{"id":4528,"date":"2012-08-14T14:05:06","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T20:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4528"},"modified":"2012-08-14T14:05:06","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T20:05:06","slug":"the-2012-prophecy-and-ancient-maya-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4528","title":{"rendered":"The “2012” Prophecy and Ancient Maya Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you know someone who starts getting nervous as the end of the year approaches because of the “Mayan prophecy,” send them here.<\/a><\/p>\n

They should be able to understand how it all goes back to the king of one of the ancient Mayan city-states proclaiming how great he was.<\/p>\n

The key to understanding the reference to 2012 is a unique title that this Calakmul king gives himself. In the text, he calls himself the \u201c13 K\u2019atun lord\u201d\u2014that is, the king who presided over and celebrated an important calendar ending, the 13th K\u2019atun cycle (9.13.0.0.0). This event had occurred just a few years before in AD 692. In order to vaunt himself even further and place his reign and accomplishments into an eternal setting, he connects himself forward in time to when the next higher period of the Maya calendar would reach the same 13 number\u2014that is, December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you know someone who starts getting nervous as the end of the year approaches because of the “Mayan prophecy,” send them here. They should be able to understand how it all goes back to the king of one of the ancient Mayan city-states proclaiming how great he was. The key to understanding the reference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,41],"class_list":["post-4528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archaeology","tag-mexico"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1b2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":975,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=975","url_meta":{"origin":4528,"position":0},"title":"Review: Apocalypto","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Not one to rush into things, I finally watched Mel Gibson's slightly a-historical movie of Mayan imperial collapse, Apocalypto, a gory but amazing adventure story.My father was a big fan of historian Will Durant, so I got the impact of the Durant epigram about the fall of empires at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1225,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1225","url_meta":{"origin":4528,"position":1},"title":"2012 Apocalypse Porn","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Even some Mayans are finally getting fed up with the whole 2012 end-of-civilization-as-we-know-it apocalypse porn.(You know it's porn because there is no real goofiness, humor, or affection.)A little while ago I received a copy of 2012: Science or Superstition, a video from Disinformation.It's got it all: Hopis, Islamic astrology, reverse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3686,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3686","url_meta":{"origin":4528,"position":2},"title":"Polytheistic Predictions are Predictable?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"At The Wild Hunt, Jason links to some predictions for 2012 from some Cuban Santer\u00eda priests, whom he describes as \"eerily accurate\" in the past. Yes, if you predict \"war and conflict,\" it is hard to go wrong. Let's see, I predict that my volunteer fire department will be called\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"prophecy\"","block_context":{"text":"prophecy","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=prophecy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3557,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3557","url_meta":{"origin":4528,"position":3},"title":"2012 Is Coming!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"So what better Yule gift for your loved ones than Mystic Mayan Protection Cloaks? (Link probably NSFW.)","rel":"","context":"In \"apocalypse\"","block_context":{"text":"apocalypse","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=apocalypse"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2776,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2776","url_meta":{"origin":4528,"position":4},"title":"Talking about Tlaloc","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"On Friday morning, April 29, back from a early morning fire call (shed + trash + grasses at the edge of the prairie), I climbed the ridge behind the house and made an offering to Tlaloc, the god of rain. (I think I need to make a lot more of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"Feather offering for Tlaloc","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/TlalocOffering4-29-11_sm-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6738,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6738","url_meta":{"origin":4528,"position":5},"title":"Where Is Your Nile?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"After a living room talk to a group of Anchorage Pagans about different types of nature religion, I ended up in the kitchen with a woman who was an Egyptian reconstructionist \u2014 or revivalist, as she preferred to say. Given my concerns, my first thought was that if the ancient\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lachapellelegacy.org\/444_296_csupload_31406433.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4529,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4528\/revisions\/4529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}