It's Not the End of the World: What the Ancient Maya Tell Us About 2012

What is this all about?So, we’re hearing a lot about what the ancient Maya prophesied for us, far in their future…our year 2012.

The din is rising. What did they actually tell us?

The short answer from the Maya is, It’s not the end of the world!

Maya Prophecy?The End of an Ancient Calendar?The End of the World as We Know It?Global Cataclysm?A Cosmic Change of Consciousness?The return of Quetzalcoatl?

The Year 2012.

Photo by Guillermo Aldana, Arqueología Mexicana VIII:45

Indeed, current debate about 21 December 2012 results from contemporary confusion from projections, assumptions, and misunderstanding about the science and beliefs of several ancient cultures of the Americas.

The Maya were one of many cultures of the Americas who employed a solar calendar of 365 days. However, while the Maya calculated and utilized cycles of ~5125 years, other cultures, including the Aztecs, focused on shorter cycles of only 52 years.

Although the Aztec adopted many aspects of the Maya calendar, the milestone of 21 December 2012 is significant only in terms of the long cycles of Maya time. (For an introductory explanation of the Maya Calendrics, download Part IV – Appendix: Technicalities of the Calendars.)

The Maya Long Count notation for 21 December 2012 is 13.0.0.0.0 which completes a cycle of 5125.366 years (3114 BC – 2012 CE).

More later about the Maya. Let’s look now at current propheciesfor 21 December 2012.

Some of the events proposed to come together on the winter solstice, 21 December 2012:On that morning, the Earth and Sun will align with the “Dark Rift” near the Galactic Center. This event last happened about 25,800 years ago.The magnetic poles of the Earth may reverse, leaving us unprotected from cosmic radiation for a time. The effect of magnetic fields on human creativity, initiative, mood, etc., is still unknown.There will be a Venus Transit, an eclipse‐type alignment when Venus crosses between Earth and the Sun. We witness a pair of these about once a century: the last few were 1518 & 1526; 1631 & 1639; 1761 & 1769; 1874 & 1882; 2004 & then on 6 June 2012.NASA predicts an unusually powerful “Solar Maximum” (sunspot season) for 2012 (though it may peak as early as late 2011). This happens every 11 years, and disrupts satellite and other electromagnetic communications.The usual disasters loom: food shortages, cataclysmic storms due to global warming, gasoline prices going through the roof, looming chaos in the Middle East – site of Biblical Armageddon and Eden –which will disrupt oil production and bring civilization to a grinding halt (some like to call it Mess‐o’‐potamia).

According to ancient records, theMaya Long Count Calendar will reach 13.0.0.0.0. Due to the cyclic nature of Maya calendars, this date appears to replicate the same number as at the beginning of this Creation in August 3114 BC/BCE (which the Maya also wrote as 13.0.0.0.0). The interval is 5125 years & 133 days, or 5125.366 years.

The return of Quetzalcoatl (one of the great gods of ancient Mesoamerica), according to Aztec and Maya prophecies.

The “13” in the Maya date 13.0.0.0.0 indicates “13 Bak’tuns.” A Maya Bak’tun or Pik is 144,000 days, the same number as the number of devotees taken up in the Rapture, according to the Book of Revelation. Coincidence?

There have been five Creations according to the Aztec records. Five times 5125.366 years is 25,626.8 years. Coincidence?

Maya Prophecies for 21 December 2012

Maya Prophecies9 Reasons why the “Maya Prophecies” should be read very critically:

1. Very fragmentary. What we have is only a handful of passages from a lost, and much longer, story.

2. Contradictory. Though Aztec, Mixtec, and Maya sources provide us a number of narratives, different versions disagree. The calendar dates associated with Maya “end date,” Aztec “end date,” and “return of Quetzalcoatl” all vary. For example: the Aztec predict that this Creation will end on a 4‐Movement day in a 2‐Reed year, if it ends at all. The next possible Aztec end‐date will be in 2027. Maya literature does not explicitly predict any end at all, and their so‐called “end date” in 2012 is a 4‐Ajaw [4‐Flower in Aztec cycle], not 4‐Movement. Mixtec Creation stories mention 2‐Deer in year 13‐Rabbit, and other dates.

3. Manipulated. Tlacaélel, Machiavellian minister to three Aztec emperors, had no illusions about the propaganda power of history, and saw to it that history was rewritten completely to exalt the Mexica and denigrate rivals. He was neither the first or the last to do this. At his behest, the Aztecs burned their own libraries as well as their enemies’, in order to start with a clean slate. They even changed Quetzalcoatl’s birthday. Likewise, Maya dates and intervals of time were manipulated for their numerological and augural significance.

4. Misunderstood. 21st‐century Western world‐view is verydifferent from that of ancient Mesoamericans. We tend to project our own ideas and beliefs on others.

• For example: their distinction between truth and myth, and between various individual gods, were nowhere near our categorical boundaries. Gods did not have distinct personalities, they blended into each other, they split into gangs of 4 or 5. The days, and even the numerals in their calendars were living, powerful entities. Some Maya texts (below) appear to have indicated “myth time” with “unworkable” calendar days.

5. Errors. Maya monuments, particularly dates and distance numbers contain errors, both of transcription and of calculation. I count something over 50 numerical mistakes carved in stone. Apparently the Maya, believed that “a card laid is a card played” and never, ever, erased and fixed a mistake.

6. No mention of destruction nor of renewal, nor improvement, connected to the coming 13.0.0.0.0 Maya “end date”.

7. Implication that Life and the calendar will continue without interruption beyond 2012.

8. The Mesoamerican concept of “cyclic time” is not that cyclic. To both the Maya and the Aztec each Creation was an improvement on the previous era.

9. Solstices were of very minor importance. Though they record hundreds of ceremonies, anniversaries, jubilees, dedications, offerings, astronomical events, etc., inscriptions almost never mention events on solstices or equinoxes. However, especially very early, during the Middle Formative, the Maya built “E‐Groups,” architectural alignments to the Solstices and Equinoxes. (Archaeoastonomers have long been puzzled by the fact that mostE‐Groups do not align to these risings. Recent investigation suggests that E‐Groups may have been aligned to the solar Zenith Passages and Nadirs, events more highly esteemed than Solstices.The First Zenith Passage coincides with the onset of the rainy season in much of Mesoamerica.)

Some predictions for 2012What is supposed to happen in 2012?

Four predictions

“An imminent polar reversal that will wipe our hard drives clean.”Daniel Pinchbeck

“The rare celestial alignment of our solar system, our sun, and our planet with the center of our galaxy—an event that will not happen again for another 26,000 years.”

Gregg Braden

The “dawning of a Wisdom Age … standing on the shoulders of the Information Age.”

Peter Russell

“The December 21, 2012, date will likely be a “nonevent” similar to … the widely anticipated Y2K phenomenon.”

Robert K. Sitler

Cultural Diversity

The next 2 maps will show how diverse Mesoamerica is ‐both culturally and linguistically.

The Maya, and the later Mixtec and Aztec cultures, are only a few of many.

Mesoamerica has greater linguistic diversity than Europe.

Just the Mayan area (light blue), for example, comprises 22 living languages even today.

Map courtesy FAMSI.org—modified from The Handbook of Middle American Indians.

Culture Areas and Dates

The next 4 maps display the dates and areas of the Olmec, Early and Late Classic Maya, and the Aztec cultures.

These groups were as different from each other as Egypt, Greece, and Medieval Spain. Nevertheless, like Greece and Spain, the later cultures respected, and built on their forebears.

They also felt free to adapt as well as adopt. Ancient Mesoamericans had no compunctions about changing or even inverting stories, just as Christmas traditions vary around the world.

Cultures worldwide suffer cycles of Rise and Fall. But those in Mesoamerica apparently lived in a more fragile environment; when they fell, they fell hard. Unlike Rome, Baghdad, and other Old World cities who rebuilt after a collapse, most of the great Mesoamerican capitals were completely abandoned after their respective Falls.

Multiple Collapses

900 BCE/BC The major Olmec city of San Lorenzowas abandoned, and La Venta rose. (Gulf coast)

400‐300 BCE/BC

The Middle Classic Collapse snuffed the Olmec Horizon, and fertilized dozens of Late Formative city‐states. (pan‐Mesoamerica)

100 BCE/BC Cuicuilco, buried by a volcanic eruption (southern Valley of Mexico), coincides with rise of Teotihuacán (northern Valley of Mexico)

200 CE/AD The abandonment of great cities in the Mirador Basin. (Northern Guatemala)

600/650 CE/AD The burning of Teotihuacánmarks the boundary between Early and Late Classic.

600‐800 CE/AD The Late Classic saw not only a dramatic florescence of Maya cities, but also the appearance of new civilizations: Tajín, Huasteca, Xochicalco, Cacaxtla.

900 CE/AD The Classic Collapse: Maya, Zapotec, Veracruz, etc. (pan‐Mesoamerica)

1100 – 1250 The rise of the Mixteca city‐states.

1350 – 1450 The Aztec/Mexica establish an empire.

1500‐1540 CE/AD

The Conquest: Introduced disease; the fall of Tenochtitlán (1521), and then the rest of the Americas. (pan‐Mesoamerica)

The Mesoamerican People suffered Multiple Collapses

The 2012 Galactic Alignment:How rare is it?

The Galactic Alignment – How

Rare is It?

Some researchers claim that the Maya Calendar was set, originally devised, specifically to reach its “end” (the Long Count date 13.0.0.0.0) coinciding with this very special event.

So how rare is this “galactic alignment,” that occurs every 26,000 years?

The Galactic Center is about here: X

Here is a sky chart showing the sun on the morning of 21 Dec., 2012. The line marking the Ecliptic is green, and the Galactic Equator is violet.



Here is a sky chart showing the sun on the same day, three yearsearlier in 2009.



Here is a sky chart showing the sun on the morning of Dec. 21, 2006.



The sky chart showing the sun on the morning of Dec. 21, 2003.


To see the slight movement of the sun at these three‐year intervals, click back and forth through the last three slides a few times. You will notice that the sun has been in virtually the same spot every Dec. 21st for many years.

In fact, the sun has already crossed the Galactic Equator in 1999. The edge of the sun first touched that Equator in the early 1980’s, and will be in contact with it each 21st of December until about 2019. Again, this “rare” alignment has already been happening for twenty‐five years and will continue for a decade more.



The sky chart showing the sun on the morning of Dec. 21, 1999.

The next slide shows the sky chart showing the position of the sun on the morning of the solstice in 1941, seventy-one years before 2012. It is approximately one degree, or two solar diameters, away from the Galactic Equator. This slow movement is what astronomers call “Precession of the Equinox.”


Sky chart showing the position of the sun on the morning of the solstice in 1941, seventy‐one years before 2012.



This shows the sun’s position at dawn of the solstice 71 years earlier still, when it was two degrees short of the Galactic Equator.



Here we show the sun’s position on mornings two days apart, in 1870 and 2012. The sun in 2012 occupies precisely the same positions as it did 142 years and two days earlier. They are two degrees apart, or four solar diameters.

The sun’s position on 21 Dec., 2012 and on 23 Dec., 1870.



However, two days later in 1870 on Dec. 23rd, the sun did cross the Galactic Equator. And in 1941 it crossed on the 22nd.



Allow us to repeat, the sun has crossed the galactic equator every winter solstice since 1983, and will continue to do so until 2019.

The 2012 Galactic Alignment:How rare is it? Not very.

In fact, the sun has aligned annually (on other days) since time began. (It precesses a solar diameter in 36 years.)

This is an annual event, is not rare at all.

The Maya did celebrate the Precession

However, the Maya did celebrate the Sun’s almost‐imperceptibly slow progression through the Zodiac (or “around the sky”) called the Precession of the Equinox.

Barbara MacLeod has been working with an unusual Maya concept, asignificant interval of time they called “3‐11‐Pik” (or “3‐11‐Baktun,” to use the traditional epigrapher’s name for the 144,000‐day/400‐year period). 3 x 11 x 144,000 days is 4,752,000 days, or 13,010.5 years, half the length of the Precession cycle.

Maya rulers celebrated a micro‐cycle of this huge interval: every 8660 days (about 24 years) was an “11‐Pik station” in the Long Count, (it would have the same Calendar Round as 11 Piks later would have). If a king lived long enough, he would witness three of these in succession (taking 25,980 days, about 71 years; 3.12.3.0 in Maya numerals) and be given the title “3‐11‐Pik Ajaw.” This 71 years is the length of time for the Equinox sun to precess one day. In other words, the sun’s position against the backdrop of stars would have shifted to the adjacent day’s position 71 years before.

…Not only did the Maya occasionally celebrate the Precession, they observed and

measured its progress sufficiently to calculate with it.

If a lord saw 3 successive 8660‐day periods (about 71 years), he was given the title “3‐11‐Pik

Ajaw.”

