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Officials in Belize say a construction company has destroyed one of the country's largest Mayan pyramids, reports. Head of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology Jaime Awe said the Noh Mul temple was leveled by a road-building company seeking gravel for road filler.

In his view, the culture that went on to dominate Mesoamerica until the arrival of Europeans got its start during a power vacuum that lasted for about 200 to 350 years in a period of Olmec rule. That allowed the people who built the ceremonial structure at a site known as Ceibal to interact with others from nearby areas and begin forming a new culture. They probably had influences from as far away as Chiapas and the Pacific Coast, both about 200 miles away. "Ceibal was a part of this major change," Inomata said. Inomata has been working at Ceibal,...

Superstitious Russians Spent 30 Billion On Preparing For Apocalypse Politics / RussiaDec 27, 2012 - 11:52 AM By: Pravda The Russians, who shared the horror of impending apocalypse with the rest of the world, spent 30 billion rubles on the eve of December 21st. The calculations were made by FBK analysts, who examined the data on the structure of trade turnover and services purchased in December. The end of the world did not come, but many people have to deal with its consequences now - the shortage of money. The hype around the "end of the world" still goes on....

Did you ever read “The Prophecies of St. Malachy?” Malachy, an Irish saint, “prophesied’ the reigns of Popes from his time of 1143 AD to the end of his list – the next pope after Benedict XVI in an era of persecution and the destruction of “the seven hilled city.” He didn’t predict their names or state his list as the end of time (nor do I), but he does predict judgment following…interestingly accurate in its 1 to 5 word phrases codifying each succeeding Pope. E.g., Pope John Paul I was called 869 years ago “of the half moon” –...

As we celebrate our narrow escape from the Mayan-Republican Apocalypse of December 21, 2012, the American media is living up to its reputation as the people's fearless truth-teller, by correctly attributing our miraculous collective salvation to Barack Obama. The consensus among the media experts and celebrities can be best expressed by this unbiased quote from CNN: "If you don't think Obama is god, you're just stupid." According to an ancient prophecy, the Mayan calendar would end on 12/21/2012 with a big comet (or other large-caliber assault weapon that the NRA protects from government control) falling off a physical cliff and...

Well, it's December 21st. And we're still here. So far. But the day is not over yet. Should we be worried? Whenever there is a subject about which we are not sure, we know there is one place we can turn where we can find out the answers. And that is, to the World's Foremost Authority, the reigning DUmmie Of The Year . . . yes, Know-it-all Nadin Brzezinski. Nadin knows Mayan calendars. Heck, what is there that she DOESN'T know? The DUmmies, amid all their threads about gun control and the fiscal cliff, have spent some time noting...

Guest post by Steve GorehamOriginally published in The Washington TimesThe Mayan calendar is about to end, and with it, the world.People love nothing more than an apocalypse. Meteor collisions, alien invasions, super volcanoes, nuclear winter, and global warming all provide great material for mass entertainment and breathless news reporting.The latest apocalypse to capture our imagination is the idea that, along with the Mayan calendar, the world will end on the 21st day of this month. The Mayan “Long Count” calendar, which began in 3114 BC, ends on December 21, 2012. The calendar is supposedly the measure of days from...

The End is Near!

For you Early Birds who simply MUST get a jump on everyone else, TODAY is your day (assuming you believe in Mayan prophecies, of course). And why not? As you can see, the eleventh-century Mayan Seer and Prophesizer Nostradam-itzalcoatl clearly predicted in this crucial passage of his autobiography (below), that sales of semi-automatic pistols would skyrocket in the last few days. (You do speak Mayanoglyph, don't you?) What more proof do you need than that? Note too his words regarding money being thrown down from high places, obviously a Fiscal Cliff reference.

Mystery of the Mayan Calendar finally revealed

Hotel owners around the pyramid-shaped Mount Rtanj, in the east of the Balkan country, say that bookings are flooding in, with believers in the prophecy hoping that its purported mysterious powers will save them from the apocalypse. Adherents of the end-of-the-world scenario think the 5,100ft-high mountain, part of the Carpathian range, conceals a pyramidal building inside, left behind by alien visitors thousands of years ago. Arthur C Clarke, the British science fiction writer, reportedly identified the peak as a place of "special energy" and called it "the navel of the world". Doomsday cultists believe that it emits special energy that...

