Maya News Updates
13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaw 3 Uniiw
December 21, 2012. Rijswijk, Holland

Here in Holland the midnight hour has passed, it is now the 21st of December, 2012. (But it is probably more relevant to wait to sun rise.) The curtain has fallen (well ...) for the Dooms Day fear mongers and the self-proclaimed "prophets" who either predicted an end of the world through some horrible end-of-times scenario or some kind of spiritual awakening or transition (while I applaud the positivism in spiritual awakening and/or transition it is nowhere contained in ancient Maya texts). Supposedly this "end of the world" is based on ancient prophecies of the Maya, and ultimately to be found in one eroded text from Tortuguero (the La Corona reference is just the date, no associated description). So not true. If you need a resolution for the "last" days of 2012 or simply next year: Ask your money back from the authors and/or publishers for any book or item you bought in relation to 2012 that told you that a Dooms Day would be coming or some sort of Awakening or Transition! They ripped you off, they were "in the game" for the money, not to save you ... But no worries yet for those who want to fear or want to (be) awaken; December 21, 2012 is the 13.0.0.0.0 date in the 584,283 correlation (between the maya calendar and the Gregorian calendar). For the 584,285 correlation it would be December 23, and with the recently proposed 584,286 correlation it would be December 24. And still no worries after that, the 13.0.0.0.0 date will be associated with any upcoming date in our calendar. Those self-proclaimed "prophets" will make other calculations, or just simply tell you that the awakening has begun or that the transition is taking place. What a load of ...

Anyways. A long period of silence that has ensued at my blogs is hopefully over. For this there is a simple reason. This year of my life was reigned by a series of unfortunate events which made it impossible to do all the things that I like and want to do. Two operations on my back (the first on January 2nd) and subsequent periods of recovery seriously affected my ability to do any substantial work during the first half of the year. A third operation affected the early part of the second half. Managing to finish papers with dead lines on time or just after (thank you dear editors for the extensions!) as well as to present a couple of papers abroad (Paris, Gargano, Hamburg) meant that something had to give. What had to give were the blogs. Which was very unfortunate, because what a year it has been for Maya archaeological studies and our growing understanding of Classic Maya society (for instance the discoveries at Tak'alik Abaj, Xultun, La Corona, El Peru, and El Zotz'). As the archaeological projects at these sites will continue their research the coming years I am sure that more important findings will be made. And those new findings will be reported on at Maya News Updates in 2013 and years beyond (I hope).

Enjoy the Holidays, which ever one you prefer,
Erik