2012: Apocalypse, Transformation …
Or Just Another Year?

Explore the mysteries of the Mayan Calendar

by Emily Trinkaus

As we approach the mysterious end date of the Mayan Calendar, questions -- and anxieties -- about the meaning of 2012 are becoming more widespread, and more urgent. No longer a distant date in the theoretical future, December 21, 2012 is now just a few years away, and people want to know what will happen and what, if anything, should we do to prepare?

Mayan Calendar researchers and scholars have come to different conclusions about the meaning of the end date, and even the date of the end date (some believe that the Calendar will end in 2011). However, many agree that the ancient Mayans intentionally left us, their future ancestors, valuable information about this time period we find ourselves in.

Here are a few pieces of the highly involved and multi-layered puzzle.

The Mayan Long Count

The ancient Mayans were master time-keepers, using a complex system of several calendars. They were also cosmologists -- avid sky watchers -- who predicted planetary cycles with amazing accuracy.

The calendar known as the Long Count tracks longer cycles of time and is non-repeating. For these reasons, the Long Count was generally used on monuments to document significant past and future dates. Dates beyond 2012 have been found on ancient Mayan monuments, reassuring us that -- at least in their minds -- the world will not cease to exist in 2012!

According to the Long Count, what is coming to an end on December 21, 2012 is a 5,125-year "Great Cycle," which began on August 11, 3114 BC. Around this time the Babylonian culture was born in Mesopotamia -- the area that is now Iraq. The first dynasty of Egypt was also established around 3100 BC, and the first stage in the construction of Stonehenge. The birth of human civilization or human history is how this period is typically described.

2012: Apocalypse, Transformation or Just Another Year? -- Continued »