Honduras Celebrates 2012 Countdown
December 26, 2011
The President of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, was present at a celebration held in the Copán ruins, near the border with Guatemala.
A website has been created to highlight Copán and 2012:
http://www.copan2012honduras.com
You can see the countdown clock there, and also at a brief news item on the event:
Countdown Clock in Tapachula
December 16, 2011
No image of it yet, but the first Mexican city to display a doomsday clock is Tapachula. It will start next week, on Dec. 21.
Chiapas state tourism regional director Manolo Alfonso Pinot said Friday that Mayan priests will perform a ceremony at the nearby archaeological site of Izapa.
Julia-Levy: Hawking is a Believer
October 28, 2011
Raul Julia-Levy, still promoting his 2012 documentary that has not yet begun shooting, quotes Stephen Hawking who is supposedly going to participate:
“‘I warn humanity that aliens are out there. Just because the aliens were friends with the Mayans doesn’t mean they are our friends. Humans should avoid contact with aliens at all costs.’”
The source for this story, The Wrap, hasn’t been able to confirm Hawking’s role in the doco. Also in the story is a photograph being touted as evidence of the role of aliens in ancient civilizations:
He also claimed government conspiracies surrounding the photo, and the head it depicts: After the photo was taken in the late 1930s, he said, it was only published once, in a magazine that was then immediately withdrawn from circulation by “the government of England.”
Wrong on that… the photo has been published since then, and Julia-Levy probably sourced it from there – Lost Cities of Central & North America (1992) by David Hatcher Childress, on page 87 (read more about it in an article by Philip Coppens). According to Childress, the photo first appeared in an Ancient Astronaut Society newsletter, which suggests to me it could be faked. Julia-Levy perhaps got the 1930s date from the model of car in the photo.
Mayan Elder Doco Seeks Support
May 24, 2011
Over at the excellent KickStarter is a project that might appeal to 2012ers out there.
Shift of the Ages is seeking $125,000 in the next three weeks to finish their film, and get it out to festivals and audiences. They already have pledges of $28,000 from over 200 backers. Pledge $20 or more and you get a copy of the DVD before the general public get to see it. Higher pledges with wonderful things are also listed.
The Shift of the Ages film is a true and authentic story of the Maya, the Mayan Calendar, 2012 and the turbulent times in which we are living. Compelling and timely, this story is told through living Grand Elder, Wandering Wolf, also known as Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj.
Drought May Have Ended Mayan Prosperity
February 20, 2011
A new study, which uses tree rings to study the climate record of pre-Hispanic Mexic, has identified four severe droughts in the region during the last 1,200 years. Scientists have suggested that some droughts may have coincided with major historical events. One example worth highlighting is the drought which lasted for 25 years around the year 900 – this is the same time that the Mayan culture ceased to flourish any more.
According to their analyses, one of the most severe periods of drought occurred between 897 and 922, the researchers reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, just as the Terminal Classic period came to an end. Another 19-year drought around 1150 coincided with the fall of the Toltec state, which was the dominant civilization of central Mexico at the time.
Wandering Wolf – Live Web Lecture
August 9, 2010
Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj is the head of the National Council of Maya Elders, and a 13th generation Quiche Maya Spiritual Leader. He is the most qualified individual to speak on the thoughts of modern-day Mayans regarding 2012.
He will be conducting a live presentation over the internet on August 15 (with replays on the days that follow). This is your chance to ask him questions. Tickets are $AUD10.
Mayan Demise: Not War or Starvation
August 9, 2009
War and famine are regularly provided as explanations for the demise of the ancient Mayan civilization. Now, a study of garbage pits by archaeologist Kitty Emery of the Florida Museum of Natural History shows that political unrest is the more likely cause.
The only time that hunting populations of large animals appear to have headed south, based on the garbage pits, is the earliest era, when the region was first colonized by the Maya, Emery says. “Pretty quickly, things stabilized and stayed that way, in what looks to have been a managed fashion, for a long time,” she says.
Studies of human remains led by Texas A&M’s Lori Wright have also shown scant evidence of dietary changes during the collapse period in Petexbatun, finding no evidence of the anemia of increased child mortality at two sites.
Symposium: Maya Calendars and Creation
January 31, 2009
Showing impeccable timing, considering all of the sensationalist coverage of 2012 recently, is next week’s Sixth Annual Tulane Maya Symposium. Held at Tulane University in New Orleans it features many academic researchers including Anthony Aveni & Barbara and Dennis Tedlock. Hopefully some of the presentations, such as Ends of Time: The Maya Mystery of Creation 2012 will be made available to those unable to make the conference. Read more here.
Mayan Underground Pyramids
January 11, 2009
A labyrinth containing stone temples and pyramids, within 14 caves—some of which are underwater—have been discovered on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.
This is an amazing discovery, and hopefully National Geographic will be providing more details in the near future. The article says:
According to Maya myth, the souls of the dead had to follow a dog with night vision on a horrific and watery path and endure myriad challenges before they could rest in the afterlife.
In one of the recently found caves, researchers discovered a nearly 300-foot (90-meter) concrete road that ends at a column standing in front of a body of water.
Mayan “Highway to Hell” Discovered
December 11, 2008
Mayan legend, as described in their sacred book named the Popul Vuh—”tells of a tortuous journey through oozing blood, bats, and spiders, that souls had to make in order to reach Xibalba, the underworld”.
In a cave recently found near Mérida, the capital of Yucatán State in Mexico, researchers have discovered a 90-meter paved road that ends at a column standing in front of a body of water. Within the same cave are walled off rooms, an altar and a submerged temple.
Did they build within the cave first, and the legend of Xibalba followed later? Or did the discovery of the cave validate the existing legend? These are questions puzzling researchers. But there is no doubt that these caves, currently full of water, were used for Mayan rituals.
Read more at IHT, and watch a video at National Geographic.
