According to rumors you may have read on the Internet and in popular books, in addition to predicting the end of the world in 2012, the Mayan civilization was peaceful and scholarly. Their priests lived in isolated temples in the jungle and wrote in an undecipherable script about ancient mysterious knowledge that is lost to mankind.
Bound Captive of the Maya, Statue in the Site Museum of Toniná, Chiapas
Photo Credit: Simon Burchell
These rumors tell us that, although it's very sad, we'll never understand anything about the Maya because their civilization abruptly collapsed, a result of over-population and environmental degradation.
But is Any of That True?
False, false, false, false, false; as contributing writing Nicoletta Maestri describes in her latest feature, the Most Popular Misconceptions about the Ancient Maya. According to archaeological and epigraphical evidence, the Maya were not any more peaceful than any other civilization, their temples were not isolated, their script has been deciphered and their civilization did not disappear!
And, of course, they didn't predict the end of our civilization.
Comments
Good article, yet another example of how what is considered ‘fact’ is little more than conjecture and propaganda wrapped up in a tissue of respectability.
I must say there’s tons of misinformation out there re: 2012. I found a documentary called 2012: The True Mayan Prophecy at http://www.westword.com/mayan2012prophecy and I must say it sounds quite different than the “doomsday set.” Here, let me spoil it for you: you’re not going to die on Dec 21, 2012. Check out this doc, it has the Dalai Lama, Bishop Tutu, and a real Maya who won the Nobel peace Prize – Rigoberta Menchu Tum and her elders and shaman. Worth the 1.99 it costs to download.
2012 ALERT!
What if the correlation of the Mayan Calendar with the European Calendar is off by 260 years ?
Was the prophetic “End Date” of the Mayan calendar and the so-called return of Quetzalcoatl at the end of days, be linked to the return of Halley’s comet which did return a few years later in 1759? Was the anticipated astronomical event which was to end the world at the end of the Mayan calendar, the return of Halley’s comet ?
For more read BREAKING THE MUSHROOM CODE: at mushroomstone.com