., an expert on Mayan astronomy. “You could say a number that big at least suggests that time marches on.”
(Image: William Saturno and David Stuart via National Geographic)
Aveni, along with William Saturno of Boston University and others, report the discovery in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. Watch National Geographic’s report on the discovery:
The room, a bit bigger than 6-feet square, is part of a large complex of Mayan ruins in the rain forest at Xultun in northeastern Guatemala. The walls also contain portraits of a seated king and some other figures, but it’s clear those have no connection to the astronomical writings, the scientists said.
(Photo: Tyrone Turner/National Geographic)
One wall contains a calendar based on phases of the moon, covering about 13 years. The researchers said they think it might have been used to keep track of which deity was overseeing the moon at particular times.
Aveni said it would allow scribes to predict the appearance of a full moon years in advance, for example. Such record-keeping was key to Mayan astrology and rituals, and maybe would be used to advise the king on when to go to war or how good this year’s crops would be, he said.
“`What you have here is astronomy driven by religion,” he said.
On an adjacent wall are numbers indicating four time spans from roughly 935 to 6,700 years. It’s not clear what they represent, but maybe the scribes were doing calculations that combined observations from important astronomical events like the movements of Mars, Venus and the moon, the researchers said.
Why bother to do that? Maybe the scribes were “geeks … who just got carried away with doing these kinds of computations and calculations, and probably did them far beyond the needs of ordinary society,” Aveni suggested.
National Geographic has more on the discovery as it relates to what the Mayans thought about the Dec. 21, 2012 “doomsday”:
The calculations include dates some 7,000 years in the future, adding to evidence against the idea that the Maya thought the world would end in 2012—a modern myth inspired by an ancient calendar that depicts time starting over this year.
“We keep looking for endings,” expedition leader Saturno said in a statement. “The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It’s an entirely different mindset.”
[...]
The Maya at Xultún were likely less concerned with the end of the world than the end of their world, according to Mayan-writing expert David Freidel of Washington University in St. Louis.
For ninth-century Maya, tabulating astronomical calendars to predict times of plenty was akin to gauging the stock market today, said Freidel, who wasn’t involved in the new study.
When the Mural was made, the Xultún region was facing “a period of intense drought. In fact, cities were collapsing in various parts of the Maya world in this era,” he said.
“The preoccupation of this king and his courtiers with astronomical calculation is not an arcane exercise. It has a very practical consequence for the people of the city of Xultún, which is, What the hell is going on with the economy?”
Experts unconnected with the discovery said it was a significant advance.
“It’s really a wonderful surprise,” said Simon Martin, co-curator of an exhibit about the Mayan calendar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
While the results of the scribes’ work were known from carvings on monuments, “we’ve never really been able to identify a working space, or how they actually went about things,” Martin said.
The new work gives insight into that, he said, and the fact the room had a stone roof rather than thatching supports previous indications that the scribes enjoyed a high social standing.
“It’s a very important discovery. We’re only getting a glimpse of it” in the published paper, said John B. Carlson, director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy in College Park, Md.
“This is an intriguing start for this discovery.”
Check out National Geographic’s interactive “GigaPan” of the mural with more info on what elements of it mean here. Check out more pictures of the workroom here.
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Comments (76)
Its Gonna Getcha
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 5:27pmSo all this missing government money, and this administration’s greed for tax dollars, and the Wallstreet people hoarding assets isn‘t because they’re all buying underground bunkers, or passenger tickets on space vehicles so they survive?
Report Post »moussiagilda
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 4:22pmThe world did end, man, and it survived! You wanted neverending slaughter. You won’t get it. Go eat a sock.
Report Post »Elena2010
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 4:16pmNo big surprise here.
1. God has never respected those who practice human sacrifice. He gives them time to repent. If they fail, He destroys them fm the face of the earth. The Maya were such a people as were the Canaanites.
2. Jesus said no one but the Father knows the day and time of the Judgment.
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 4:26pmI like the recent story about the ancient book of psalms recently discovered in a peat bogg in Ireland and when opening it, it open right to Psalm 83…the War against Israel.
Report Post »Goldwaterite
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 6:18pmYet Jesus was a human sacrifice for other’s sins…
Report Post »filiusdracul
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 10:09pmELENA2010 Ha ha, you just paraphrased the entire Book of Mormon which is a history of the Mayan’s fall from grace and destruction.
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on May 12, 2012 at 10:32amGoldwaterite says: “Yet Jesus was a human sacrifice for other’s sins…”
Have a smartie, though who knows if that would ever help.
Granted, human sacrifices and Jesus both died, but that’s where the similarity ends. Let me put it another way… Say I see a house burning down and hear screams of children. I go in and bring them out one by one. When I am there for the last one, I get hit by falling structural element and consequently die. Is it a human sacrifice?