2012 Doomsday Psychology, Millions of Chinese, Russians and Americans Believe the End of the World Is Nigh Politics / Social IssuesDec 08, 2012 - 07:47 AM By: DK Matai Panic buying of candles and essentials has accelerated not only in China and Russia, but there has been a simultaneous explosion in the sale of survival equipment, food, fuel and emergency shelters in America in preparation for the Mayan calendar's long count deadline: December 21st, 2012. The precise mechanism for the Armageddon to manifest remains vague, ranging from: 1. Catastrophic celestial collision between Earth and the mythical planet Nibiru, also known...

(snip)I just wanted to let you know that you can stop worrying about Big Guy kicking the fiscal cliff can down the road into 2013. The bad news is there will be no “resolution” butt the good news is it doesn’t matter given the quickly approaching end of the world on December 21. (snip)And as comrade Schatzi reminded us…Continued

In case you haven’t heard, the world is supposed to end at midnight on December 21—this year.At least, that’s according to some popularized interpretations of what the Mayans said. But predictions of the end times are hardly a new or unusual thing. For Christians, prophecies of an imminent apocalypse are just about as old as the Church itself. Those predicting the end were an eclectic lot, with wild ideas and strange teachings. They include an antipope, a saint who rode the devil like a donkey, and cultish charismatics who dressed like harlots. Some were inspired by their false interpretations...

Archaeologists announced Thursday they have uncovered the tomb of a very early Mayan ruler, complete with rich jade jewelry and decoration. Experts said the find at Guatemala's Tak'alik Ab'aj temple site could help shed light on the formative years of the Mayan culture. Government archaeologist Miguel Orrego said carbon-dating indicates the tomb was built between 700 and 400 B.C., several hundred years before the Mayan culture reached its height. He said it was the oldest tomb found so far at Tak'alik Ab'aj, a site in southern Guatemala that dates back about 2,200 years. Orrego said a necklace depicting a vulture-headed...

If you believe in that sort of thing, humanity can expect a mere two months left of existence before the Mayan apocalypse hits Dec. 21. Sunday starts the two-month countdown toward doomsday, according to an interpretation of the Mayan calendar that has taken hold in some New Age and spiritualist communities online. Two ancient texts confirm the end date of the Mayan Long Count calendar on the winter solstice of this year, which is Dec. 21, 2012. That day is the last day of the 13th bak'tun, or 144,000-day cycle, of the calendar. Ancient Maya would have seen the end...

During excavations of the royal Maya city of El Perú-Waka’ in northwestern Petén, Guatemala, an international team of archaeologists has discovered the tomb of Lady K’abel, one of the great queens of Classic Maya civilization.El Perú-Waka’, located approximately 75 km west of the famous city of Tikal, is an ancient Maya city in northwestern Petén, Guatemala. It was part of Classic Maya civilization (200-900 AD) in the southern lowlands and consists of nearly a square kilometer of plazas, palaces, temple pyramids and residences surrounded by many square kilometers of dispersed residences and temples. A small, carved alabaster jar found in...

Conservator Angelyn Bass cleans and stabilizes the surface of a wall of a Mayan house that dates to the ninth century. The figure of a man who may have been the town scribe appears on the wall to her left. Archaeologists working in one of the most impenetrable rain forests in Guatemala have stumbled on a remarkable discovery: a room full of wall paintings and numerical calculations. The buried room apparently was a workshop used by scribes or astronomers working for a Mayan king. The paintings depict the king and members of his court. The numbers mark important periods in...

Therefore, it’s not that the Mayans were predicting the end of the world. Based on their calculations of a five thousand year cycle they predicted that one event calendar was ending on December 21, 2012 and another one beginning on December 22, 2012. In other words, they were simply predicting the end of the five thousand year solar or planetary calendar. Although their scientists and astronomers did look for and anticipated natural disasters, they did not view them as world ending events. Read more at: http://jxb7076.hubpages.com/hub/The-Mayan-Calendar-and-Christian-Response-to-December-21--2012

Instead, he maintains better era will start Dec. 21When the current Mayan calendar cycle ends Dec. 21, the world will not cease to exist, says a Mayan elder. "There is a lot of information of what is going to happen on that date. The scholars say that the Mayan calendar ends, the world ends. But we, as Mayans, don't know anything about that," Elder Miguel Angel Chiquin said speaking through a Spanish translator Monday night at Colorado State University-Pueblo. "The great teachings that our ancestors have left us over the centuries, the 21st of December, we will be moving over...

