mttourpro wrote: FWIW, this business about 2012--more specifically 12-21-12 is horrendously misunderstood. The mayan calander ends on this date but they do not and never have foretold of the "end of the world"---they believe time is cyclical and is broken down in various spans---some short and others very long. 12-21-12 simply is the end of one cycle and the beginning of another according to the Mayan's beliefs. This particular span is one that covers roughly 26,000 years and the specific date does coincide with a number of confirmed (by our modern science) astrological occurances such as an alignment of various heavenly bodies, the earth's worble coming to completion (something to do with an uneven axis--almost like a leap year) and other things I cannot remember. If you're interested, I'd suggest an excellent book on the subject (rather dense though---not light reading) by Daniel Pinchbeck. Here's a link below.Agreed - nothing I've heard from anyone who is actually an historian/anthropolgist who knows something about Mayan civilization suggests that it is anything other than just the end of a cycle of time. It's also funny to see people use the Aztec calendar image as if it were Mayan too.
http://www.dailygrail.com/node/2977
Also, FWIW, the Mayn's had a more accurate calendar and ability to accurately quantify time than we do presently. Too bad Cortez slaughtered them.
Cortez actually slaughtered the Aztecs though he claimed the Mayan Yucatan it wasn't the famous massacre that Neil Young wrote "Cortez the Killer" about - that was the Aztecs and Moctezuma. Though it was really an epidemic of European diseases that wiped out the ruling class of Aztecs in Tenochtitlan that made Cortez' job pretty easy. I think it was about 1/3 of the ruling class was dead and another 1/3 was sick . . . from what I remember from Latin American history classes many moons ago. Sorry, I'm a history geek
