New discovery casts doubt on Mayan calendar doomsday (VIDEO)
A Mayan actor performs at the Tak’Alik A’Baj archaeological site south of Guatemala City on June 21, 2012, during the celebration of the beginning of the summer solstice, which ends on December 21 when concludes the current Mayan cycle known as Bak’tun 13, which for some experts will coincide with the end of the world.
The longest Mayan text ever discovered in Guatemala also provides further evidence that our world will continue after Dec. 21, 2012, despite how some people view the Mayan calendar.
Tulane University researchers announced on Thursday that they uncovered a second reference to the “end date” many interpret as doomsday.
However, it contains no grim allusions, the scientists said.
“This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy,” said Marcello A. Canuto, director of Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute.
The discovery happened at La Corona, a site once ravaged by looters, ANI reported.
“We realized that looters of a particular building had discarded some carved stones because they were too eroded to sell on the antiquities black market, so we knew they found something important, but we also thought they might have missed something,” Tomas Barrientos of Universidad del Valle de Guatemala said.
More from GlobalPost: Countdown to the end of the world
Archaeologists realized that many stones discarded actually contained vital hieroglyphs that told the story of a great Mayan ruler’s visit.
The 1,300-year-old stones formed a staircase that outlined two centuries of La Corona history.
According to the stones, the ruler Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' of Calakmul had just suffered a defeat to a rival, and was visiting his subjects to reassure them he wasn’t dead.
To put everyone’s minds at ease, he made references to the calendar and the length of his rule, according to MSNBC.
He called himself the “13 k’atun lord,” referring to a Mayan period of 20 years.
The king, who was also known as Jaguar Paw, then suggested his rule was synonymous with the 13th bak’tun that ends on Dec. 21, 2012.
The Mayan calendar uses bak’tuns, or 144,000-day cycles that began at creation. Dec. 21, 2012, ends the 13th bak’tun.
“This was a time of great political turmoil in the Maya region and this king felt compelled to allude to a larger cycle of time that happens to end in 2012,” Stuart said.
More from GlobalPost: New Mayan calendar says world won’t end in 2012
The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?