No. It is a selfless act. I did not go there to die, I went there to save.
See the difference?
Report Post »Goldwaterite
Posted on May 12, 2012 at 11:56amTwobyfour: Thank you for the candy. Jesus took other’s sins upon him (just like the lambs Jews sacrificed to God) and even though he willingly sacrificed himself, Jesus was still a human sacrifice. ever wonder why he is called the Lamb of God? because he was a sacrifice.
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on May 12, 2012 at 12:38pmYou still look at the surface similarities and disregarding a deeper context.
The purpose of human sacrifice (as human sacrifice meaning is understood) throughout ages was an offering (ritual murder) to appease gods. A trade, of sorts, motivated entirely by selfishness, substituting another human life for yours.
The Jesus case is a complete inversion of that paradigm.
I’ll take a raincheck on explaining these deeper layers.
Report Post »christopher.duncan2388
Posted on May 12, 2012 at 7:38pmGold, God sent jesus as a human sacrifice so that we could stop sacrificing our own… Think of it as a literal “sacrifice to end all sacrifices”
Report Post »pap pap
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 2:58pmYou think just maybe that all Mayan Archeologist agreed on everything. Maybe they did just ask Al Gore about those who believe in manmade global warming, oops Climate Change.
Report Post »opns_sergeant
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 2:29pmWhat hapens to the Mayan calendar when you take into account Leap years?
Report Post »Go Glenn
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 3:25pmIt would force the calender to be adjusted a little……..the End of Time is actually the end of Obama’s Administration. LOL That explains the other dates too……….life goes on and the Republic will stand.
Only Obama’s End of Days Ha Ha Ha Ha
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 4:22pmThey are Asians… and their minds worked differently from ours: I mean, do you want to Eat People?
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 1:32pmNew Years Day. Super Bowl. St. Patty’s Day. Cinco de Mayo. 4th of July. Day after Thanksgiving. And now, Mayan day. Just another day for an excuse to party. So party on for 12/21/12! And then on 12/13, party on again to celebrate the world not ending!
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 4:29pmYou are correct!
It will only end as we know it to be right now, but first the great tribulation and death. Its that you should get ready for.
Report Post »coolerheads
Posted on May 12, 2012 at 3:24pmThat reminds me, I better get started on my End-Of-The-World party. I still haven’t decided if it should be post-apocalyptic themed, or Mayan themed. I think Post-apocalyptic would be easier, but Mayan would be more fun.
Report Post »Bruce P.
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 1:01pmThe belief that any Mayan calendar or legend predicts the end of the world in 2012 was debunked long ago. It was never the Mayans who made these claims but stupid white people. They refused to listen to what the Mayans themselves have had to say so far, so why would these people start now?
Report Post »RedDirtTexas
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 1:24pmThese people were gone before the Spaniards arrived so pretty much no body has EVER listened to what they said! What color of stupid are you?
Report Post »Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 2:27pmYeah, Mayans were so brilliant, they’ve just advanced into nothingness, LOL! You’re the idiot.
Report Post »BlessedONE333
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:33pmlol “national geographic” is a pagan organization – they are atheists who hate GOD, THE BIBLE AND CHRISTIANS/JEWS
The world will not end on 12/21/2012 – however you might wish that it had if the plan of the NWO lucifarians succeeds.
The Mayan and the Egyptians and other groups on the earth before the time of Jesus were PAGANS and worshiped lucifer and his hybrids the NEPHILIM. The nephilim are the DNA cross bred creatures that the fallen angels created from their DNA and the tribes that turned away from YHWH the one true GOD of the Bible. In sumeria the people were told to call them ANNUNAKI – the 9- 12 foot tall – elongated head demons.
ALSO the large heads – are not ‘head dresses’ like the video said – that was the shape of their head – just like in egypt – long heads like that of the UFO gray beings.
GOOGLE CHUCK MISSLER- nephilm – ufo- prepare for the lies that are coming in a time of great trouble on the earth. They will present themselves as our ‘gods’ but they are a liar – they are demons – they are the beasts’ puppets.
STAR CHILD SKULL FOUND AND TESTED – NOT 100% HUMAN
youtube.com/watch?v=4VQ1DQ1ZFIg
Lucifer is real – he plots against us and uses the people on the earth who turn away from God. The UFOs that are being seen in record numbers is the demonic evil. There are good angels which appear as light. There is a spiritual war going on for your very soul RIGHT NOW.
DON’T BELIEVE the lies of FALSE UFO DISCLOSURE that is coming!
Report Post »BlessedONE333
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:32pmlol “national geographic” is a pagan organization – they are atheists who hate GOD, THE BIBLE AND CHRISTIANS/JEWS
The world will not end on 12/21/2012 – however you might wish that it had if the plan of the NWO lucifarians succeeds.