Now we're really screwed h/t TCOTS More at Reaganite Republican

The countdown to the apocalypse is on. We're one year away from Dec. 21, 2012, the date that the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar allegedly marked as the end of an era that would reset the date to zero and signal the end of humanity. But will it? There have been many end of times predictions over the years. Christian radio host Harold Camping faced widespread ridicule when his predictions that the world would end twice this year - on May 21, and then on Oct. 21 - failed to materialize. But in the flurry of doomsday predictions - there...

Various Mayan scholars have attempted to debunk this reading, including Sven Gronemeyer of Australia’s La Trobe University, who has studied the Tortugero tablet in great detail. On Wednesday he presented his decoding of the inscription, suggesting that Bolon Yokte’s prophesied appearance on December 21, 2012, represents the start of a new era and not the end of days. Proponents of the apocalyptic interpretation have misunderstood the poorly preserved hieroglyphs, he said.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's archaeology institute downplays theories that the ancient Mayas predicted some sort of apocalypse would occur in 2012, but on Thursday it acknowledged that a second reference to the date exists on a carved fragment found at a southern Mexico ruin site. Most experts had cited only one surviving reference to the date in Mayan glyphs, a stone tablet from the Tortuguero site in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican archaeologists have found two 1,300-year-old limestone sculptures of captured Mayan warriors that they say could shed light on the alliances and wars among Mayan cities during the civilization's twilight. The life-size, elaborate sculptures of two warriors sitting cross-legged with hands tied behind their backs were found in May in the archaeological site of Tonina in southern Chiapas state along with two stone ballgame scoreboards. The 5-foot (1.5-meter) tall sculptures have hieroglyphic inscriptions on their loincloths and chest that say the warriors belonged to the city of Copan, archaeologist Juan Yadeun said in a news release...

A Mayan tomb closed to the world for 1,500 years has finally revealed some of its secrets as scientists snaked a tiny camera into a red-and-black painted burial chamber. The room, decorated with paintings of nine figures, also contains pottery, jade pieces and shell, archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) reported Thursday (June 23). The tomb is located in Palenque, an expansive set of stone ruins in the Mexican state of Chiapas. According to the INAH, the tomb was discovered in 1999 under a building called Temple XX. But the stonework and location prevented exploration. By...

When they first discovered them, the slender tubes perplexed the Ivy League Archaeologists exploring the ancient Mayan ruins. Nothing in their experience would have prepared them to contemplate an elite whose highest rites included pumping fermented Lonchocarpus tree bark up their anuses. At the time, our society still held to the ancient covenants that prohibited inserting foreign objects up our rectums. Imagine how surprised these same academics would have been if they would have known that thirty years later the health services and administrators of the universities where they worked would be promoting such practices.

Scientists working at a Guatemalan archaeological site that's more than 1,400 years old have reported finding a hieroglyphic-covered stone panel that, they say, conclusively identifies the ancient settlement as the enigmatic Site Q, a Maya city about which researchers have long speculated. Yale University archaeologist Marcello Canuto found the well-preserved panel last April at a site called La Corona. "[The] writing on the panel opens up a new chapter in Maya history," says anthropologist David Freidel of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, codirector of the expedition. "This new panel provides the critical test for establishing that La Corona is Site...

Murder victims suggest female strength in ancient culture.Archaeologists have entered a long-sealed crypt in Guatemala to find an ancient murder scene. The tomb, in the ancient city of Waká, contains the remains of two women, one pregnant, arranged in a ritual tableau. Researchers say the young, wealthy women were probably slaughtered as part of a power struggle between Mayan cities. And that, they say, sheds new light on the role of women in the Mayan culture 1,600 years ago. "This tomb tells us that women were extremely powerful," says Dorie Reents-Budet, a Maya specialist who works for the Smithsonian Institution...

For two weeks we had been tunnelling beneath the surface of the acropolis hill at the ancient Maya city of Waká in Guatemala's Petén rainforest. It was the spring of 2006, and we knew that under the surface of the acropolis was a virtual layer cake of earlier structures. The acropolis had been one of the city's enduring spiritual centers before it was abandoned around A.D. 820. A large pyramid and several buildings still stand there today.We were at the bottom of a shaft we had dug the previous spring, working our way up the stairs of a buried building...