(71 years is the time it takes for the sun to precess back one day. Thrice 8660 is also 25,980 days, microcosmically reflecting the full

Precession cycle of 25,800 years. Perhaps.)

Premier archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni is not at all convinced by Barbara MacLeod’s evidence, which he calls coincidental. (We scholars are not at all monolithic.)

This is a drawing of a Xcalumk’in inscription (CMHI 4:197) one of the handful of monuments mentioning this 3‐11‐Pik interval/title. Glyph A is the title “3‐11‐pi‐k(u),” or “3‐11‐Pik‐ku,” one of a string of titles boasted by the Lord ending at glyph J with “Ajaw”.

This is a drawing of a Copan Stela 49 with the 3‐11‐Pik Ajawinterval/title highlighted.

Drawing after David Stuart

This is a photograph of Naranjo Altar 1 along with a drawing of the altar. The text selected is H9 – I12. The 3‐11 Pik Ajaw title exists in H12 (highlighted).

Photo courtesy of the Morisawa Type Company, Tokyo, Japan Drawing by Ian Graham (CMHI)

This is a drawing of Quirigua Stela F, A12 – B14. The 3‐11 Pik Ajaw interval/title is highlighted in A13.

Drawing by Matt Looper

Observatory,Palenque Palace

Solstices: How important were they?

Photo by Linda Schele

So far, we have found no glyphic inscription that refers to a solstice or an equinox per se. The only events recorded in inscriptions that consistently fall near one of these dates are the “Flapstaff Dance” lintels at Yaxchilan. The Maya called this baton/banner Jasaw‐Chan, and the handful of records of this dance always happen a couple days after the summer solstice: June 25, June 26, etc. (GMT+2 correlation; two days earlier in the GMT correlation).

Further, Maya rulers could choose the date of their inauguration. They had substantial leeway for it; a typical Maya Ajaw‐to‐be had between a month and about two years after his predecessor’s death to set a date.

Examining 80 recorded coronations for Maya lords, I found only one (in each correlation) that fell on either a solstice or an equinox, which is precisely what chance would predict. In fact, I found four that coincided with February 14th, but that does not prove that the Ancient Maya celebrated St. Valentine’s day. Remember that!!

When faced with a choice of an auspicious day on which to schedule an important event, Maya almost never chose a solstice or an equinox.

Solstices: How important were they?

Answer:Not very

Why we use the Aztec Myth (Leyenda de los Soles) to Explain Maya Creations

The surviving accounts of the Maya Creation Myth are fragments, tatters. Much more is missing than is there. The earliest surviving fragments appear on the monuments of Izapa (and neighbors) and the newly‐discovered Murals of San Bartolo (ca. 100 BCE).

As if through a keyhole, we glimpse a rich, intricate cosmology connecting time, space and personalities. It relates the cardinal directions to colors, species of trees and game, the calendar, myths, and who knows what else.

Eight centuries later, Classic Maya vase painters illustrate a few other Mythic scenes, some involving the Hero Twins. A few Classic stone inscriptions connect Creation with house‐building.

Six centuries later, one of the curiosities Cortez presented to the Emperor, a book we call the Dresden Codex, recounts several arcane events which occurred on 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u.

Later still, a Quiché Maya scribe in the impoverished and conquered Guatemalan highlands copied out the Popol Vuh, connecting his cacique’s ancestors back to the Creations of the World (ca. 1700). It dwells on the Hero Twins, who prepared the world for its final Creation ‐our Creation.

Though it is clear that the Maya conceived a dizzying, intricately interconnected cosmology, we have difficulty working out its details. This is partly due to the fragmentary nature of our evidence, but it is also increasingly clear that the stories varied substantially from city‐state to city‐state. (Not unlike the conflicting versions of Abraham’s Sacrifice: In the Biblical version, the son is Isaac, who goes on to father the Israelites. In the Islamic version, the son is Ishmael, father of the Arabs. These divergent stories represent the infinite variety found in all mythic traditions.)

The Aztec adapted their Five Creations stories (called the “Five Suns”) from Maya and other accounts. Our knowledge of the Aztec myths is much more complete than that of their antecedents. If we proceed with caution, keeping in mind that they changed things at will, it will be instructive to examine the Aztec Creation cycle as a reflection of the older Maya tradition.

Though various versions of the Aztec Creation myth existed1, the canonical story is laid out in the central section of the famous Aztec “Calendar Stone,” also known as the Sun Stone and Altar of Axayacatl. The symbolism seen there corresponds to the most coherent Aztec account of the five Creations, called “the Five Suns” in the Leyenda de los Soles2.

1 even after they were homogenized under Tlacaélel2 “Legend of the Suns” — the Aztecs called each Creation a “Sun.”

The Aztec Calendar Stoneor Stone of Axayacatl

Note the eight triangular signs representing rays of the Sun.

Original colors.

Dated (at top)

13‐Reed

(“13 Acatl”)

= 1479 AD.

A Sun‐ray from the Stone of Axayacatl.

This “ray” sign is the same sign incorporated into the “A‐O” or “trapeze‐and‐ray”, also known as the “Mexican Year Sign”, which we saw in Part 4.

Xiuhuitzolli, symbol of East 1‐Flint = North

1‐Rain, symbol of South 7‐Monkey = West

This “Calendar Stone” (shown in its original colors) is so called because of its central section. Here Aztec priests, like the Maya, combined time and space in a symmetrical, complex iconography.



The four emblems tucked into the top and bottom represent the four cardinal directions. East (upper left) is Xiuhuitzolli, the imperial headdress issuing a speech‐scroll (the Aztec emperor’s official title was Tlatoani, “Speaker”). The other three directional emblems are also dates – holy days sacred to the gods who ruled the directions. This connects sacred Space to sacred cycles of Time.

The upper right arm of the central sign contains the date 4‐Jaguar, the beginning and the end date of the First Creation, which the Aztec Leyenda de los Soles tells us began on that day in 956 BC. It lasted precisely 13 cycles of 52 years (676 years), ending on another 4‐Jaguar day in the year 280 BC. The primitive inhabitants of this Creation were, in the end, eaten by jaguars.

1st Sun: 4 Jaguar(956 BC ‐250 BC)




An unspecified interval elapsed before the next Creation began and ended on 4‐Wind(upper left arm). This one lasted seven 52‐year cycles (364 years), before ending —you guessed it— in a hurricane. The slightly improved inhabitants of this world turned into turkeys.


2nd Sun:4 Wind;Lasted364 yrs



Likewise, after a period in limbo, the “Third Sun” started (and ended) on 4‐Rain, lasting six 52‐year cycles, or 312 years (lower left). It ended in a “rain of fire”sometime in the late fourth century AD.



3rd Sun:4 Rain;Lasted 312 years



(Lower right): The “Fourth Sun,” 4‐Water, began with a 52‐year Flood, then lasted 13 more 52‐year cycles (676 years). The entire world, though much improved over previous ones, was washed away in another catastrophic flood, and its people turned into fish. This brings us up to at least the end of the eleventh century AD (likely to some time after 1125 AD.)




4th Sun:4 Water;52 years ofFlood, then676 years.1‐Rain, symbol of South 7‐Monkey = West

Each of these Creations was described as inherently unstable, ruled by gods in constant conflict. Each associated with a cardinal direction – North, South, East or West – but ours, the Fifth Sun, the Creation of the Center, is fundamentally different.

The Creation in which we live began on 4‐Movement (or 4‐Earthquake) in a 2‐Reed year (probably in 1143 or 1195 AD). The gods made a blood sacrifice to set the Sun in motion. Thus was the insatiable need for blood established; the Sun needs continued nourishment to keep moving. However, unlike previous Suns, this Creation is in balance; it could last forever.

5th Sun: 4 Movement.(simple form above)Began (at earliest)

1125 AD.

The large central sign is itself a giant date. This

era will end with cataclysmic earthquakes, and it is the last Creation.

There will be no other.(Center: Tonatiuh, the Sun God)

Xiuhuitzolli, symbol of East 1‐Flint = North 1st Sun: 4 Jaguar(954 BC ‐258 BC)




4th Sun:4 Water;52 years ofFlood, then676 years.

‐‐Aztec derived from the same source as the Maya. • Similarity of dates (4 Movement, 4 Jaguar, etc., & 4 Ajaw)• Similarity of rhetorical structure to the Maya Popol Vuh• Both describe each Creation as improving on the previous

• Both accounts clearly say this latest creation is the ultimate

• Motivation for the Maya Popol Vuh destructions: gods displeased with their Creation, as with Noah’s Flood.

• However, none of the Aztec Creation dates are 4‐Flower, which would correspond exactly to 4 Ajaw, so the Aztecs either received a corrupted account of the Maya Creation, or deliberately changed it. Noted above, they also changed Quetzalcoatl’s birthday from 9‐Wind to 1‐Reed.

Points on the Aztec Calendar

‐‐Aztec accountmuch more complete and clear— and contrived— than Maya.– The five Creations are ruled by five different gods in turn.– Each Creation lasts a precise multiple of 52 years —13 x 52, 7 x 52, 6 x 52 — therefore each begins and ends on the same day. Note that two of these earlier Creations last 13 x 52 years, and the other two add up to 13 x 52 years.

– Each Creation has a specific color and direction, ruled by a different god.

– The augury of each Creation’s calendar date predicts its end: for example,

– “4‐Jaguar” people were eaten by Jaguars, – “4‐Wind” Creation was blown away by Wind, etc.;– This one (“4 Motion”) will end in a massive earthquake.

– There are only five Directions: N, S, E, W, and Center, each associated with a Creation. The last was unique: it possessed astability the first four lacked. But most importantly, the Annals of Cuauhtitlan explicitly tell us that ours is the final Creation. There will be no others. As León‐Portilla puts it, “There would be one final earthquake‐one so powerful that ʺwith this we shall perish.ʺ ” (León‐Portilla, p. 56, note 39, citing Lehman 1938, p. 62)

Points on the Aztec Calendar

Ironically, according to this reckoning, if Earthlings were somehow to achieve genuine world peace, our universe would come crashing down around us in a final earthquake, on a 4‐Movement day in a 2‐Reed year.

The next opportunity for the Aztec End – i.e., the next 4‐Movement‐in‐a‐2‐Reed‐year, arrives in 2027 (as I noted above; the next after that in 2079…).

The Leyenda de los Soles explicitly tells us that this Creation will be the last; there is no provision for a “Sixth Sun.” But I guess, the way things are going, it looks like we will be satisfying the gods’ blood‐lust for a long time to come.

The Aztec “Calendar Stone,” despite its visual appeal, is not really an appropriate symbol of the Maya Calendars. It would be comparable to portraying the Colosseum when talking about Classical Athens.

So what do Ancient Maya records say about 2012?

“The quetzal shall come, the green bird shall come. Ah Kantenal (“He of the yellow tree place”)shall come. Blood‐vomit shall come (As it did in the last Katun 4 Ahau, the katun just before the Conquest).Kukulcan (“Feathered Serpent”) shall come with them for a second time. The word of God. The Itza (a Maya people)shall come.”

Above: Translation from p. 53 the Chilam Balam of Chumayel, a written between 1775 and 1800 AD/CE in the Maya village of Chumayel, Guatemala. It is one of several Chilam Balammanuscripts originally preserved in various villages. Each purportedly contains the pronouncements of a reknowned Maya prophet, though each book also emphasizes local history and issues. (The Chilam Balam of Naa, for example, has some interesting native medicinal recipes.)

What do Ancient Maya records say about 2012?

1.

Prophecy 1 –Book of Cham

Balam

Chilam Balam of Chumayel, 1775‐1800 f.16r.Here the manuscript describes eclipses. The first and third lines on this page are in Spanish; the rest of the page and the main text of the book is in Yucatec Mayan.

This section of the Chilam Balammanuscript incorporates astronomical information learned from the Conquistadors. It is apparent to any viewer that the quality of Maya drawing declined in the centuries since the Collapse, and especially since the Conquest.

Previous Slide: Chilam Balam of Chumayel, Folio 53r, containing Katun Prophecy for Can Ahau Katun(K’atun 4 Ajaw), translated above, the 20‐year eras ending ca. 1500, 1756, and 2012. (The lower half of the page has the following Cabil Ahau Katun[K’atun 2 Ajaw] prophecy.)

(Photo downloaded from the website of Princeton University’s Library, where the original manuscript is housed in the Garrett Collection.)

Prophecy 2 –

Tortuguero

Monument 6

What do Ancient Maya records say about 2012?

2.

“Tzuhtz‐(a)j‐oom u(y)‐uxlajuun pik (ta) Chan Ajaw ux(‐teʹ) Uniiw.

Uht‐oom Ek’‐?Y‐em(al)?? Bolon Yookteʹ (Kʹuh) ta ?.”

“The Thirteenth ʹBak’tunʹ will end (on) 4 Ajaw, the 3rd of Uniiw (a.k.a 3 Kʹankʹin).

