The Mayan Calendar

[x-Genghis-x]

I'm sure most of you have heard of it, the Mayan long calendar, the one that foretells the "end of our time" on December, 21st, 2012? The Mayan long Calendar speaks of one of it's cycles of time moving into the next in 2012. With little of the human race surviving this transfer.

What are your views on the calendar, the Mayan people in general, and the accuracy of the calendar?

I was once told by a friend that it depicted other major events in history that have already happened, but I can't find any support for this. Help?

 

[Josephine Falnor]

I have heard of the Mayan Long Calender, but I don't really know anything about it. Really, I don't know anything about the Mayan civilization. I'm sorry! It's a subject that I want to learn about, I just haven't done it yet. sweatdrop  

[x-Genghis-x]

Haha that's okay. I'm like that with a lot of subjects, I want to learn so much but just haven't gotten around to it.

I don't know much about them either. I am better acquainted with the Aztecs, who were a bordering civilisation at the time, along with the Incas. At one point in the Aztec's history they were sacrificing 50,000 people a day!  

[Fresnel]

Yeah, prophecies work so well in retrospect. Penn and Teller did a show on something like this. One of the things they did to discount Nostradamus' prophecies was they took "The Wheels on the Bus" and turned it into an accurate and revealing prophecy about the French Revolution or someshit like that. I think the whole "world ending" thing is a giant load of crock. The world didn't end in 2000, did it?  

[Nasuko-San]

Fresnel

Yeah, prophecies work so well in retrospect. Penn and Teller did a show on something like this. One of the things they did to discount Nostradamus' prophecies was they took "The Wheels on the Bus" and turned it into an accurate and revealing prophecy about the French Revolution or someshit like that. I think the whole "world ending" thing is a giant load of crock. The world didn't end in 2000, did it?

Yeah but Y2K was an internets thing.

This is a thing made by a civilization who made the most accurate calendar without science.  

[Trelayne]

If I remember correctly (and I may not, it's been awhile since I read up on the Mayans), their mythos claimed that the current calendar represents the current incarnation of the world, and that it had been 'destroyed' something like 4 times previously. It's possible it does accurately predict some kind of global catastrophe, but, if so, I don't think it'll be anything we can't survive.  

[Devlin-G]

Uh, This is frightening, in retrospect, but then again, last eyar some time the world was supposed to end and it did not, I do not know, I do not like to care Im paranoid enough, and want to live to it's fullest and not have dreadfull thoughts about these things.  

[Fresnel]

Nasuko-San

Fresnel

Yeah, prophecies work so well in retrospect. Penn and Teller did a show on something like this. One of the things they did to discount Nostradamus' prophecies was they took "The Wheels on the Bus" and turned it into an accurate and revealing prophecy about the French Revolution or someshit like that. I think the whole "world ending" thing is a giant load of crock. The world didn't end in 2000, did it?

Yeah but Y2K was an internets thing.

This is a thing made by a civilization who made the most accurate calendar without science.

Right, and we're the civilization that put a man on the moon and unraveled the mysteries of the universe. You think we'd know our own technology.  

[Nasuko-San]

Fresnel

Nasuko-San

Fresnel

Yeah, prophecies work so well in retrospect. Penn and Teller did a show on something like this. One of the things they did to discount Nostradamus' prophecies was they took "The Wheels on the Bus" and turned it into an accurate and revealing prophecy about the French Revolution or someshit like that. I think the whole "world ending" thing is a giant load of crock. The world didn't end in 2000, did it?

Yeah but Y2K was an internets thing.

This is a thing made by a civilization who made the most accurate calendar without science.

Right, and we're the civilization that put a man on the moon and unraveled the mysteries of the universe. You think we'd know our own technology.

I never denied that. xD

But if it's something like a twenty mile long meteor, we're screwed. xD  

[Clutzy_Ditz]

Hmm... I've heard about the Mayan calendar and it's "prediction", but I've never actually looked at an image of it, this closely.