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Scuba divers are exploring the depths of a volcanic lake in Guatemala to find clues about an ancient sacred island where Mayan pilgrims flocked to worship before it was submerged by rising waters.

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Scuba divers are exploring the depths of a volcanic lake in Guatemala to find clues about an ancient sacred island where Mayan pilgrims flocked to worship before it was submerged by rising waters. Samabaj, the first underwater archaeological ruins excavated in Guatemala, were discovered accidentally 12 years ago by a diver exploring picturesque Lake Atitlan, ringed by Mayan villages and popular with foreign tourists. "No one believed me, even when I told them all about it. They just said 'he's mad'," said Roberto Samayoa, a businessman and recreational diver who grew up near the lake where...

It is known that the fragments of this enigmatic sculptures were placed into the buildings during the second part of the Late Pre- Classic Period (Phase Ruth 200 BC - 150 AD), which is when the early Mayan culture was florishing. Therefore this sculpture must have been carved before this time. There are two possibilities, it was carved at the start of the early Mayan era, or a little earlier, when the changes in Tak'alik Ab'aj from the Olmec era to the Mayan era was taking place, what is called the transition period. Could it be that the early Mayan...

A major royal tomb has been unearthed beneath the principal pyramid in the western center of Waka'. The discovery was made by Dr. Héctor Escobedo of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, co-director of the Waka' Project, and his student, Juan Carlos Melendez. This marks the second royal tomb discovered at Waka'. In the spring of 2004, SMU archaeologist David Freidel and his students discovered a queen's tomb more than 1,200 years old and dating to the Late Classic period of Maya civilization. The new tomb was discovered in a different pyramid and dates to the Early Classic period between...

Andrew L. DemarestThe remains of a Maya king, Kan Maax, who was killed about A.D. 800 in Cancuén with dozens of his royal associates and courtiers. Despite the puzzling slaughter, the bodies were treated with respect. Archaeologists and forensic experts in Guatemala have made a grisly discovery among the ruins of an ancient Maya city, Cancuén. In explorations during the summer, they found as many as 50 skeletons in a sacred pool and other places, victims of murder and dismemberment in a war that destroyed the city and, it seems, served as a beginning of the collapse of the...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Scientists working at the Copan archaeological site in western Honduras said Sunday they have unearthed the 1,450-year-old remains of 69 people, as well as 30 previously undiscovered ancient Mayan buildings. Copan, about 200 miles west of Tegucigalpa, the capital, flourished between A.D. 250 and 900, part of a vast Mayan empire which stretched across parts of modern-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The site was eventually abandoned, due at least in part to overpopulation, historians believe. Seiichi Nakamura, one of a team of Japanese scientists working alongside Honduran counterparts, said the human remains likely belong...

Just in time for the 2012 craze, CNN reports on a brand new massive Mayan pyramid discovery, including an amazing stone frieze showing the Maya sacred creation story, the Popol Vuh: World’s Largest Myran Pyramid Discovered VIDEO

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Archeologists have uncovered carved stucco panels depicting cosmic monsters, gods and serpents in Guatemala's northern jungle that are the oldest known depictions of a famous Mayan creation myth. The newly discovered panels, both 26 feet long and stacked on top of each other, were created around 300 BC and show scenes from the core Mayan mythology, the Popol Vuh. It took investigators three months to uncover the carvings while excavating El Mirador, the biggest ancient Mayan city in the world, the site's head researcher, Richard Hansen, said on Wednesday. The Maya built soaring temples and elaborate...

At the recent Society for American Archaeology meeting in Sacramento, California, archaeologist Michael Callaghan from the University of Texas presented his team's findings from the ancient site of K'o (now modern-day Guatemala) and what they believe to be the oldest known royal Mayan tomb. Excavating under a wealthy home, they discovered a lid leading to a tunnel of about 16 inches wide. Following the tunnel, they discovered a chultan, or storage chamber, where a burial was performed. Within this storage chamber they discovered a body they believe to have been a man in his fifties who was reasonably healthy when...

March 14, 2002 Archaeologists Find Mayan 'Masterpiece' in Guatemala By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD rchaeologists exploring deep in the rain forest of Guatemala have uncovered what they think is the earliest intact wall painting of the Maya civilization. A depiction of scenes from mythology and ritual, the 1,900-year-old mural is being hailed by experts as a masterpiece. Even though only part of the mural has been exposed so far, scholars said the scenes and portraits promised rare insights into the society and religion of the Maya. The paintings, dated about A.D. 100, are described as more extensive and better preserved than...