The Mayan and the Egyptians and other groups on the earth before the time of Jesus were PAGANS and worshiped lucifer and his hybrids the NEPHILIM. The nephilim are the DNA cross bred creatures that the fallen angels created from their DNA and the tribes that turned away from YHWH the one true GOD of the Bible. In sumeria the people were told to call them ANNUNAKI – the 9- 12 foot tall – elongated head demons.
ALSO the large heads – are not ‘head dresses’ like the video said – that was the shape of their head – just like in egypt – long heads like that of the UFO gray beings.
GOOGLE CHUCK MISSLER- nephilm – ufo- prepare for the lies that are coming in a time of great trouble on the earth. They will present themselves as our ‘gods’ but they are a liar – they are demons – they are the beasts’ puppets.
STAR CHILD SKULL FOUND AND TESTED – NOT 100% HUMAN
youtube.com/watch?v=4VQ1DQ1ZFIg
Lucifer is real – he plots against us and uses the people on the earth who turn away from God. The UFOs that are being seen in record numbers is the demonic evil. There are good angels which appear as light. There is a spiritual war going on for your very soul RIGHT NOW.
DON’T BELIEVE the lies of FALSE UFO DISCLOSURE that is coming
Report Post »Bruce P.
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:59pmLolwut!?
Report Post »thriceconcussed
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 1:05pmYou need to take your lithium.
Report Post »BlessedONE333
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 1:29pmlol first off thriceconcussed & Bruce P. I am very used to the abuse from ignorant people like yourself. Secondly – your suggestion that I ‘take meds’ is directly from LUCIFER. he is the author of the evils in BIG PHARMA – so your spirit is aligned with satan – you need to repent or you will wish you had.
THIRDLY – go do the research yourself – record numbers of ufo sightings – [that's because they are preparing] record numbers of people being abducted – only an ignoramous would ignore all that evidence piling up! [sort of like beck ignoring barry's birth certificate fraud]
had you asked God to show you the truth about them, like I asked YHWH to show me – then you would not be posting such stupid comments.
I DARE YOU TO research and watch the video evidence on youtube from CHUCK MISSLER on NEPHILIM and UFOs but even Chuck does not know what I know about the coming issues
by the way – I am no one special … the only difference between me and you is that I asked God to show me HIS TRUTH to me.
science proves the star child skull is not human
science proves that the ufo sightings being seen all over the earth are not from our regular mode of transportation
science proves that there is NO ANIMAL DNA in our bloodline history – which disproves the lies of evolution.
science proves that cosmology evidence says we are a young earth and the bible has merit
oh and when the false ufo disclosure comes and they lie their pants off, come back and find me
Report Post »bobdog19006
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 8:01pmWut?
Report Post »MiCurmudgeon
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:11pmThe only Doomsday indicator I worry about is Obama’s re-election.
Report Post »cemerius
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:11pmDecember 21st does NOT concern me!!! It’s November 6th that has me on edge!!!
Report Post »RedDirtTexas
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:53amIf you just lay your package on a rock, take a sharp rock hammer-like object and whack it, take a sheet of huun (Mayan paper) and soak up the blood, set it on fire and let the smoke rise to the heavens the Mayan “gods” will tell you when the end of time is. No, really! lol
Report Post »huey6367
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:13pmI would guess it would be right at that moment when you whacked your package with a sharp rock
Report Post »FREDINOHIO
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:19pmRed, that has got to be the funniest thing I’ve read all day!!! I’m still laughing. Thanks, you made my day.
Report Post »goldmind
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:52amAn end, is what the people of this planet deserve. If there is a god, even he/she/it would have to admit the biggest mistake in creation was the human species. When compared to other creatures, we are by far the most reprehensible.
Report Post »RedDirtTexas
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:23pm@ Goldmind I was thinking more along the lines of the ebola virus but to every thing there is a season and a purpose unto heaven. You included!
Report Post »Rambling_Republican
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:39amThe end of the world happens 12-21-2012
Report Post »My wife turns 55 12-21-2012
Coinkydink?
I think not.
RedDirtTexas
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:57amMine turns 50 the next day! Gonna hold till the last minute on her gift!
Report Post »1WhoQuestions
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:38amEnd of the age does not mean end of the world. However, it doesn’t mean the $!*% won’t hit the fan later on this year. It doesn’t matter if the Mayans are right or wrong. Either way we’re screwed.
Report Post »dont_tax_me_bro
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:38amOnly the rightwing Beckdrones believe the world is gonna end every year…LOL!
Report Post »Vickie Dhaene
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:36amI worship only one God. I shall not have fear.