?? will occur. (It will be) the descent(?) of the Nine Support? (God(s)) to the ?.”

—Final phrase of Tortuguero Monument 6, Translation by David Stuart

This (Tortuguero Monument 6, shown in next slide) is the one and onlyClassic Maya document that refers explicitly to the date 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw3 K’ank’in, equaling 21 (or 23) December 2012.

It says the 13th Pik/Bak’tunwill end, that a god or gods called Bolon Yokte’will descend, but to where, and what Bolon Yokte’will do once he gets there, ironically those two glyphs are broken.

This we call “Murphy’s Law of Epigraphy.”By the way, the eminent epigrapher Steve Houston does not accept this interpretation, saying, “I suspect the structure simply relates the Bolon (many?) Yokteʹ to the final historical date on the monument.” [private communication, March 2008]

Bolon Yokte’ (other interpretations: “Nine Support [Gods]”, “Many‐Strides God”, “Nine‐Dog Tree”, or “Many‐Root Tree”) is a god of change, of destruction, and of Period‐endings (modern epigraphy’s term for Maya Long Count dates which end in lots of zeroes, such as 9.16.13.0.0 or 9.0.0.0.0. These “round number” dates were very important to the ancient Maya.) Unfortunately, he is rarely mentioned, and we know relatively little about him, or them. Although mentioned once or twice in the Dresden Codex, he was not sufficiently important for them to illustratehim, though they did draw dozens of other gods.

Thanks to Christian Prager and Markus Eberl for delineating this obscure deity.

Drawing of this monument, the oddly T‐shaped TortugueroMon. 6, which mostly records the recent history of the king who erected it around the year 700 AD/CE. The symmetrical upper left ‘wing’ of the monument, containing the Long Count, is missing.

Drawing by Sven Gronemeyer. Present locations: Portions A, C, D, and G in Civic Museum, Villahermosa. Portion B is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Portions E and F are in a private collection.

A close‐up of the segment at the end, which contains, in its last twelve glyphs, the “2012 text.” We shall return to this frustrating inscription after comparing some related texts dealing with the Creation in which we live, that of 3114 BC/BCE.

Quirigua Stelae E and D, the largest Maya monoliths ever erected. These and other Quirigua stelae form a forest of monumental inscriptions whose texts are subtly interconnected.

13.0.0.0.0 Creation stories on Monuments ‐Quirigua

Photos by Lind

a Schele

Most important for our purposes here is the east text on Stela C (775 CE), which provides the most complete description of the 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u Creation (3114 BC) on any monument.

The next slide displays a drawing of the whole text, with an enlargement of the Long Count and first sentence…

gives us a clue as to what was expected at the next one.

“The Count of the Years (is) 13 Pik, 0 Winikhaab, 0 Haab, 0 Winik, 0 K’in. (On) 4 Ajaw,on the 8th day of Kumk’u, (the hearth) was manifested, …”

—Quirigua Stela C east, dedicated 29 December 775 CE

Drawings of Quirigua Monuments by Prof. Matt Looper, enlargement of the Long Count and first sentence at right.

What happened at the last 13.0.0.0.0 Creation

I’m going show you a little how decipherment works, so you know where we epigraphers are coming from.

By rearranging the text into our reading format: horizontal rows, we can use a process called distributed analysis, a technique of comparing parallel texts which has been very productive in understanding Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions.

We’ll use the Quirigua Stela C Creation story as an example, because it mirrors the 2012 event: they (apparently) share the same Long Count date 13.0.0.0.0.

“…(The hearth) was manifested, three stones were bound. (1) The Jaguar Paddler and the Stingray Paddler plant a stone at Nah‐Ho‐Chan; the Jaguar Stone. (2) Ek‐Nah‐Chak‐?? plants a stone at the Big?/Banner?‐??‐ma; the Serpent‐Stone. …”

One of the most common Maya hieroglyphs is highlighted, the word for “stone,” to show how it can vary from one position to another.

—Quirigua Stela C, dedicated 29 December 775 CE

What happened at the last 13.0.0.0.0 Creation,

Part 1

The text continues, and here is a photograph of part of it. The original carving is hardly eroded and quite clear. The toothless guy with the spine through his nose is known as the “Stingray‐Spine Paddler.” He and his twin, the “Jaguar Paddler,” pilot souls in the canoe to the Underworld. Here they play a role in Creation…

What happened at the last 13.0.0.0.0 Creation...

(1) “They plant a stone, the Jaguar Paddler and the Stingray Paddler, at Nah‐Ho‐Chan (“Great‐5‐Sky”); (it is) the Jaguar‐Throne‐Stone.

In this glimpse of the story, Creation is likened to building a house. A builder’s first priority is to make a place to cook: afirepit surrounded by three stones, on which one rests a griddle to cook tortillas and tamales. Everyone must be fed, even before the house is completed.


(2) “He plants a stone, Ek‐Nah‐Chak‐??, at the Big?/Banner?‐??‐ma; (it is) the Serpent‐Throne‐Stone.

This god, whose name means something like “Black‐House‐Great‐Somebody,” is barely known elsewhere. The place he plants his stone starts with the glyph Lakam, which means either “Big” or “Banner;” (Inscriptions refer to a stela as a lakam tuun, “Banner Stone” or “Big Stone.” )


(1) “They plant a stone, the Jaguar Paddler and the Stingray Paddler, at Nah‐Ho‐Chan (“Great‐5‐Sky”); (it is) the Jaguar‐Throne‐Stone.(2) “He plants a stone, Ek‐Nah‐Chak‐??, at the Big?/Banner?‐??‐ma; (it is) the Serpent‐Throne‐Stone.”

Splitting and spreading the glyphs so they line up in parallel, one can see that the first and second sentences are identical except for the names of the actors and the designations of the particular stones. Each stone, the Jaguar Stone and the Serpent Throne‐Stone, is planted in a specific celestial location, by different gods.


(3) “And then he tied a stone, Itzamnaaj (God D), (it is) the Water‐Throne‐Stone.”

The third sentence is almost the same structure, but the location is not named (until the next line), and the verb is “tied” or “wrapped” rather than “planted.” Apparently the Creation‐reenactment ceremony of the Three Stones involved “planting” and then “wrapping.” Itzamnaaja.k.a. ‘God D,’ is a high‐ranking, wrinkled Old God, ubiquitous in Maya art, usually ruling over other gods. Occasionally, as here, God D appears as a serpent‐head.


(4) “It happened at the Edge‐of‐the‐Sky First‐3‐Stones‐Place;Six‐Sky‐Lord oversaw the ending of the 13 Pik (“bundles” of years).”

The next phrase in the main text notes the location of the Third Stone, which we missed in the previous sentence. Then the last three glyphs state that 13 Pik (“bundles” of years, i.e., 13 x 400 ‘years’) ended, and the whole affair was overseen by one “Six‐Sky Ajaw.” This mysterious supervisor appears rarely, but does occasionally act in some other contexts. Perhaps this is a pseudonym for ‘God L,’ or some other deity whose name we cannot otherwise read.


(1) “They plant a stone, the Jaguar Paddler and the Stingray Paddler, at Nah‐Ho‐Chan (“Great‐5‐Sky”); (it is) the Jaguar‐Throne‐Stone.(2) “He plants a stone, Ek‐Nah‐Chak‐??, at the Big?/Banner?‐??‐ma; (it is) the Serpent‐Throne‐Stone.(3) “And then he tied a stone, Itzamnaaj (God D), (it is) the Water‐Throne‐Stone.(4) “It happened at the Edge‐of‐the‐Sky First‐3‐Stones‐Place;Six‐Sky‐Lord oversaw the ending of the 13 Pik (“bundles” of years).”

Most stone monuments refer to Creation only in terms of the 3‐Stones story; they use the same verb (tz’ap) to describe the “Creation of the Hearth” as they use to describe the erection of

the monuments themselves.That is, when the Maya put up a stone monument, they were re‐enacting a part of the Creation story.

Whenever the Maya build a new house, they start with the hearth, thus also re‐enacting this part of

the story.Two painted vases illustrate a different event of

the Creation story.The glyph in the background is u‐tz’apaw, “…was planted.”

K2796: The Vase of the Seven Gods: Gods in the dark, with “lots of star‐earth,” presided over by God L on a Jaguar Throne inside a mountain. Photo: Justin Kerr

What happened at the last 13.0.0.0.0 Creation, Part 2

What happened at the last 13.0.0.0.0 Creation Part 2:

K7750: The Vase of the Eleven Gods: is a second copy of precisely the same scene as K2796: gods in the dark, with “lots of star‐earth,” presided over by God L on a Jaguar Throne inside a mountain. (here by a different artist, polychrome versus black‐and‐white, on a square vessel instead of a cylindrical one, and with the gods rearranged somewhat.(Right: K2796: Vase of 7 Gods.)

Photos: http://research.famsi.org/kerrmaya.html

The two gods in the front ranks, one with jaguar features and the other looking like a skeletal horse, each confront a wrapped bundle labeled “9‐Ek’‐Kab,” “Lots of Star‐Earth (stuff),” the raw material of Creation.

The 3 glyphs above the bundle are a scribal signature: “It is his painting, Loose‐Flint‐Death‐Shark.”

What happened at the last 13.0.0.0.0 Creation, Part 2:

K2796: Vase of 7 Gods (black): On 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u, they were put in order: The Black‐its‐Center God, the Sky Place God, the Earth God, Many‐Strides God Bolon‐(y)okte’‐K’uh), The Three‐Born‐Together Gods (Ox‐lu‐ti‐K’uh), 20‐??‐Tree‐Deer?‐God” (K’al‐na?/ya?‐Te’‐chi K’uh); The Jaguar (Paddler?) … the Tree (God?) (These two glyphs appear only on this vase, and probably name the first two characters in the top row. But they are anomalous, not fitting the rhetorical pattern of the previous list.)

K7750: Vase of 11 Gods (red):Starts the same as above and continues on with:…20‐??‐Tree‐Deer?‐God” (K’al‐na?/ya?‐Te’‐chi K’uh); it happened in the East? (K’in‐chi‐yi? K’in‐ni‐chi‐li)

(next column): ?? is the “cherished one” (child) of Lady ??, Lady Jaguar‐Tail, Lady ??‐ba‐?? Ajaw, West‐??. He is the son of the 4‐winikhaab (= “ 60–80‐year‐old”) incenser,K’ak’‐Tiliw (“Fire‐Tapir”), 9th in succession, White‐Monkey?‐Lord?

It is difficult to assign which name goes with which god. The problem is complicated by the fact that in the text, the list of gods keeps the same order in both vases, while the illustrations appear to mix them up. There may be a correlation between the names of the gods and their pictures, but this puzzle is not yet resolved, and is another example to warn us not to flatter ourselves that we have anything near complete understanding of the ancient Maya mind. More importantly, none of the names in the list match the known names of the few recognizable gods.

(The last two gods on the bottom row of the [black and white] Vase of 7 Gods,God GI and a Death God, are promoted to the end of the top row on the [polychrome] Vase of 11 Gods, even keeping precisely the same poses. I respectfully disagree with Christian Prager and Markus Eberl’s connection of God GI to the mysterious Bolon Yokte’ Kuhwho is the actor on the “2012 Stela” from Tortuguero [Mon. 6], on which more later.)

The next example, Coba Stela 1, though

badly eroded, provides yet a

different glimpse of the 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’uCreation (13.0.0.0.0).

What happened at the last 13.0.0.0.0 Creation,

Part 3

Photo by Ian Graham (CMHI Vol.7)

CobaStela 1

13. 0.

0. 0.

0, 4 Ajaw

G9, F

3E, 5C

B, X

30A,8 Kum‐k’uMani‐fested, the ??Ended13 pik?

8‐??, ???…

Though badly worn, we can read that the date 13.0.0.0.0, instead of just five vigesimal digits, is an abbreviation; the “full” version they rendered with an extra 19 digits.

Creation’s date is here rendered 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0. The units of time are each twenty times larger than the following period: the 13 Pik (Baktuns) are equivalent to 5125.366 years, the next digit up is 13 Piktuns, or 102,507.3 years. Above that, 13 Kalabtuns, is 2,050,146.45 years. And so on.

A few Maya texts employ calculations involving huge bundles of years like this, and these vast numbers count not only time much earlier than the 4‐Ajaw Creation, but far exceeding the age of our known universe.

CobaStela 1

The “normal” last five digits of this huge Long Count appear enlarged at right, with the rest of the Initial Series date, followed by the Creation event itself. In the middle is the equivalent text we just saw, from Quirigua St. C: the ‘crossed planks’ verb Jalaj, “It was manifested, the ?? …”

13. 0.

0. 0.

0, 4 Ajaw

G9, F

3E, 5C

B, X

30A,8 Kumk’uManifested the ??

Ended 13 pik?

