Objections

Objections

Maya inscriptions occasionally reference future predicted events or commemorations that would occur on dates that lie beyond the completion of the 13th b'ak'tun. Most of these are in the form of "distance dates" where some Long Count date is given, together with a Distance Number that is to be added to the Long Count date to arrive at this future date. On the west panel at the in , a section of the text projects into the future to the 80th Calendar Round anniversary of the Palenque ruler  s accession to the throne (Pakal's accession occurred on 9.9.2.4.8; equivalent to 27 July 615 CE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar). It does this by commencing with Pakal's birthdate of 9.8.9.13.0 (24 March 603 CE Gregorian) and adding to it the Distance Number 10.11.10.5.8.This calculation arrives at the 80th Calendar Round since his accession, which lies over 4,000 years in the future from Pakal's time—the 21st of October in the year AD 4772

 

Coe's apocalyptic interpretation was repeated by other scholars through the early 1990s. In contrast, later researchers said that, while the end of the 13th b'ak'tun would perhaps be a cause for celebrationt did not mark the end of the calendar. "There is nothing in the Maya or Aztec or ancient Mesoamerican prophecy to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or major change of any sort in 2012," says Mayanist scholar Mark Van Stone. "The notion of a "Great Cycle" coming to an end is completely a modern invention." In 1990, Mayanist scholars  and  argued that the Maya "did not conceive this to be the end of creation, as many have suggested." Susan Milbrath, curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology at the  stated that "We have no record or knowledge that [the Maya] would think the world would come to an end" in 2012."For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in  To render December 21, 2012, as aor moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.""There will be another cycle," says E. Wyllys Andrews V, director of the Middle American Research Institute (MARI). "We know the Maya thought there was one before this, and that implies they were comfortable with the idea of another one after this."