Following Odysseus Not the end of the world Amarna city of light ...

Mayan archaeologynot related to the solar year. SomeLong Count inscriptions containdetails of the relevant lunar phaseor Venus cycle (of 584 days). Unlikewestern (decimal base 10) numbering,the Long Count used a modifiedbase 20 system. Although theMaya had a linear calendar, theywere more concerned with cycles.Monumental inscriptions typicallyincluded five digits of the LongCount, as well as two Tzolk’in charactersand two Haab’ characters.Not surprisingly, ritual was ruledby the calendar as a ritual performedat a certain time would be subject toa particular celestial influence.It seems that the tradition oferecting calendars was first developedbetween 800-500 BC (thedate of an uncarved stela and altarthat may once have been painted).The first stone calendar dates from36 BC and was found at the site ofChiapa de Corzo in Mexico. Thisis surprisingly late although it doesrefer back to much earlier dates.It is clear that kingship was linkedto conceptions of a cyclical universe.The Long Count Calendarhad fallen out of use by the time theSpanish arrived, but ancient textsgive 3114 BC as when the 13thBak’tun ended.So begins our current era. On 21December 2012 the Bak’tun cyclewill end 5,125 years after it began.The Maya did not make any predictionsregarding what would happenduring, or after, that date, andcounts on many monuments showthat the system would continuebeyond 2012. For example, a text66. Altar Q presentsthe succession of 16kings from the Classicdynasty of Copan.This view shows thefounder K’inichYax K’uk’ Mo’ (centreleft), symbolicallyhanding a staff ofoffice to the lastsuccessor. The largesquare altar, or throne,was commissionedby the 16th king inAD 776. Photographcourtesy KennethGarrett.7. Modelled clay lidof an incense-burner.The figure wears thedistinctive ‘goggles’that identify him asYax K’uk’ Mo’, founderof Copan, circa AD 695.Photograph courtesyHonduran Institute ofAnthropology andHistory.from Palenque in Mexico notes thecompletion of 1 Piktun, the nextunit up from the Bak’tun, in 4772.Part of the reason many assumethat the Maya believed there wouldbe a terrible realignment with direconsequences in 2012 is the cycle ofdestruction noted in the Popol Vuh(Book of Counsel), a text which wasrecorded by a Spanish priest in the18th century. But the cycles of creationand destruction as recorded inthis source might have more to dowith Aztecs of the 14th-16th centuriesthan the Classical Maya. New8discoveries may shed further lighton the issue of continuity.What has been billed as the earliestMayan astronomical calendarwas discovered by William Saturnoand his colleagues from a structurein Xultun in northern Guatemala(as reported in the 11 May issue ofScience). The 9th-century AD paintingson it relate to astronomicalobservations of Mars and Venus.Like their Old World counterparts,the Mayans were fascinated by thecycle of Venus, which is visible bothmorning and evening. It seems that8. Jade figurinefrom Copanrepresenting therebirth of the MaizeGod, circa AD 541.Photograph courtesyKenneth Garrett.736Minerva November/December 2012