8‐??, ???…

CobaStela 1

“…and Tzutz‐ya/It ended…”

13. 0.

0. 0.

0, 4 Ajaw

G9, F

3E, 5C

B, X


Ended 13 pik?

8‐??, ???…

CobaStela 1

13. 0.

0. 0.

0, 4 Ajaw

G9, F

3E, 5C

B, X


Ended 13 pik?

8‐??, ???…

“…the 13th Pik (Bak’tun)…” The next phrase could tell us more about the events on this fateful day, but they are too eroded to read.

Likewise, the ten glyphs that begin the next double‐column are tantalizingly illegible. Again!

After them, the text jumps ahead to the (then) present, signaling Reality with another Long Count.

This, too, is very rare; the number of inscriptions containing two Long Counts can be reckoned on the fingers of one hand. Color‐coding indicates the parallel sentences in the two monuments.

Here is a drawing of the entire Initial Series of CobaStela 1.

The Dresden Codex (ca. 1500 AD/CE) gives us a little more information about the last Creation, in this case the invention of Time itself.

It also mentions an important event 34,000 years before Creation. (Perhaps involving Neanderthals?)


Dresden Codex Example

One can see that the two upper passages (pre‐Creation) are identical, but for a few spelling differences. The lower sections (after Creation and counting back to 9 K’an 12 K’ayab) are similar but exhibit minor differences. The two were written by different scribes, which accounts for some of the spelling and other differences. I have also copied a “13 Piktun” glyph from the Coba Stela, so you can see the Piktunis mentioned at least twice in each passage.

Here are the two introductory passages from the Dresden Codex, the upper parts compared on the left and the lower halves on the right.

The last four glyphs before the Era Date 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u say “He the Winal (the period of 20 days) was “formed” (pataj).” In the previous slide, the same pataj verb refers to the Piktun glyphs a bit earlier in the inscription, so we can conclude that that time period (20 Pik/20 Bak’tuns) was also created in this pre‐Creation limbo. In other words, Time itself was invented just before this Creation was set in motion. (Deciphered by Carl Callaway)

“

Another Creation event on p. 70, a bit more puzzling, says that gods of the East and West “paused (in their travels)” on 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u. There are several other mentions of this date in the Dresden, but most are damaged or even more obscure than this.

Photo by Justin Kerr


Panel Fragment 7thcentury AD/CE

…8 Wo,(Haab Date)

0 Days, 16*Winik (Distance Number)*(written “0 Days, 18 Winik, which is surely an error)

i‐uut“And then it was”

4 Ajaw (Tzolk’in Date)

8 Kumk’u(Haab Date)

ilahiiy /”His first appearance”

Yax K’oj Ahk, (royal name)

Chak‐K’uh Ajaw,“Holy Ajaw of

Chak”

9 Pik/Bak’tuns (a DN) (9.0.0.0.0)i‐uut “and then…”


Panel Fragment 7thcentury AD/CE

…8 Wo,0 Days, 16*Winik

passed,

*This Distance Number is highly anomalous. It seems to be read “18 Days, zero Winik,” but a normal DN would just say, “18 days.”

(One never says, “I’ll be there in zero hours and 13 minutes.”)

However, “Zero Days, 18 Winik” violates another rule: the coefficient of Winik never exceeds 17; an interval of 18 Winiks would be written “1 Haab.”

The distance from 8 Wo to 8 Kumk’u is sixteen, not 18 Winik. Here the carver erred, misreading the (painted) hollow ‘space fillers’ on a 16 ( ) for solid dots, and carved an 18 ( ).

and then it was

8 Kumk’uHe first appeared,

Yax K’oj Ahk,

Chak‐K’uh Ajaw9 Pik/Bak’tuns

(passed?) and then…

4 Ajaw


…8 Wo,0 Days, 16*Winik

passed,

and then it was

8 Kumk’uHe first appeared,

Yax K’oj Ahk,

Chak‐K’uh Ajaw9 Pik/Bak’tuns

(passed?) and then…

4 Ajaw

Translation by Marc Zender, who believes that this text does NOT refer to a Creation event, but to the historical date 9.9.16.0.0 (629 AD), which also fell on a 4 Ajaw 8 Kumkʹu.

I believe he is probably right, though any ceremony on a 4 Ajaw8 Kumkʹu is certain to recall and perhaps re‐enact part of the Creation story, just as a Christian sermon on Christmas Eve will always take some aspect of Christʹs birth as its theme.

The event here, in any case, is not the usual ʺPlanting Three Stonesʺ that we find on other monuments. it records the ʺappearanceʺ of a Chak Kʹuh Ajaw name Yax Kʹoh Ahk; e.g., of a ʺGreat Holy Lordʺ named ʺGreen Mask Turtle.ʺ

The earliest explicit mention we have of the 4 Ajaw Era date is carved on the back of an unprovenienced greenstone mask (probably from Rio Azul). It dates from the 4th or more likely the early 5th century AD/CE.


Drawing by Mike Carrasco

I’ve divided the six‐column text into double‐column reading order…

Distributive Analysis of 4-Ajaw Texts: Comparing 4-Ajaw Dates

4 AjawHul?‐ya, “arrived? (at),”

Edge of the sky,New 3‐Stones

Place

GI Yax Waybil(version of Chaak,

the mask itself)

??? arrived

At a Cave?/ Spring? ‐ place

Sky‐God

Earth‐God

U‐Kab‐ji(directed by…)

??? ???

(Personages?) &…

…Six‐Sky Lord

?? ‐ U‐Kab‐ji(directed by…royal person.)

…And translated the relevant Creation passage in the first two double‐columns. Some familiar faces appear: Sky‐God and Earth‐God, 6‐Sky Lord. As usual, 6‐Sky Guy is supervising the activities, but he is in turn supervised by a “child of (father),” who is apparently a real person, possibly the denizen of the tomb from which the mask was taken.

Comparing side‐by‐side the six texts we have just seen, you can find the 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u dates, usually the opening phrase (4 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in on the Tortugueromonument….), common to all six.

cf. 4-Ajaw dates

4-Ajaw Dates

Comparing side‐by‐side the six texts we have just seen, you can find the 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u dates, usually the opening phrase (4 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in on the Tortugueromonument….), common to all six.

cf. 4-Ajaw dates

References to the “end of 13 Pik” appear in three of the texts.

13-Pik Period Endings

References to the “end of 13 Pik” appear in three of the texts.

The “Sky God” and “Earth God” also make three appearances.

Sky God, Earth God

The “Edge of Sky, New 3‐Stones Place” is mentioned in two venues.

Edge-of-Sky, New 3-Stone Place

The “Edge of Sky, New 3‐Stones Place” is mentioned in two venues.

Verbs

The verbs in these contexts are all different, and some are not yet precisely deciphered. They say: “(They) were put in order” (yellow), “(They) arrived(?)” (red), “(Three Stones) were planted and tied,” “(The Hearth) was manifested,” “13 Pikended,” “The K’oj (image?) changed over, (turquoise),” and the future, “He will come down and … (green).” (More next page)

The mysterious god or gods 9‐(Y)Ok‐Te’ appear at the “earth‐and‐sky‐stuff” manufacturing party on the Vases, and in the single “prophetic” text from Tortuguero.

9-Ok-Te’ God

The mysterious god or gods 9‐(Y)Ok‐Te’ appear at the “earth‐and‐sky‐stuff” manufacturing party on the Vases, and in the single “prophetic” text from Tortuguero.

The Overseer 6‐Sky Lord is mentioned twice (u‐Kab‐ji‐ya, “He oversaw it,…”).

U-Kab-ji-ya 6-Sky Lord

The Overseer 6‐Sky Lord is mentioned twice (u‐Kab‐ji‐ya, “He oversaw it,…”).

The Quiché Maya Popol Vuh (copied about 1700 AD/CE) describes the four Creations. Note similarity here between names of gods Creator of the Green Earth and Creator of the Blue Sky with the Classic‐era pair Sky‐God and Earth‐God; And (perhaps) Heart of SkywithLord 6‐Sky.‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐

Here we shall gather the manifestation, the declaration, the account of the sowing and the dawning by the Framer and the Shaper, She Who Has Borne Children and He Who Has Begotten Sons… along with Hunahpu Possum and Hunahpu Coyote,Great White Peccaryand Coati, Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent, Heart of Lake and Heart of Sea, Creator of the Green Earth and Creator of the Blue Sky, as they are called.

THIS IS THE ACCOUNT of when all is still silent and placid. All is silent and calm.Hushed and empty is the womb of the sky.THESE, then, are the first words, the first speech. There is not yet one person, one animal,

bird, fish, crab, tree, rock, hollow, canyon, meadow, or forest. All alone the sky exists. The face of the earth has not yet appeared. Alone lies the expanse of the sea, along with the womb of all the sky. There is not yet anything gathered together. All is at rest. Nothing stirs. All is languid, at rest in the sky. There is not yet anything standing erect. Only the expanse of the water, only the tranquil sea lies alone.All alone are they …,

Luminous they are in the water,wrapped in quetzal feathers and cotinga feathers. Thus they are called Quetzal Serpent.In their essence, they are great sages, great possessors of knowledge.

… There is also Heart of Sky, which is said to be the name of the (chief) god. —Creation texts, Part 7: the Popol Vuh, translated by Allen Christenson

Note that although the Popol Vuh parallels the 5 Aztec Creations, it provides no dates.

It also expounds quite a bit on events betweenCreations, particularly the Hero Twins’preparing the way for the latest Creation. This involves a lot of action with blowguns and the Ballgame, and a tricky magic act in Xibalba, the Underworld.

To return to 2012, here again is TortugueroMonument 6.

Tortuguero Monument 6, 7th Century AD

Tortuguero Mon. 6 reprise

Tortuguero Monument 6, upper right wing. With the relevant text in a drawing and (partly) in photograph, you can assess the extent of the damage to the missing two glyphs.Above drawing by Sven Gronemeyer, photo by Donald Hales

Tzuhtz‐(a)j‐oom u(y)‐uxlajuun pik(ta) Chan Ajaw ux(‐teʹ) Uniiw. Uht‐oom Ek’‐?? Y‐em(al) Bolon (Yo)okteʹ (Kʹuh) ta‐chak‐ma?‐??.

“The Thirteenth B’akʹtunʺ will end (on) 4 Ajaw, the 3rd of Uniiw (a.k.a. 3 Kʹankʹin). Black‐?? will occur. (It will be) the descent(?) of the Many‐Strides?* to the great? (or red?)‐ma?‐??.”

—Translation of the final phrase of Tortuguero Monument 6 by David Stuart,Additions/emendations by Mark Van Stone.—Because Mayan is rife with homonyms, the translation of this descending god could be “9‐dog‐tree,” “many roots,” “many supports;” Usually his name includes the epithet K’uh, “god(s),” as we saw on the Vases of the 7 and 11 Gods.

Stephen Houston has recently updated his interpretation of this “prophetic”text (“What Will Not Happen in 2012” at http://decipherment.wordpress.com/). He compares it to similarly‐phrased future‐statements from Naranjo and La Corona. Of one he says, ‘The text … situates itself in present time, leaps to a future presented in highly schematic terms, and then reverts to the present.’Then,‘The final passages of the La Corona panel do much the same …’ From a “base date” of ‘9.12.5.7.4 4 K’an 7 Mak, (Julian Oct. 24, AD 677)., the inscription lurches forward … almost in yo‐yo effect … to 9.13.0.0.0 (Julian March 15, AD 692), one of the most vivid times for the Classic Maya because of its evocation of a 13th cycle. The relevant part of the text terminates the inscription: i‐u‐ti/tu? 4K’an 7Mak. The parallel with TortugueroMonument 6 is clear, in that a future date jolts back to the present as marked by a phrase beginning with i‐.’ (This date also has a 13.)The glyph he calls i‐ is the one I identified as “Black.” He concludes,‘Whatever Monument 6 has to tell us pertains to the dedication of the building associated with the sculpture. It has nothing to do with prophecy or the supposed, dread events that await us in AD 2012.About that the Maya are notably silent…or, truth be told, a bit boring.’

In other words, the part about Bolon Yokte’ coming down refers to the dedication of a building back in the seventh century. In this interpretation the monument tells us even less about 2012 than we thought. Houston finally adds:

‘Note ‐ 9 Yookte’ (Bolon Yookte’) is an enigmatic expression. When postfixed by K’UH, it appears to identify some collective totality of gods.’ In other words, the “god”mentioned here as “coming down” is actually nine gods.

There is a bit of evidence that shows that although the Maya reset the Long Count at the last 13.0.0.0.0, they don’t plan to do it again. They seem to have thought that there would be no more re‐creations after this one. After 13.0.0.0.0 would come 14.0.0.0.0, and 15.0.0.0.0, and on up.

The first is carved on a step in Yaxchilan. The second is from Palenque, where events in Pakal’s life are connected to events in the distant past and the far future. The third comes from Tikal, and has a higher‐order Long Countwith a coefficient of 19.