Report Post »WhiteFang
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:36amA much more credible source for the view of the Earth’s continuance is the Bible. Speaking of our Creator God, Psalms 104:5 says; He has founded the earth upon its established places;
It will not be made to totter to time indefinite, or forever.
And Ecclesiastes 1:4 says; A generation is going, and a generation is coming; but the earth is standing even to time indefinite.
Report Post »Beltfeed
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:23amThey ran out of room on the calendar. It that simple!
http://www.cafepress.com/politicallyinjected
Conservative Merchandise Check the Link above out.
Report Post »RebelPatriot
Posted on May 12, 2012 at 1:28amWhat I want to know is how did the Mayan’s track that many years of star movement in one 6 x 6 room. We know the earliest civilization we can account for is the Sumerians from about 6500 B.C.
For a compete cycle of the planets to go from being aligned as on 12/21/12 from the previous time it happened is more years than we have any recorded history.
Who told the Mayans about this complete cycle if they weren’t around to witness it for themslevles?
Report Post »RebelPatriot
Posted on May 12, 2012 at 1:49amI stand corrected, The official start date for the Mayan calendar cycle that is to end Dec. 21, 2012 is August 11, 3114 BCE.
So the Mayans would have to have kept records of the stars some 5126 years. But they would have had to been keeping records for the previous 5126 years to know the alignment of the stars and planets to know it would happen again in 2012, correct? There is no record of the Mayans that proves they even existed on the planet 10,000 years ago. There is no proof that man as we know it inhabited the earth more than 10,000 years ago. Who explained the stars and the cycles to the Mayans? I for one believe someone had to tell them. No one lived long enough to pass this information along and I still don’t think you could keep up with it in a 6×6 room.
Report Post »CJohnWest
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:14amif the pan-galactic region the milkyway is in orbits as everything in the world does, wouldn’t the orbit come full circle at one point just keep turning the wheel guys, it’s pretty simple really. It is a creative universe that neverends; there is no such thing as nothing. Nothing is just a figment of your imagination and your imaginary figment is something.
Report Post »Vickie Dhaene
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:33amTouche.
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:11amOn a road through a desert in Arizona, a preacher named Nathaniel Evans walked every day, preaching to the many people who roared past in their cars.
“Repent, the End of the World is Nigh!” was his constant theme.
One day, as he was walking, he came to a big lever in the middle of nowhere, just by the side of the road. ‘Pull this to end the world’ said the sign on it.
Now Nathaniel saw this as the perfect spot for him to preach, and soon many automobiles were parked nearby, the people all swayed by his powerful elocution.
All was well, until there were so many people, and so many cars, that the road was nearly blocked. Then a big 18-wheel rig came down the highway, and couldn’t stop in time. The driver had a choice: run over Nathaniel, or run over the Lever.
As the driver explained to the Highway Patrol later, he actually had no choice. Pointing to the red smear on the road that used to be Nathaniel Evans, he said “Better Nate than Lever.”
Report Post »P8riot
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:30amduh duh – ch! lol – that was good. I think this website could use a little more brevity! :)
Report Post »KENTUCKIANAPATRIOT
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:25pmNow THAT is funny!!! Thanks for the laughs, TIME_2_….._12.
Report Post »seeker9
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:11amI’ll take all bets. The world will not end on Dec 21, 2012. If the world ends, I will give $1000. If the world does not end, you give me $500.
Report Post »iampraying4u
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:32amIT could be the beginning of the end
Report Post »BlessedONE333
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 12:37pmno the world will not end –
but life in the next 2 years will be very very harsh
Report Post »jhaydeng
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:04amOnce you can accept not being afraid of pain their is nothing to fear but where you will end up after your mortal existence ends!
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 10:55amSorry, I don’t care what the Mayans thought about the end of the world. There is a much more reliable source available.
Report Post »copatriots
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:06amExactly, GONZ! And with stunning accuracy as we watch it unfold!
Report Post »willbedone
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:09amI don’t care either! MY Creator said that it would last much much longer.
Report Post »BOMUSTGO
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:18amThere is no end of the world. It means end of the age. The last seven years will start when Israel signs a covenant with the antichrist per Dan 9:27.
Report Post »WhiteFang
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:56amBomustgo, – The last seven years will start when Israel signs a covenant with the antichrist per Dan 9:27.
Is that what Daniel 9:27 says?
Daniel 9: 24-27 talking about the our Messiah Jesus being cut off at the end of his earthly life and ministry. That prophecy was given to the ancient nation of Israel to help them discern when the Messiah would arrive and how long his earthly ministry would continue. Also the end of the Mosaic Law Covenant would cease when the newly formed Christian Congregation would begin.
Report Post »Obama Snake Oil Co
Posted on May 11, 2012 at 10:51amMayans, heck, the Obimbos will end the world all by himself…
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