I'm almost a total ignoramus when it comes to this subject but the operative word is
almost so I'll toss in my 1.5 cents worth. :wink:
I was in Mexico two years ago and on a tour of Toulum. The locals pronounced it tooloom with a mexican accent. The guy conducting our tour claimed he was Myan not Mexican and to have a college degree in Myan history. I have no feel for whether this was true or not but he pitched a pretty good story and he had a satchel full of books which he produced regularly as reference for what he was saying. I have no clue about the veracity of the books because they were written in a language other than engilish or spanish as I can read both.
The guy said that because the Spanish killed all of the intellectuals when they conductet their conquest, there was nobody left that could read the Myan written language. At the time of the tour they had not found the Myan equivelent of the Rossetta Stone. They had been able to figure out the Myan mathematical system so they had been able to read dates and other numeric writting. As a result of all this study they were able to figure out that the Myans thought something was going to happen December 23, 2012, but they could not figure out what it was supposed to be.
I asked him how these Myan experts knew that there was to be an event as apposed to an annaversery or something (like Christmas or Halloween). He spewed a bunch of english words that I interpreted to mean 'I haven't got a clue'.
I will grant that he had the astronomical events associated with the temples correct (equinoxes & solistis' etc.) and knew his astronomical terminology. He also knew that the Myans had to make minor modifications to some of the temples from time to time to account for precession of the Earth. There solution was to build a new temple on top of the old one. THis is how some of the older ones got so tall. This stopped when the Spanyards showed up.
Does anybody have newer/better information? I seem to recall that somebody deciphered the Myan written language in the last year or so. Any body know anything about that?