Picture: aerial view of Palenque’s Palace [foreground] and Temple of Inscriptions [behind].

Calendar Doesn’t Stop at

13

This step from a Hieroglyphic Stairway at Yaxchilan shows two dwarves playing ball. The Long Count above them is historical, that is, it dates an event in the then‐present (9.15.13.6.9), but, like the Long Counts at Coba, it includes larger time‐periods, eight orders of them. On the Creation date 13.0.0.0.0, all the higher orders were also set at 13. One would expect that when the Pik/Bak’tun clicked over from 13 to 1, the next‐higher order (Piktun) would have risen to 14, like an odometer. But it didn’t. Apparently, though the lower five orders of the Long Count run smoothly and reasonably, the higher orders were considered, at least at Yaxchilan, entirely symbolic.

Comparing the higher orders of this Long Count with that of Coba Stela 1, we see that, although we have lost the names of the orders above 206 tuns, that the Maya mathematicians were pretty consistent (though the 209and 2010 orders appear reversed in the two dates).

Translation of YaxchilanStairway by Linda Schele & Carolyn Tate, 1991

Once we enter “real” time, however, the two texts differ considerably. The Yaxchilan date uses “head variants” of the time‐period glyphs, while Coba’s artists chose the easiest, most abstract versions of the same glyphs. Finally, I wish to draw your attention to the pictorial glyph for “ballcourt” —a ball bouncing down steps.

“head variants”

Palenque Temple of Inscriptions: West Panel (final third of text)

The longest intact Maya inscription goes into some detail about Palenque’s history, especially that which occurred under the purview of Pakal the Great, who is buried under the Temple of the Inscriptions, the pyramid that carries this long text. The full name of Lord Pakal, the most famous Palenque ruler, was K’inich JanahbPakal, “Resplendent Flower Shield.”

Its first four double‐columns also connect the reign of Pakalwith period‐endings in the future, and anniver‐saries in both the past and future.

Pakal’s coronation date was linked to the 10.0.0.0.0 Period‐ending, which at that time was 137 years in the future.

At Palenque, at least, the astrologer‐priests did not believe that the next 13.0.0.0.0 would be followed again by a 1.0.0.0.0, but by 14.0.0.0.0, and then 15.0.0.0.0, and on up till, at 20, it clicked over to zero and presumably raised the Piktun coefficient to 14. Or maybe from Zero to 1.

Likewise, it was then linked to the end of the Piktun, some 4100 years away at the time. It is not a Piktun of 13 Bak’tuns, but one containing 20 Bak’tuns.

Interestingly, these are not “prophecies” in the strictest sense; the event they foretell (or “recall”) on these dates are almost always trivial: As if to say, On the 21st of June, 2051, it will be a Friday, and the Lord’s 100th birthday will be celebrated.

Then they were linked to a date far, far in the past, some 1,247,000 years ago.

At the very least, this implies that the ancient Maya expected the status quo to continue at least 4000 years into the future. That’s 2760 years after 2012.

They expected no interruption.

A closeup of the drawing of the large Distance Number, leading back to this date over a million years ago. I overlaid it with its photograph, showing how shallowly the sculptors worked on this inscription.

Photograph by Linda Schele

At Tikal there is a date (from another era, perhaps far in the future or using a different Long Count Calendar than we have seen so far) which has a Piktuncoefficient of 19. Apparently, the higher orders of Tikal’s Long Count Calendar were not, as at Yaxchilán, stuck at 13. It seems that different schools of time‐reckoning existed in different city‐states. These were proud, squabbling polities, constantly jockeying for power like Athens and Sparta. When one thinks about it, it seems much more likely that they would have competing mythologies and scientific systems, than that they would have been of one accord.

19 Piktun

Photograph by Linda Schele

Much evidence suggests that Maya city‐states had more differences between their mythologies than similarities, much as the various Mixtec polities practiced a few centuries later (see John Pohl’s Mesoamerica: http://www.famsi.org/research/pohl/).

This is a good reason not to interpret “Maya prophecies” as if they were Biblical or scientific, or in any way like predictions of our day. Maya prophetic literature, as far as we can discern from badly‐shredded evidence, was as diverse as the cities’ architecture or art styles. For example,Tikal alone has K’atun‐Double‐Pyramid groups, clustered in the inner city, and (like Copán and Calakmul) bristles with stelae. Palenque ignored stelae, adorning buildings with voluptuous stucco reliefs and low‐relief panels. The city of Toniná is virtually a single building covering a mountainside, and its sculptors, uniquely, carved sculptures in‐the‐round. Yaxchilán’s artists left us 50 carved stone lintels, while nearly everyone else made them of wood. Pottery styles were even more locally diverse.

An indication of local cities’ peculiar mythologies is their “patron gods.” The Hero Twins, so common on Classic Maya painted vases, are almost completely absent from Classic carved monuments. (Oddly, the ubiquitous head‐variant glyphs for “Ajaw” and “Nine” are portraits of these two, but that is almost their entire role in carved inscriptions —so far as we know. See next slide.)

The well‐known “Palenque Triad” Patron Gods (GI, GII, and GIII) appear uniquely at that city. Other cities have Triad Gods, but they are a different trio in each place (see next slide). These gangs seem to have nothing in common from city to city, save the epithet Ox‐lu‐ti‐K’uh, the “Three‐Born‐Together Gods.” This title also appears among the cast of Creation Characters on the Vases of the 7 and 11 Gods, though the three individuals are not specified.

In summary,The 13.13.13….13.13.0.0.0.0 Long Count dates imply that the Maya considered this Creation to be unique. Its enormous time spans (billions of billions of times longer ago than the Big Bang), will “never” again all line up to be all 13’s.

(Maya period‐ending monuments favored 13’s in the lower‐orders as well: we find disproportionate mentions of 9.13.0.0.0, or 9.17.13.0.0, for example, but oddly, discover no monuments extolling a date like 9.13.13.13.13, or the five‐of‐a‐kind 13.13.13.13.13. Why not? Apparently Maya numerologists did not consider 13’s and zeroes as equivalent.)

The Palenque Maya did not expect 2012 to be the end of days.They calculate a piktun‐ending with a piktun of 20 bak’tuns. This could not happen if the bak’tun reset again after it reached 13.

It was important to them to connect events in Pakal’s life with like events in previous Creations and future eras (even though time itself seems not to exist in any coherent way between Creations).

The most important connection between events seems to have been that they occur on the same Calendar Round.

Maya Concept of TimeThe Maya conception of Time itself

Is very different from ours:

The Codex‐Style “Snake‐Lady” vases illustrate a mythical event, expressed in “mythic time” or “outside of time.”

Can we always trust Maya Dates?

Maya codex‐style vase (K5164) portraying the “Snake‐Loop Lady and the Old Lecher,”

ca. 7OO AD/CE—rollout photographs by Justin Kerr, from website http://research.famsi.org/kerrmaya.html

We shall here examine a set of vases painted with nearly‐identical scenes, accompanied by nearly‐identical texts, painted by a close‐knit group of artists, all copying almost certainly the same original illustration. The artists were probably all working in the same shop, with no doubt some friendly rivalry.

The scene consists here (K5164) of a bosomy topless woman sitting in the loop of a huge serpent, which grows from the foot of K’awiil (here on the left). I’ve artificially colored K’awiil blue, and the head of this enormous snake green. The snake’s jaws are wide open, and out pops an old man who entreats the lady to come a little bit closer. She seems to recoil, and texts comprising about 15 glyph‐blocks surround the scene.

On this vase (K6754), she faces the other way, but the other two characters are in much the same position. However, now the scene is set indoors, in a curtained interior; the main text seems painted on the central house‐post, and a mummy of the ‘Te’‐God’ is enthroned on a dais to the right.

Vase K1081 reverses the positions of the three, and puts them on a dais adorned with tobacco leaves. The ‘Te’‐God’ mummy is joined by a mummy of ‘Chaak,’ both seated on large round bundles.

Vase K1198 has the actors in precisely the same positions as K6754. Here, however, the snake’s enormous deer‐ear hides the mummies. K1198 also shows ancient stitching‐holes which presumably allowed the sewing up of some cracks. In all these, the main text adorns a column.

Two more Maya codex‐style vases portraying the “Snake‐Loop Lady and the Old Lecher.” In K1813 and K4485, the Lecher is actually fondling the Lady, cushioned on a layer of tobacco leaves, with mummies witnessing the scene. K4485 has an extra character, who seems astonished at the mummies. These both have the usual inscribed column. ca. 7OO AD/CE

—rollout photographs by Justin Kerr, from website http://research.famsi.org/kerrmaya.html

K0719 (with no inscription at all) seems to copy the big‐eared Snake of K1198, but the other two characters change position again.

K1382 shows yet another arrangement, and its text has drifted off the column into the sky above the lecher‐lady pair.

Photographs of these plates and vases are by Justin Kerr, from

http://research.famsi.org/kerrmaya.html

Note new features:Incense burner (right),Reclining guy (below)

A plate (K3702) portraying the same scene as the previous vases.

Tzolk’inday

Haab Date

Comparing the five clearest texts from these nearly‐identical vases, we see that they are not quite identical. The Tzolk’in day is almost always Muluk, with a coefficient of 7, 9, 12, or 13. The Haab dates vary a little more, but still seem restricted, as if the artists were picking numbers and month‐signs at random from a few favorites.

The verb is constant: Siy‐Ya‐Ja, “was born.”

The Actors vary among three names, some of which may combine to identify a single individual.

The Actors vary among three names, some of which may combine to identify a single individual.

Chaak is the most recognizable of these names.

Mysterious DatesMysterious Dates assigned to the

‘Snake‐Coil Lady and the Lecher’ “birth” event:

K 5164: 13 Muluk 17 PaxK 6754: 7 Muluk 15 YaxK 1081: 12 Muluk 14 ZakK 1198: 7 Muluk? 14 ZakK 1813: 7 Muluk 15 PaxK 4485: 7 Muluk 10 KehK 1382: 13 Muluk 1 PaxK 3702: 9 Muluk 18 Zak

When the tzolk’in falls on a Muluk, the haab coefficient is always the 2nd, 7th, 12th, or 17th of the Haab month.

Why is there such deliberate variation in the dates??

Mysterious Dates assigned to the ‘Snake‐Coil Lady and the Lecher’ “birth” event:

K 5164: 13 Muluk 17 Pax Possible dateK 6754: 7 Muluk 15 Yax Impossible dateK 1081: 12 Muluk 14 Zak Impossible date K 1198: 7 Muluk? 14 Zak Impossible date K 1813: 7 Muluk 15 Pax Impossible date K 4485: 7 Muluk 10 Keh Impossible date K 1382: 13 Muluk 1 Pax Impossible date K 3702: 9 Muluk 18 Zak Impossible date

When the tzolk’in falls on a Muluk, the haab coefficient is always the 2nd, 7th, 12th, or 17th of the Haab month. A date like “7 Muluk 15 Pax” cannot

exist. It would be like saying, “Wednesday February 30, 2008.”

The most plausible explanation for this deliberate and calculated variation between “impossible” dates? Does an unworkable date signify “Myth time,”

a time beyond our reckoning?

Maya understanding of Symbols

The Maya understanding of Symbols is very different from ours,

“Cultural icons” were not at all sacrosanct.Symbols were subject to revision, Symbols were “open‐source”,The Maya altered dates, interpretations,Whatever suited their purpose at hand.

The Maya were not as restricted to specific interpretations or specific details as we are today. We live in a milieu permeated by Judeo‐Christian and Muslim tradition, whose Scriptures strictly define every aspect of, say, Good, Evil, the Deity, and Creation myth, etc. We forget what it is to have one’s cultural mythology be flexible, mutable, adaptable. Mesoamericans, like ancient Greeks and Romans, had no such God‐given Scripture, and consequently left us some very‐different, even contradictory, versions of their myths.

Ex. 1: World TreesEx. 2: The Three Stones

Ex. 1 ‐ The Precolumbian World Tree: Metaphor with a Thousand FacesAjaw /King = Tree = Ceiba = Maize = a Celt

= Milky Way GalaxySnake = Sky = Ecliptic

World trees communicate to heaven, give birth, or support the corners of the cosmos.

Tree‐symbolism is a prominent area where we find Mesoamericans manipulating and transforming religious symbols to fit their numerological, astrological, and political agenda.

Note how the iconography and interpretation is not constant.

Evidence of Maya manipulation of their narrative makes unreliable any precise prediction about what could happen in 2012.

CeibaTree

This tree, sacred to the Maya, would grow to be King of the Forest.

In its youth, it is distinctively studded with thorns, and often bulges as if pregnant.

Note how the branches arrange themselves, shooting straight out from the trunk to the cardinal points.

