Mayan apocalypse. Did ancient people think that the apocalypse would come?

The Maya believed that each day in the Tzolkin calendar was special and had a certain influence on events. The priests of the ancient people, the “keepers of the day”, read the calendar to predict the future. But it still continues to confuse humanity.

2012 was marked by the death of the male Galapagos tortoise Lonesome George, the last member of the Abingdon elephant tortoise subspecies, the NASA Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars, and Felix Baumgartner’s parachute jump from the edge of space. In addition, this is also the largest anti-apocalyptic year in history, because on December 21 the world did not end – the day the ancient Mayans predicted it, writes IFLScience.

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In fact, ancient people did not make such predictions. Some archaeological finds show that the Mayan civilization expected the world to exist forever. But their calendar expired at the end of 2012, which led to the spread of the false idea of ​​the end of the world.

Is the Mayan calendar finished?

Maya, like us, divided the passage of time into recurring periods. These calendars consisted of variously synchronized cycles. For their part, their combination created new, longer loops. This Mesoamerican calendar system dates back to BC. It has spread to the whole region since 1100.

However, not counting centuries and millennia, the Mayan calendar consisted of two interconnected systems, the haab of 365 days and the Tzolkin of 260 days.

Each long account consisted of 5,126 years and was divided into 13 equal parts of approximately 394 years. The Maya began the countdown of the last Great chronology on August 11, 3114 BC, which means that the 13th chapter of this cycle should end on December 21, 2012.

The Mayan calendar is similar to ours in that the end of one long count was immediately followed by the beginning of the next. Moreover, no archaeological source indicates that ancient people perceived time as something that would end forever, especially when a certain cycle came to an end.

But in 1987 author José Argüelles, founder of the Planetary Arts Network and Foundation for the Law of Time, published a book in which he misinterpreted the Mayan calendar as a countdown to the end of the world. This caused the Mayan theory of apocalypse to spread and fascinate the modern world at that time and in some places.

Prophecy from Tortuguero

An ancient sanctuary or tomb, Tortuguero dates back to the seventh century AD. It was supposed to be dedicated to a local ruler in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco. Researchers excavating the site found an inscription known as “Tortugero Monument 6”, which contains a cryptic reference to the 13th number of the Mayan calendar.

This is the only reference to the end of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar in history. Some glyphs could not be fully translated because they were partially or completely faded. Others, however, remember the return of Bolon Yokte, the Mayan god associated with war and creation.

Then, in 1996, archaeologists David Stewart and Stephen Houston published a rough interpretation of what they called the Tortuguero Prophecy. And while the researchers never claimed that the found inscription predicted the end of the world, their work suddenly caught on with apocalyptic fans, who, towards the end of 2012, began to fuel hysteria even more.

Later, archaeologists again returned to the study of the found monument. They concluded that the inscription probably did not refer to events after the end of the calendar, but only preserved the dedication of the shrine on January 11, 669. So, the monument doesn’t describe the end of the world, just the end of the Mesoamerican long census calendar as a timing tool.

Mayan belief

The old people completely hoped that after the previous countdown, the new one would begin. Not a single artifact the researchers found mentions Doomsday, a planetary explosion, or alien saviors. Moreover, they had no doubt that the sun would rise in the morning on December 22, 2012, as it always does.

Fortunately, archaeologists have unearthed the oldest and most complete Mayan astronomical tables in Xultun, Guatemala. These calendars covered at least 7,000 years later. This proves once again that the Mayan calendar did not end in 2012.

In other words, the ancient civilization most associated with apocalyptic prophecies actually believed that the world would never end.

Previously Focus He wrote about the unclean god of Maya. Scientists explain why they look like leprechauns and why the President of Mexico wrote about him.

We’ve also written about new discoveries made on the UNESCO World Heritage List in Mexico. It is one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Source: Focus

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