Mayan Calendar boasts 2012 end of the world predictions beginning December 21 2012, but is it Accurate?

With the start of the New Year, 2012 has many searching online for the “End of the World” predictions which are cited in the Mayan Calendar. According to interpretations of the Mayan Calendar, December 21, 2012 will mark the end of the world in an cataclysmic disaster.

While many dismiss the notion that the ancient Mayans could have any way to predict such an event, still others debate whether the predictions in the Mayan Calendar actually predict an “end of the world” event at all.

According to Kathryn Reese-Taylor, an associate professor and graduate program director in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Calgary, the interpretation of the Mayan inscriptions is not an exact science.

In an recent article, published in the Vancouver Sun, Reese-Taylor explains that, “When the Maya abandoned their great cities in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador, they left behind large stone monuments with hieroglyphic writing. These inscriptions were very difficult to decipher as the writing system had not been used since the Spanish conquest when all, but four, of the books written by the Maya were burned. However, based on the four remaining books, early scholars were able to identify some of the gods and goddesses, the numerical system, and most importantly, parts of the calendar. Therefore, while they could not decipher the events recorded on the stone monuments, scholars could read the dates on which these events occurred.”

So how does all of this add up to an end of the world prediction for December 21 2012? To answer this question it is important to understand that, According to the interpretations, the Mayans listed the date of the world’s creation as August 11, 3114 B.C.

The Mayans market time in units called baktuns which are equivalent to 400 years. According to their creation legend the creation of the earth, leading up to the first day on the Calendar took 13 baktuns or 5200 years.

While the Maya recorded that on Dec. 21, 2012 the 13th baktun will end, there is no mention of the end of the world, and no prediction of a catastrophe. The Mayans believed that on this date a god of transitions would come forth starting a new period.

In fact, Reese-Taylor goes on to say that the Maya went on to predict other events far into the future, well beyond 2012. The complete article is available online at vancouversun.com.