Now overgrown by jungle, the ancient site was once the thriving capital of the Maya civilization Had we been traveling overland, it would have taken two or three days to get from the end of the road at Carmelita to El Mirador: long hours of punishing heat and drenching rain, of mud and mosquitoes, and the possibility that the jungle novice in our party (that would be me, not the biologists turned photographers Christian Ziegler and Claudio Contreras) might step on a lethal fer-de-lance or do some witless city thing to provoke a jaguar or arouse the ire of the...

Retired German math teacher Joachim Rittstieg says ancient Dresden Codex and Mayan priests guided him to the legendary Atlantis in eastern Guatemala. A retired German math teacher has spurred a national hubbub in Guatemala by claiming to have discovered an ancient underwater city laden with treasure. Joachim Rittstieg grabbed headlines in March with his visit to Lake Izabal in eastern Guatemala. Buried there, he claims, are eight tons of gold tablets in Plato’s legendary Atlantis. Instead of being dismissed, Mr. Rittstieg has garnered a lot of interest. Guatemalan newspapers called him a “German scientist” and followed his expedition with enthusiasm....

BERLIN, March 10 (UPI) -- A Swiss journalist said a crystal skull believed to have belonged to Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler was found hidden in a German home. Journalist Luc Burgin said the skull, found hidden on a roof beam in the home of a woman who was once married to a high-ranking SS officer, appears to be one of a series of skulls revered by the Mayans in ancient Mexico, The Daily Mirror reported Thursday. Himmler, who committed suicide after being captured by British troops during World War II, was well-known to have been fascinated by myths and...

I watched a National Geographic special the other day on NetFlix. It was about the Mayan culture in South America and Mexico. This documentary was about several anthropologist who took it upon themselves to decipher the ancient hieroglyphics that covered the buildings and walls of the decaying Mayan structures. It was quite ironic how the anthropologists romanticized the undisturbed culture of the Mayans and the harm (they say) Spanish priests brought to their way of life. Well, according to the history of their "civilization" these people lived in constant conflict and fear. War and bloodshed was a common community concern....

Funnyman Seth Rogen was left stunned by a recent encounter with his moviemaking hero George Lucas - because the Star Wars director spent 20 minutes telling him the world would end in 2012. Rogen was left speechless when Lucas and Steven Spielberg joined a movie meeting he was a part of - but the encounter has left him worried his life will be over next year. He recalls, “George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is gonna end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it.

Centuries before the first speakers and subwoofers, ancient Americans -- intentionally or not -- may have been turning buildings into giant sound amplifiers and distorters to enthrall or disorient audiences, archaeologists say. Temples at the ancient Maya city of Palenque (map) in central Mexico, for example, might have formed a kind of "unplugged" public-address system, projecting sound across great distances, according to a team led by archaeologist Francisca Zalaquett of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Zalaquett's team recently discovered that Palenque's Northern Group of public squares and temples -- built around roughly A.D. 600 -- is especially good at...

UN Climate Conference (COP16) Cancun, Nov 29 - Dec 10, 2010According to this page: COP16 is the official name of the Cancun summit, which is the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The COP is the highest body of the UNFCCC and comprises environment ministers from 192 countries who have met once a year since the 1992 Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro.Once again, the UN brought together many "faith traditions" in the spirit of Religious Syncretism and Interfaith Dreams. And. They. Just. Won't. Ever. Stop. Not until Christianity has...

Using new techniques and extensive excavations, researchers have found that the Maya coped with tough environmental conditions by developing ingenious methods to grow crops in wetland areas. "The work shows that this intensive agriculture is more complicated and on a par with these other areas of intellectual development," says Timothy Beach, a physical geographer at Georgetown University in Washington DC, who presented his findings on Wednesday at the Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in Denver, Colorado. The Maya civilization, considered one of the most advanced ancient societies, lived in sprawling and densely populated pockets from the Yucatán Peninsula in...

A well-preserved tomb believed to be the final resting place of an ancient Mayan king has been discovered in Guatemala, scientists announced last week. The 1,600-year-old tomb was discovered on May 29 beneath the El Diablo pyramid in the city of El Zotz. It is packed with of carvings, ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six children, who might have been sacrificed at the time of the king's death. However, much more work is needed before the scientists can piece together all the clues about the tomb's owner. "We still have a great deal of work to do," said Stephen...