Call me a skeptic, or, call me a person who doesn't believe everything the media or scientists say. This "calender" looks like a gorgeous work of art. It could easily be telling a story, like a fresco. But, I see nothing that the experts could have "read" or interpreted to be a complex calendar. What I do see is a means of some archaeologists to get large government grants in order to study something they call complex.

Edit: Okay, I've now studied a true rendition of the Mayan Calendar. The one above is only an artistic rendition and leaves out a lot of details.

Many believe, if this IS a calendar, it ends in 2012 only because that is when the calendar ends, like any calendar. Every calendar follows a certain rotation of the planets. This one seems to have followed a much longer one than our annual calendars.  

[Fresnel]

Nasuko-San

Fresnel

Nasuko-San

Fresnel

Yeah, prophecies work so well in retrospect. Penn and Teller did a show on something like this. One of the things they did to discount Nostradamus' prophecies was they took "The Wheels on the Bus" and turned it into an accurate and revealing prophecy about the French Revolution or someshit like that. I think the whole "world ending" thing is a giant load of crock. The world didn't end in 2000, did it?

Yeah but Y2K was an internets thing.

This is a thing made by a civilization who made the most accurate calendar without science.

Right, and we're the civilization that put a man on the moon and unraveled the mysteries of the universe. You think we'd know our own technology.

I never denied that. xD

But if it's something like a twenty mile long meteor, we're screwed. xD

My point was more along the lines of we built computers, we designed everything in them from the ground up, and we have people who know everything about how they work. We tried to predict an event six months in the future and failed miserably. How can we expect a race of ancient savages to successfully predict the future of a world a race as advanced as ourselves cannot fully comprehend a thousand years (ish) in advance?  

[x-Genghis-x]

Clutzy_Ditz

Hmm... I've heard about the Mayan calendar and it's "prediction", but I've never actually looked at an image of it, this closely.

Call me a skeptic, or, call me a person who doesn't believe everything the media or scientists say. This "calender" looks like a gorgeous work of art. It could easily be telling a story, like a fresco. But, I see nothing that the experts could have "read" or interpreted to be a complex calendar. What I do see is a means of some archaeologists to get large government grants in order to study something they call complex.

Edit: Okay, I've now studied a true rendition of the Mayan Calendar. The one above is only an artistic rendition and leaves out a lot of details.

Many believe, if this IS a calendar, it ends in 2012 only because that is when the calendar ends, like any calendar. Every calendar follows a certain rotation of the planets. This one seems to have followed a much longer one than our annual calendars.

Yeah, the one I posted was more an artistic impression than the full blown detailed version, and I don't think any drawings nowadays or remnants of the calendar could match what it was.

And even looking as simple and undetailed as it does to us could not mean much, the Mayan's way of interpreting it could of been very complex. You're right though, the one I posted isn't very detailed.

Could you post the picture you found though? I'd like to have a look.  

[Clutzy_Ditz]

.x.marley.x.

Yeah, the one I posted was more an artistic impression than the full blown detailed version, and I don't think any drawings nowadays or remnants of the calendar could match what it was.

And even looking as simple and undetailed as it does to us could not mean much, the Mayan's way of interpreting it could of been very complex. You're right though, the one I posted isn't very detailed.

Could you post the picture you found though? I'd like to have a look.

I didn't find the picture on the internet. My daughter showed me one on the cover of a book. It's pretty old and scratched, but I'll try to scan it. I think I'll try a search for the book on the internet first. Anyway, sorry it took so long to answer.  

[x-Genghis-x]

Ah okay, what's the book called?

That's fine. 3nodding  

[Clutzy_Ditz]

.x.marley.x.

Ah okay, what's the book called?

That's fine. 3nodding

The book is "The World's Last Mysteries" from Reader's Digest. It was first published from 1976-1978. I'm going to see about scanning the image. Looking at it again, I see it's not so damaged. The image itself is embossed, but not deeply, so, cross your fingers. smile