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| 1300 year old Mayan stone carvings discovered in La Corona, Guatemala |
Speculation abound to what the Mayans were expecting on the end date of the calendar. Some believe it is a doomsday prediction and the world will end on that day. Although there is no scientific or even historical proof of this belief, this interpretation on the end of the long count calendar is much talked about.
Scenarios believed to happen on that day are numerous. The sun will release a massive solar flare, the Earth's pole will shift, the Earth will collide with another space object such as an asteroid, etc. etc.
Scientists and historians have dismissed the notion of these doomsday predictions.
NASA's website, Astrobiology, state that, "Calendars exist for keeping track of the passage of time, not for predicting the future. The Mayan astronomers were clever, and they developed a very complex calendar. Ancient calendars are interesting to historians, but they cannot match the ability we have today to keep track of time, or the precision of the calendars currently in use. The main point, however, is that calendars, whether contemporary or ancient, cannot predict the future of our planet or warn of things to happen on a specific date such as 2012..."
Maya archaeologists unearth new 2012 monument
Archaeologists working at the site of La Corona in Guatemala have discovered a 1,300-year-old-year Maya text that provides only the second known reference to the so-called "end date" of the Maya calendar, December 21, 2012. The discovery, one of the most significant hieroglyphic finds in decades, was announced today at the National Palace in Guatemala.
"This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy," says Marcello A. Canuto, director of Tulane's Middle American Research Institute and co-director of the excavations at La Corona.