“Pregnant” Ceiba trees[Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena]

West wall, San Bartolo Murals, Petén, N. Guatemala.ca. 50 BCE.Drawing: Heather Hurst

Tree image from the Late Formative (about 100‐50 BC/BCE), exhibits the bulging trunk of a Ceiba, and supports a large mythical bird.

Interpretation: a Directional Tree. Before this tree the Maize God (not shown) lets blood and makes an offering of a deer (greyed out). Atop the tree perches the Bird deity, wings outstretched, with a bleeding, twisted serpent in its mouth.

Tree image from the Late Formative (about 100‐50 BC/BCE, from Izapa, SE Chiapas, México, near Guatemalan border), exhibits the bulging trunk of a Ceiba, and is part crocodile. It supports a mythical bird with smoke or mist curling up from its head. Echoing it is an artificial tree, a standard or scaffold upon which perches a larger bird, wings outstretched, wearing a Bird‐deity mask. The two are linked by a twisted rope, which Karl Taube likens to the rope ladder hitched around a Voladorpole (see Slide 36).Interpetation: Plays a part in the PopolVuhmyth of the Hero Twins and Vucub Kaqix, The Macaw Who Claimed to be God.

Izapa Stela 25, S.E. México.ca. 50 BCE.Drawing: Linda Schele

World TreeA World Tree, present in virtually every mythic tradition, connects the Underworld (roots) with Heaven (branches) and the Earth (trunk).

Possibly the most important function a Maya ruler could perform was a ceremony where he assumed the role of the World Tree, connecting his people to the gods. Innumerable Maya monuments portray a ruler standing erect, holding a double‐headed “Serpent Bar” tightly across his chest.

The serpents’ mouths open wide and belch forth Visions in the form of gods. The lord’s costume and his visions change, but his pose remains quite consistent.

Typically, the ruler stands erect, holding a Serpent Bar tightly across his or her chest. This regalia is an effigy of a double‐headed snake, mouths agape, and from each mouth emerges a god. This snake was the standard Maya delivery system for a hallucinatory Vision. Most often the god so invoked is K’awiil (or God K), the Maya patron of rulers and abundance, as here, but the Vision could be any of several characters in the Maya pantheon.

Snake headSerpent Bar

K’awiil (God K)

K’awiil (God K)

Typical Maya Vision‐Serpent‐bars: Copan St. H , Bonampak Lintel 6Typical interpretation: Maya king is Milky Way/World Tree; Vision‐Serpent‐bar is ecliptic. Drawings by Linda Schele.

The Serpent‐Bar can take three or four forms. Sometimes, it can be “living,” as below, or fleshless, as at left. Both visions shown here (blue) are K’awiil (God K), god of royalty and abundance.

Copan StelaeA and B,8th Century AD.

The king inceremonial poseas a World Tree,holding a Serpent‐baracross his chest.The Serpent‐Bars are colored blue. Note the characteristic “grip:“the ruler appears to avoid touching the Serpent‐Bar; his hands form a peculiar back‐to‐back ‘crab‐claw’gesture, and he seems to hold the Bar with his wrists, or the edges of his palms. This weird hand pose is consistent across Maya iconography; it must have a clear meaning, but nobody has offered a convincing interpretation.

Copan StelaeA and B,

8th Century AD.

The king inceremonial poseas a World Tree,

holding a Serpent‐bar

across his chest.

The Serpentopens its mouthwide to emit the Vision

(colored red), which is adifferent

character for each occasion.At Copan, the Maya named each stela for its Vision.

A close‐up of Stela A, showing the emerging Sun God. In our usual interpretation of this ceremony, the Ruler becomes the Tree. At the same time, the Tree appears in the sky as the Milky Way, which stretches from north to south; and the Serpent‐bar represents the Ecliptic, the path through the firmament of the sun , moon and planets. Occasionally, the serpent‐bar is decorated as a Skyband, adorned with glyphs reading “Sun,” “Star,” “Moon,” “Sky,” “Night,”etc., but more often it simply carries a ‘mat’ motif, the woven‐mat pattern of a royal throne‐cushion.

Copan Stela A, Sun god vision, ca. 731

All photographs of Copan Stelae by Linda Schele; hand‐tinting by MV

It is likely that the woven mat motif also represents the sky; its simplest form, as here on Stela N, is a diagonal cross. Any cross, whether upright or slanted, invokes the celestial intersection of the Ecliptic with the Milky Way. Here the lord, wearing a ridiculous pair of shell ear ornaments, invokes two different gods. The ‘collar’ from which each snake‐head emerges is a typical bell‐shaped jade bead, its high polish indicated by a semicircular “mirror‐mark.”

Copan Stela N, two different vision gods

Copan Stela P (Early Classic, 6th Century)

This stela’s Serpent‐Bar is flexible, composed of jade‐bell‐bead ‘vertebrae,’ each ‘mirror‐marked.’ The gods invoked are our old friends the ‘Paddler Twins,’ who planted the Jaguar Throne Stone on Quirigua Stela C.

Copán Stela H’s vision (at left)is the usual K’awiil, (his standard color, like Krishna, is blue, with red flames from the torch in his forehead) here elbowing his way out of a [yellow] skeletal Vision Serpent.

On right: a woman stands in the costume of the Moon Goddess, casually invoking a baroque Vision Serpent.

Left: Copan StelaH, Vision: K’awiilRight: San Fran‐cisco Stela,Vision: K’awiil

Enlargement: Her scaly Serpent spills out of its thighbone‐shaped Bar, coiling around her body and towering over her. The head (at top) spits out a hoofed K’awiil, whose head is the same size as hers.

To confirm our cosmic interpretation, note that some World‐Tree‐Sky stelae portray the ruler holding the Serpent‐bar at a jaunty angle. Seibal Stela 10 is one of these. Both his Serpent‐Bar and his belt are portrayed as Skybands; their glyphic icons (colored in shades of blue and yellow) respectively read “star‐night‐sky” and “sun‐sky‐night.”

SeibalStela 10900 AD/CE

Naranjo Stela 12, photo & drawing

Slanted Serpent‐Bars

Coba Stela 1

The World Tree

The Maya conception of Mythic Symbols and Mythic Scenes is very different from ours:

The World Tree

Recently, the popular film The Da Vinci Code caused an uproar among orthodox Christians by suggesting that Jesus fathered children. This indicates our culture’s narrow and fixed interpretation of the Bible. Imagine a more radical example: Suppose Satan tempted Adam to bite the apple, while Eve refused complicity in his Sin. Such a “heretical”inversion is barely thinkable.

Yet we tolerate some divergence. The parallel accounts of Abraham’s Sacrifice in Jewish and Muslim tradition provide an example. (Abraham nearly sacrificed his own son. In the Biblical version of the story, the son was Isaac, later to father the Jewish race. In the alternate version, his half‐brother Ishmael had the close call, and went on to father the Arabs.) The Mesoamericans were not bound by an inerrant scripture the way we are; we encounter enormous variation in different Mesoamerican reflections and representations of their gods, myth, and history.

Mesoamericans had very different concepts of history and reality. Again, we must be very, very careful not to project our own values and attitudes onto Maya myth, propaganda, and art.

We find a vast landscape of meanings associated with the Tree, from Mother, Sky‐Supporter, Nourisher, Divine Homeland Indicator, to national symbol.

Photos: National Geographic, Mauricio Alcaraz Carbia.

Voladores, Tajin, Veracruz, & Cuetzalan, Puebla

The popular Mexican Voladores(“flyers”) have ancient roots. This performance traditionally takes place in a sacred plaza before a temple, as at left (or its modern analogue, the church, as at right). The low platforms with four radial stairways that anchor the plazas of many great archaeological sites may have been the sockets for performances such as these. Note that the flyers represent the

four cardinal directions, thus by extension the Universe. They make thirteen revolutions as they spiral out and down around their sacred Tree, while a fifth performer dances at the Center, playing a flute. These numbers have cosmic significance, of course: the thirteen levels of Heaven, 4 x 13 = 52, the number of years in a Calendar Round, etc., etc.

These two manuscript illustrations date from just before the Conquest, ca. 1500 AD/CE. The left is from the Nahua‐Puebla‐stylebook known as Vienna Codex or Codex Vindobonensis, and the right from the Maya Dresden Codex. Both show a ‘pregnant’tree with people chopping at it.

Vienna Codex p. 37 (above) Dresden Codex p. 69a. (right)Both Late Postclassic, ca. 1500 CE/AD

In this example, the two hero‐deities (with the calendric names 7‐Eagle and 7‐Rain) do the cutting,and a naked human couple, an Adam‐and‐Eve,emerge.

It is labeled: the disks are spindle‐whorls, indicating a woman’s role as spinner,and the darts signify the male warrior.

The rectilinear branches resemble those of a ceiba. The curled bumps on the tree here usually indicate that it is made of stone. The young woman’s head substituting for the roots is drinking from the toponymic‐land‐glyph of Apoala, the local Place of Creation.

In this example the lightning god Chaak chops his own way out of the tree. The emerging figure take the place of the Celestial Birds perched in the first trees we saw.

Like the Vindobonensis Tree we just saw, this is a Duality symbol: the half‐and‐half coloration is non‐specific, though it might also be interpreted as Male‐Female.

Note also: It may be no accident that this image is directly adjacent to the blue‐background Creation texts we examined earlier.

The Chaaktree grows from a crocodile head suckling from the earth, like the Izapa Tree; the ApoalaBirth Tree from a young woman’s head.

‘Dragon‐roots’ in Izapa Stela 25 & Dresden Codex p. 69a.

L. TepantitlaMurals, Teotihuacán, Great Goddess Tree, with acolytes. Early Classic, ca. 500 CE.Butterflies are the souls of dead soldiers; Spiders are spinners. This is a Male‐Female or Duality Tree.

Around 500 AD/CE, in the great city of Teotihuacán, the Tepantitla Murals portray the Great Goddess as an abundant Mother, ringing yet another change on this symbolism. Abundance streams from her hands and from her womb, flocks of birds sing and sup in her branches, and the twined trunks, yellow and pink, are again male and female: Spiders who spin, and butterflies, the souls of warriors.

The acolytes who attend her also pour forth wealth; her face and body are so burdened with symbolic clothing that only her arms are visible.

L. Tepantitla Murals, Teotihuacán, Great Goddess Tree, Early Classic, ca. 500 CE. Male‐Female tree, like Vienna p. 37.

R. San Bartolo, West Wall, Tree of the Center(?), Late Preclassic, ca. 50 BCE. Twinned, twined fruit trees, Bird atop.

The twin trunks are twisted like an umbilicus; another symbol of nourishment, repeating the Duality Tree of San Bartolo, 500 years earlier.Drawings: (L) Linda Schele, (R) Heather Hurst

The Borgia Directional Trees

The San Bartolo Murals portray five trees. Specific species of trees associate with the cardinal directions throughout Mesoamerican art, we saw 1500 years later in the Fejervary‐Mayer diagram of the 260‐day cycle (Part 1). Another late Postclassic book, the Nahua‐Puebla BorgiaCodex, presents an even more complex diagram of the symbols of each Direction.

This example shows the South, which portrays a scarlet Macaw perched in a spiky red celestial Ceiba, whose fruits are suns. His foot is down in the split of the tree, as if emerging from it like the “Adam” figure in the Vienna Codex. His position is carefully echoed by the other Birds in their respective Trees…

Borgia Codex p. 52 ‐ South Tree page.

East

West

In the East the Quetzal, patron of the jungle‐bound Maya (in a hard‐to‐identify arboreal species with jewel fruits); in the West a hawk or other raptor perched in flowering Young Maize. Each Tree sprouts from a supine skeleton which represent aspects of the Earth God; they are variously dressed but in the same peculiar position.

Details of West (top), East, & South Trees.

The Tree of the Center is abundant, mature Maize, ready for harvest. Another Quetzal, tail feathers like maize leaves, perches above, while two gods kneel and pierce their penises, fertilizing the Tree with streams of blood.

Borgia Codexlate Postclassic, ca. 1500 CE,p. 53.

Pakal’s Sarcophagus as a Directional Tree

This arrangement strikingly resembles the famed Sarcophagus of Pakal (ca. 682 CE, shown here), as well as another carving at Palenque that we’ll see in a moment. The two compositions have long been interpreted in terms of the World Tree, but usually as unique statements, rarely as part of a continuum.

Here Pakal as an ‘Infant K’awiil’ (one of Palenque’spatron gods) strikes the pose of the skeletal woman at the base of the Tree (here posed as if falling, with his legs spread as if letting blood). The tree seems to be a Ceiba. The Segmented Vision Serpent threads through the arms of the Cross, spitting K’awiil and the ‘Jester God’. Perched at the summit of the Tree, as usual, is a Celestial Bird, a Quetzal‐like god.

