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On 2003-01-06 09:46, GrapesOfWrath wrote:
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On 2003-01-06 08:54, Jerod S. wrote:
Why is it that in certain circles there is so much emphasis placed on the Mayan calendar? So one era of said calendar comes to a close in 2012 and a new one begins. So what? What is so damned significant about their calendar?!
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it that a new one does not begin? That is, it indicates the end of time, a disaster of some sort?
Or maybe I don't understand those guys.
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Actually, it has to do with a prophesy the Mayans had concerning their baseline date. According to their prophesy, 13 baktuns after the "Birth of Venus" (baseline for the Mayan calendar) the world is supposed to end catastrophically.
The Mayans based their calendar on a long date. And I have a source which claims the Discovery channel report is BS. The only thing that happens in 2012 is that according to the calendar, we start a new baktun (a period of 394.3 years and the first digit in the mayan calendar) The calendar would actually roll over some 3,000 years from now as there is supposed to be 20 baktuns before going adding another date indicator onto the front. Since the Mayan civilization flourished during baktun 9 (435 to 830 CE) and collapsed during baktun 10, they would have used only those significant digits of their long date. The Mayans first mention of themselves as a civilization starts at baktun 7.
The long date appears to be the number of days using a conglomeration of date divisions from a fixed starting point. (Gregorian calendar assumes 1 Jan, 1 CE as baseline. The Mayan calendar was using 11 Aug, 3114 BCE as a baseline.)
We are currently in baktun 12. We have 8 more baktuns until a new division would have to be used. (Since thats about 3,000 years from now, I don't think I'll worry about it.)
The Long dates were broken down into baktun, Katun, Tun, Uinal, and Kin
Kin was one day
Uinals contained 20 Kin
Tuns contained 18 Unials
Katuns contained 20 Tuns
Baktuns contained 20 Katuns
To this was added to two other inter-year date classifications called Haab date and Tzolkin date.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/time/cal/mayacal.htm
Other names of time spans are Pictun, Calabtun, Kinchiltun, Alautun, and Hablatun.
Pictuns consist of 20 Baktuns (about 7885 years)
Calabtuns consist of 20 Pictuns (about 158,000 years)
Kinchiltuns consist of 20 Calabtuns (about 3 million years)
Alautuns consist of 20 Kinchiltuns (about 63 million years)
Hablatuns consist of 20 Alautuns (about 1.28 billion years)
The date for today is baktun 12, katun 19, tun 9, uinal 16 kin 3. Mayans numbered everything starting from 0, so kins in a uinal go 0, 1, 2, etc. Todays date would be expressed as 12.19.9.16.3. Mayans dropped off leading zeroes (as mathematicans do with leading zeroes.). The whole date would have been 0.0.0.0.0.12.19.9.16.3.
So, the beginning of the new Pictun is 14 October, 4772. December 22, 2012 would be expressed as 13.0.0.0.0.
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Valiant Dancer
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Valiant Dancer on 2003-01-06 12:46 ]</font>