Tablet of the Cross as a Directional Tree

A closely comparable illustration appears a generation later on the Tablet of the Cross, erected by Pakal’s son Kan‐Balam (or Chan‐Bahlum, “Snake‐Jaguar”) around 702 AD/CE. The Tree takes the same form as on Pakal’s Sarcophagus, with slight differences.

Tablet of the Cross,Palenque, ca. 702.

Flanking the Tree, two celebrants echo the sacrificing pair in the Borgia Codex; but instead of explicitly squatting and piercing, one on the left holds a bloodletter (red, crowned with the same quadripartite badge), streaming blood. The elder holds a statue of the ‘Jester God.’

In this version, the sacrificial body at the Tree’s root is replaced by a personified Bowl of Sacrifice, nicknamed the ‘Quadripartite Badge’. The prominent spike rising from its center is a stingray spine, used by the Maya to pierce the body for bloodletting. The same Bird perches in the summit, a slightly different Segmented Vision Serpent threads through the Cross (its segments are glyphs representing “jade” and “green”/”new,” and its lower jaw echoes that of the Celestial Bird.)

This Tablet is the centerpiece of the eponymous Temple of the Cross, which itself is the head of a trio of pyramids. The three pyramids reflect the Three Stones of Creation that we saw earlier on Quirigua Stela C. Kan‐Balam has here combined iconography of the Three Stones with the World Trees of the Cardinal Directions.

Bloodletter marked redCelestial Bird green

His Tablet of the Foliated Crossfrom the same architectural group replaces the Ceiba with a Maize stalk, sprouting from a personification of Wealth. (The ears of corn are personified as heads of the Maize God.) Though the Serpent is missing, the Bird sits in the branches, the same Celebrants present the same offerings. Tablet of the Foliated Cross,

Palenque,ca. 702

In the center of the Plaza of the Cross Group stands a low platform with four stairways. This may have been a socket for a World Tree; perhaps Volador‐type ceremonies were held there, or some other ritual Tree‐erection. Or it may have held a gnomon for marking the Zenith Passage, as in Yucatán. (At Kabahand Uxmal, for example, the focal platforms‐of‐four‐stairways still have such a gnomon: a tapered pillar, slightly wider at top, whose rim would shade all of its sides when the sun was at Zenith.)

We have examined four of the Borgia Trees. The Eastern and Central ones closely correlate to Maya Trees from Palenque, but the Northern Tree is strikingly like another, more familiar cultural icon. The bird here is an Eagle, with flint‐knife‐tipped feathers, perched on a Cactus. He offers grey tobacco from his claw, like the Bird of the South, and from his mouth issues a stream of blood. The Dual trunks, blue and green, grow from a supine blue skeleton.

Borgia Codex, Page 50, the (dual) Tree of the North. Ca. 1500 AD/CE

To emphasize the many points of comparison, here are the Mixtec Duality/Birth Tree, and Pakal’sSarcophagus, whereon the hand gesture of the Young God at the bottom exactly prefigures that of the supine skeleton.

Flag of Mexico

The Sign‐of‐Tenochtitlán adorns the Mexican flag: An Eagle eating a Serpent, perched on a cactus growing from a stone in the water. In other words, the symbol of their Homeland, supposedly granted uniquely to the Aztec people, was borrowed directly from older icons of the cardinal directions. “But wait,” you are thinking, “that wasn’t exactly the Aztec vision. Where is the snake?”

The Aztecs themselves portrayed the Vision in various ways. Here, on the Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada, the Serpent was replaced by Atl‐tlachinolli, dual streams of fire and water. (To be precise, tlachinollimeans “burned fields,” but its symbolism is pretty much the same.)

Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada, an Aztec temple effigy‐throne, 1502‐1520.Eagle with Atl‐tlachinolli“water & burning fields” = “water & fire,” instead of snake

Here is the skeletal Earth god, from whose mouth the cactus grows, like the supine skeleton we saw in the Borgia Tree‐pages.

Here on the backrest of the same Teocalli throne, two gods flank a Sun‐disk; the same dual streams of fire and water spew from their mouths. (The serpent‐footed god on the left, by the way, is Tezcatlipoca, Aztec descendent of the Maya K’awiil.)

Above: Date 1‐Death, from side of Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada

The Aztec date 1-Death (also from the Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada) also spits fire-and-water.

L: Codex Mendoza

The painting on the left is a Map of the Aztec Capital (labeled in Spanish Tenochtitlán), in which the Eagle’s beak is empty.

In other words, the Aztecs were not at all fussy about the precise composition of their most sacred image, why should we be?

And, after examining a veritable forest of World Trees, we see that neither composition nor meaning of this ubiquitous icon was at all“cut in stone,” as it were. Once again, Mesoamericans remind us not to interpret their myths by our standards. I shall close with one more example of this distinctly un‐dogmatic flexibility in Maya art and literature.

—Photo by Linda Schele

The view here from the top of the Temple of the Cross, shows the Temple of the Sun on the left and farther away to the right, his father Pakal’s Temple of Inscriptions.

Lord Kan-Balam and the Three Stones

Lord Kan Balam of Palenqueand the Three Stones of Creation

A Maya Mythic Icon, manipulated for political ends.

Quirigua Stela C, east side text of Creation

You will recall that the Cross Grouppyramids correspond to the Three Stones of Creation, mentioned at Quirigua: the Jaguar Throne‐Stone, the Snake Throne‐Stone, and the Water Throne‐Stone.

Jaguar Throne‐Stone

Snake Throne‐Stone

Water Throne‐Stone

Palenque Palace Tablet

Parents present regalia to their son at his coronation, ca. 720 CE/AD.

The Palace Tablet, also from Palenque, portrays a coronation with the three participants sitting on precisely these thrones. The Quirigua glyphs for comparison: the glyph for “throne” represents a bundle of sticks or leg‐bones. The “water” throne in the middle has finny shark‐heads.

Photograph of the Palenque Palace Tablet

Palace Tablet, detail of thebone‐thronesof Creation. ca. 721.

Note that nearly everyone has “serpent eyes.”

The Bird is missing, but the same celebrants offer statuettes of K’awiil and the Jester God to a Took’‐PakalAltar, or Altar of (Sacred) War. Took’means “flint,” as in “flint blade,” Pakalmeans “shield,” decorated as usual with the ‘cruller‐eyed’‘Jaguar God of the Underworld.’ It sits on a throne that seems to combine the three god‐headed thrones we saw before. Note that there are 14 figural faces in this picture, and that 11 of these have ‘serpent eyes.’

Palenque, Tablet of the Sun,ca. 702 CE/AD

But if we examine the triple throne closely, we see the prominent Jaguar head in the center, and a snake head on the side, but find instead of the expected shark‐head on the other side, an identical snake head. (These look exactly like the Vision Serpent we saw on Pakal’sSarcophagus.) What is going on? Why replace the Third Stone of Creation with a duplicate of the Second Stone?

I believe I know the answer:

Kan‐Bahlammeans “Snake‐Jaguar.” The king has replaced the sacred Triad of Creation with icons of his own name!

There are snake‐eyes everywhere on this Tablet, even on the jaguar heads. The shield not only bears the usual effigy of the Jaguar God of the Underworld, ringed for good measure with jaguar spots; even God L’s armadillo cape has been replaced by a jaguar skin.

Portrait and name‐glyphs of Lord Kan‐Balam, or “Snake‐Jaguar.” The head conflates Jaguar spots, nose, and ear with Serpent chin‐scales, teeth, and eye.

Lord Snake‐Jaguar appropriated the “Three Throne‐Stones of Creation” as an icon of political propaganda.

A comparable act in our time would be for a politician named “Fatherson” to adopt as his personal symbol a caricature of the Holy Trinity ——with an extra Christ replacing the Holy Spirit.

The Ancient Maya were deeply religious, like Medieval Europeans, but indulged in a high level of satire, or manipulation of their most potent religious symbols.

To sum it all up,

What will happen in 2012?

Keeping in mind the Maya never specified that anything spectacular would happen, and that life would go on as before, and because their conception of the future was verymalleable, and particularly because our evidence is in tatters at best…

Deducing from a few shreds of evidence…

It’s up to us…

I say, we party!

Several Calendars

Just as we do, the Maya had several calendars to record time.

The Maya had very complex and interlocking calendar systems, which were as precise as modern day calendars. In the same way our Gregorian count ties to an important event, ‐the birth of Christ‐ the Maya calendar also counts forward from an important ‘Creation’ date, 11 August 3114 BCE.

The Maya recorded time mainly using 3 interconnected calendars ‐ the Tzolk’in, the Haab, and the Long Count. Like us, they kept track of other cycles, but these only appeared in special circumstances (particularly in the Initial Series, in the next slide), and we can practically ignore them in this presentation.

Yaxchilan Lintel 21, carved in limestone around the year 756 AD/CE, provides a typical Maya ceremonial‐historical text, and indicates to us the ancient Maya passion for precise keeping of time. The opening date occupies more than three‐quarters of the first column. About a third of the rest of the text is taken up by additional calendric information.

In other words, over half of this inscription is devoted just to stating precisely when the events occurred. As I said, this is typical of Maya stone inscriptions employing several aspects of Maya calendars.

Our Gregorian calendar also include multiple counts.

Drawings and photos of Yaxchilan monuments by Ian Graham et al., Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions.

Example of Maya Date in

Stone

To compare, this same date as written by the Maya records:7 Manikʹ 10 Kʹankʹin 12.19.15.17.7

Manikʹ = One day in a named cycle of 20 days (tzolk’in)7 = One in a numbered cycle of 13 daysKʹankʹin = One in a cycle of 18 named months (haab)10 = One in a numbered cycle of 20 days12.19.15.17.7 = A count of years since the birth of a Maya Cycle13 days before the end of the 15th tun = Interval or Distance Numberbetween this day and the next significant event (12.19.16.0.0)

Gregorian Date vs. Maya Date

For example, the Gregorian date Monday, December 29th 2008 records:

Monday = One day in a named cycle of 7 days (week)29th = One in a numbered cycle of 28, 29, 30 or 31 daysDecember = One in a cycle of 12 named months363 = One in a cycle of 365 days2.0.0.8 AD/CE = A count of years since the birth of a Christian cycleTwo days before the end of the current year (New Year’s Eve) = Interval or Distance Number between this day and the next significant event (2.0.0.9)

Several other calendars can also be used:

Capricorn = Another cycle of 12 named monthsYear of the Rat = A cycle of 12 named years1430 AH = Anno Hegirae, a linear count of years since the hegira of prophet

Muhammad. 29 December 2008 is the first day of the Muslim New Year.

4706, 5769 = Linear counts of years since diverse “creation” events (these are the Chinese and Jewish years)

Let’s look again at Yaxchilan Lintel 21

Just as we do, the Maya had several calendars.

Drawings and photos of Yaxchilan monuments by Ian Graham et al., Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions.

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The first six glyphs state the Long Count (the calendar which reaches a critical number in 2012). This is a number, used similarly to our numerical “year 2008,”counting “years” and days since the last Creation in 3114 BC. (The “years” here counted, called Haabs, are only 360 days long.) Each ‘digit’ of the Long Count is twenty times the next one, just as each digit of 2 0 0 8 is ten times the value of the following. We call our system, based ultimately on our fingers, decimalnotation; the Maya system is vigesimal, based on 20’s. They counted by twenties because in the tropics people go barefoot, and counted on their fingers and toes.

Long Count Example

Immediately after the Long Count is the Tzolk’in date. This is a divinatory calendar of 260 days stated as a numerical coefficient (from 1 to 13) attached to a daysign (a cycle of 20 named days, rather like a long “week”). The cycle passes through every possible combination of daysign and coefficient before repeating; this day (2 K’an) only occurs once every 260 days. The daysign is easy to spot, because it is enclosed in a distinctive frame called a cartouche (Fr. “cartridge”), which is a round‐cornered square set on three ‘feet,’looking rather like an old‐fashioned television picture tube.

Tzolk’in Date

Tzolk’in – 20 Day NamesImix Chuwen

Ik’ Eb’Ak’bal Ben

K’an IxChikchan MenKimi’ Kib’Manik’ Kab’anLamat Etz’nab’

Muluk Kawak

Ok Ajaw* Daysigns from Reading the Maya Glyphs by Michael Coe & Mark Van Stone, 2001.

Other cycles within the Initial Series

Three other cycles important enough to include in an Initial Series date are the

• Nine Lords of the Night (a nine‐day cycle like our weekdays);

• a 7‐day cycle (here the days are numbered rather than named);

• and the Phase of the Moon (here given precisely in days of Moon‐age since New Moon).

G & F Glyphs – 9 day cycle

7-day cycle

Moon Phase

The Moons are named in a 6‐moon cycle. This is called the “C Glyph,” and it is often followed by the “X Glyph,” which qualifies the C Glyph, and may actually expand the cycle to 18 moons. The fine details of this and many other abstruse Maya practices are still being worked out.

X Glyph

Glyph A – 29 or 30 days

Penultimately, a number tells us whether the Maya observed this particular month as 29 days or 30 days. The Maya did not use fractions of days, so the lunar cycle of 29.53 days came out to just about 29 days one month, 30 days the next. This number (here “29”), called the “A Glyph,” was empirical; the astronomers of one city might deem this a 29‐day “month,” while another bunch would call it a 30‐days. Differences would average out, but again, we are warned not to read too much precision into some Maya calendrical calculations. John E. Teeple noted that inscriptions in five Maya cities (Piedras Negras, Yaxchilán, Copán, Naranjo and Quiriguá) all synchronize their ‘A Glyphs’ during an 80 year “Period of Uniformity” from 9.12.15.0.0 — 9.16.5.0.0 (687 ‐ 765 AD/CE) (Teeple1930, p. 54).

Haab Date

Haab – Month SignsPop YaxWo SakSip KejSotz’ MakSek K’ank’inXul MuwanYaxk’in PaxMol K’ayab’Ch’en K’umk’u

Wayeb’* Daysigns from Reading the Maya Glyphs by Michael Coe & Mark Van Stone, 2001.

Finally, the Initial Series (the complex statement including all these cycles) ends with the Haab, a date in a 365‐day Solar year. It works precisely as our “9th of June” or “First of May” do. (Instead of a 12‐month cycle of 30‐day months, the Maya had an 18‐month cycle of 20‐day “months,” with an extra “monthlet” of five days (calledWayeb) to round out the solar year.)

The Maya sometimes included in the Initial Series the position in other cycles, too, particularly the 819‐Day Count. The origin of this “calendar” is probably numerological: 819 is the product of 7x9x13.

The Haabwas the second‐most important of Classic Maya calendars; most Maya dates were expressed as a combination of the Tzolk’in and Haab (as you shall see soon). Because of the arithmetic of 365‐day and 260‐day cycles, 2 K’an, 2nd of Yax, will only recur once every 52 years, and for most dates, no Long Count is necessary. This combination is called a Calendar Round.

Summary of Maya Calendars

As Mentioned above,Just as we do, the Maya had several calendars.

Long Count: A count of years, Like our “2008 AD/CE.”Tzolk’in: A sacred 260‐day divinatory cycle, 13 x 20 named daysLords of the Night: A “week” of nine named days, like “Friday.”Haab: A 365‐day cycle, like our “30th of May.”

But the ancient Maya were fanatical about situating their events in time. Often the date on a monument will occupy more space than the event that it features.

Example: the Leiden Plaque, a jade celt recording a lord’s accession in 320 AD/CE. (21.7 cm high, 8.6 cm wide, Museum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden, Netherlands)

Initial Series

Calendar Round

Event


Leiden Plaque ExampleInitial Series

Calendar Round

Event


Distance Number

The Yaxchilan text continues, and soon states a Distance Number, the interval of days and years that elapsed between the two historical events recorded on the Lintel. The glyphs for Winal (20‐day “month”) and “Tun” (360‐day “year,” which the Maya confusingly also called Haab) are the same as in the Long Count, as we see.

Distance Number Example

The Distance Number starts with the smallest units (days and months) first, then counts Tuns or Haabs, then Winikhaabs (groups of 20 years, often called K’atuns, i.e., “20‐tuns”), then higher orders if necessary.

This sum is followed by a glyph reading i‐u‐ti, “And then it was…” followed by a Calendar Round (or CR), giving the precise date on which the next event occurred. Note the cartouche on the tzolk’in date, the first glyph of this CR pair.

The gist of the inscription is to connect an early ruler, Yo’Pat Balam Ajaw (“Lord Penis‐Jaguar”) with a descendent, Yaxuun Balam Ajaw (“Lord ’Bird’‐Jaguar”), 300 years later.

Both performed a ceremony at the “4‐Zotz’ House,” and the inscription simply states that the earlier Lord Jaguar did so on a certain date, that 302 years and some days passed, and the later Lord Jaguar did so too.

The “4‐Zotz’ House” is almost certainly the temple in which the lintel was installed.

This text is typical of the kind of record that the Maya deemed worthy of inscribing in stone, indicating how different their priorities were from ours.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address begins with a distance number: “Four score and seven years ago…” His invoking the American Revolution forms the same kind of connection with the Battle of Gettysburg which the Maya celebrated so frequently in hieroglyphic texts like this. Remarkably, Lincoln’s distance number counts larger units of years in twenties, just like the Maya.

Summary of Maya Calendars

(Remember that the ‘digits’ here are multiples of 20) )

13.0.0.0.0 – Maya Long Count “Start Date”

13.0.0.0.0 is the Maya starting date, analogous to the birth of Christ in our Western calendar, from which we count our years and centuries.

Dated Maya Creation stories always have a Long Count starting date of 13.0.0.0.0, which the Maya referred to by its Calendar Round, 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u.

This corresponds to 11 or 13 August 3114 BC/BCE.

The Maya Classic period began about 8.10.0.0.0, and their cultural apogee was between 9.0.0.0.0 and 10.0.0.0.0. The Collapse occurred ca. 900 AD, in the first decades of the “10th Baktun,” as it is commonly called.

Like a clock after midnight, this (5‐digit) date reset just after the beginning. One “bak’tun” (400 “years”) after 13.0.0.0.0 “should” have been 14.0.0.0.0, but the Maya called it 1.0.0.0.0.

(The motivation for setting it at 13 instead of zero is unknown.)

The Maya date for 30 May 2008: 12.19.15.6.12 13 Eb 15 Sip.(‘285 correlation. By the ‘283 correlation it’s 12.19.15.6.14 2 Ix 17 Sip)

Soon it will reach 13.0.0.0.0 again. (The end is near!) It corresponds to 21 or 23 December 2012. This time, the Calendar Round will be 4 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in.

Correlating the Maya Calendar and Ours

Scholars propose several correlations between the Maya and modern calendars; the two most‐accepted differ by two days.

The older, called GMT (Goodman‐Martinez‐Thompson), also called the 584283 (or ‘283) Correlation, was worked out by 1930. (584,283 is the Julian Day Number of 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u.)

Some decades later, Floyd Lounsbury and others, using evidence in the Dresden Codex Venus Tables, convinced Thompson to add a two‐day correction. This is the GMT+2, or 584285 Correlation (also called the ‘285 Correlation).

By the GMT+2 correlation, the date of the 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u Creation (the one in which we live), was 13 August 3114 BC, and the next 13.0.0.0.0 falls on 23 December 2012. This is the correlation used by many top scholars, including Linda Schele, Michael Coe, and Marc Zender. By the original GMT, these dates fall on 11 August 3114 and 21 December 2012.

Their correlation evidence comes from a couple Conquest‐era documents.

I happen to lean toward the original GMT, based on evidence and arguments presented by Dennis Tedlock and Bob Wald, who know a lot more about Maya anthropology, the Dresden Venus Pages, and Maya decipherment than I do. Naturally, those who see significance in the Maya Calendar’s ending on a winter solstice prefer the original GMT as well.

There have been other correlations proposed, usually multiples of 52 years away from the GMT. Bowditch offered 394,483; Spinden used 489,383; and Vaillant 774,083. According to Vaillant, 13.0.0.0.0 would fall in 2532 AD. Using Spinden’s correlation, 13.0.0.0.0 would have already passed; it fell in 1752.

Bowditch’s correlation is the most interesting of all: his “end‐of‐the‐calendar” fell on 17 August 1492, about two weeks after Columbus set sail, and two months before sighting the Bahamas. It is too bad that Bowditch’s calculations are highly unlikely to be correct; I cannot think of a more appropriate year for a Mesoamerican End of the World than 1492.

The Tonalpohualli, the Aztec name for the 260‐day sacred calendar, is derived from the Maya tzolk’in, and works precisely the same way, with a numerical coefficient from 1 to 13 attached to 20 cycling day‐names. Their day‐names are refreshingly simple: “Rabbit,”“Wind,” “Grass;”for the most part they reflect the meanings of the (often obscure) Maya day names.

Aztec & MixtecCalendrics

Though the Aztecs also used a 365‐day cycle, also derived from that of the Maya (or perhaps they both derive from a common source), they used it much less often in their writings.

Instead of pairing a 260‐day date with its 365‐day date, the Aztec and Mixtec simply mentioned the 365‐day year in which the date fell. Each year was named for the tonalpohualli date on which it began, and indicated the Year‐Beareror “name of the year”with a sign we call the “A‐O Sign,” the “Mexican Year Sign,” or the “Trapeze and Ray.”

Charts Relating to the 260-day Cycle

to the Cosmos

One example of a Maya Calendar chart survives in the Madrid Codex.

This Maya diagram (next slide), from the Madrid Codex(ca. 1530, around the time of the Conquest) contains a central image of two celebrants under a peculiar kind of tree or platform. The daysigns in the ring around the center have been rearranged.

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West

North

East

South

They daysigns have been rearranged according to a mathematical algorithm, except that they seem to have mixed up at least one pair of days. This kind of error is common, and stands as a warning that we should not put too much faith in Maya mathematical calculations — or predictions. On the one hand, they were astonishing mathematicians, but on the other their conception of Truth, error, accuracy, political expediency, and Divine Will were quite different from ours, and demand that we try to discern when to apply our own standards and when to attempt to understand theirs. (More on this later.)

Around this ring, connecting the calendar with the cardinal directions, are four pairs of worshippers, each labeled with the glyphs for North (right), South (left), East (bottom) and West (top). There are 260 dots, carefully labeled to correspond with the 260 days of the Maya Tzolk’in, the most important of the Maya calendars. Beside the dots are footprints, indicating our travel through the 260‐day cycle.

The next slide shows a very similar diagram, from a Nahua‐Puebla book, the Codex Fejervary‐Mayer, also from about the time of the Conquest.

The authors of this book were a distinct culture from both Aztec and Maya, but their 260‐day calendar obviously worked in the same way as the Maya.

Here the diagram is rotated 180°, with North at left, and a somewhat more tidy and complex diagram than the Madrid one.

Here the central image is of a warrior, the Fire God Xiuhtecuhtli, there is no ring of daysigns, and pairs of gods here are adoring four directional Trees. But the 260 day‐dots march in strict order round the diagram in an 8‐petaled flower, exactly as in the Madrid diagram.

/ East

South/

/ West

North/

(Days associated with cardinal directions)

(Cosmic Trees)

(Attributes of Tezcatlipoca)

(1. Hand. 2. Emaciated bone ofthe foot. 3. Emaciated torso. 4. Head withface painting of the God.)Explanation by the brilliant Mexican scholar Miguel León-Portilla, from Arqueología Mexicana.

You can see that each direction has an assigned species of tree, in which perches an assigned bird, honored by specific gods.

Nested into the petals of the 260‐day cycle (shaped like the Maya glyph for “completion”) are specific gods worshipping the Trees‐with‐birds of each Direction.

North at left: Eagle in Ceiba growing from a Sacrifice Vessel containing bloody bones and perforators. The Rain god Tlaloc and Tepeyollotli, “Heart of the Mountain,” worship it. (I respectfully disagree with León‐Portilla, who calls this tree a Mezquite).

South at right: Macaw (Loro) in a Cacao tree growing from the maw of the Earth Monster, worshipped by Death and Cintéotl, god of Maize.

East at top: Quetzal in a quetzalquáhuitl tree springing from a Sun Altar, worshipped by Tonatiuh‐Piltzintecuhtli (Young Sun god) and Itztli, the personified sacrificial “Flint knife”.

West at bottom: Hummingbird (on the left of the Sun) in a spiny (cactus?) quetzalpochotl growing out of the body of a white creature, worshipped by two goddesses: Tlazoltéotl, “filth‐eater,” forgiver of sinners, and Chalchiutlicue, “She of the jade skirt.”

Center: Xiutecuhtli, god of Fire, as a warrior, clutching darts and atlatl, a spear‐thrower.

The four intercardinal directions are crowned by species of birds emblazoned with the four year‐bearer daysigns (Reed, Flint, House, Rabbit): two members of the parrot family and two raptorial birds. They descend in turn to four more species of plants… for example, the “Rabbit”‐marked parrot in the upper right dives toward a maize plant growing from the head of a large rodent (a gopher? rat? paca?). Flanking his descent, we see on one side the glyphs of five days associated with this direction, on the other the decapitated head of Tezcatlipoca, connected by a stream of blood to Xiuhtecuhtliin the Center. The other three corners contain similar iconography whose details really do not concern us here further.

The counter‐clockwise progression of the 260 days reflects the direction followed by priests, dancers, and other celebrants in the ritual circuits that feature in every Precolumbianceremony. As Wendy Ashmore points out, ʺAll static images of space have to do with movement through them.ʺ They are counter‐clockwise, reflecting the perceived direction of the sunʹs movement.

Documents

It's Not the End of the World: What the Ancient Maya Tell Us About 2012