[Aztlan] No Apocalypse Maya in 2012

Fri Jan 11 09:34:48 CST 2008

Dear Dr. Vollemaere,

Your correlation (making 13.0.0.0.0 = December 12, 1546) contains one
insurmountable flaw. It does not correspond to a 4 Ahau day in the
tzolkin. From the various creation monuments, we know that the era
ending Long Count date of 13.0.0.0.0 must correspond to a 4 Ahau day in
the tzolkin calendar. This is an internally consistent relationship
between those two calendars, irregardless of the correlation we propose.
We have three tzolkin dates documented at the time of the conquest, each
from widely separate regions of Mesoamerica (Central Mexico, Yucatan,
and Guatemala). All three are in agreement and all three would make your
date of December 12, 1546 fall on 10 Caban (if your date is in the
Julian calendar) or 13 Manik (if in the Gregorian calendar) - not 4
Ahau. Either way, it is 100+ days out of alignment with the above
mentioned evidence for the tzolkin's placement at the time of the
conquest. If we count forward into modern times with this documented
tzolkin correlation, we find that the modern highland Maya, most notably
the Quiché Maya, are still following a tzolkin placement that is
congruent with this documented relationship. If we count forward to
2012, we find that December 21, 2012 falls on 4 Ahau. 

This correspondence is extremely important but often overlooked by those
proposing correlations based only on astronomical statistics. It is a
precise litmus test for any proposed correlation. This survival of the
tzolkin's correct placement in modern highland Guatemala, being
congruent with conquest-era data and documented by ethnographers, is the
final test. Only the GMT-2 584283 correlation satisfies the entire
spectrum of criteria that a proposed correlation must address. For
example, your correlation is 100+ days out of phase with this tzolkin
placement. How do you explain this dislocation? Even Lounsbury's much
cited 584285 argument is 2 days off, and would need to be explained by a
simultaneously orchestrated Pan-Mesoamerica shift of two days in the
tzolkin placement. This is not only extremely difficult to imagine
accomplishing, but would violate the sacred sequence of days and would
therefore be anathema to any self-respecting Mesoamerican  day-keeper. 

You wrote: "The truth is that only astronomy can solve the Maya
correlation problem."  I disagree; only an interdisciplinary set of
criteria can validate any proposed correlation. Reducing the number of
criteria that are meaningful only gives the illusion of correctness.
Meeting several sets of criteria established by different disciplines,
including Carbon-14, historical documents, ancient documents, modern
ethnographic data on the tzolkin, and astronomy, makes the verification
more rigorous, and by this methodology the 584283 is not only the best
candidate, it's the only candidate: 13.0.0.0.0 = 4 Ahau = December 21,
2012. 

John Major Jenkins
http://Alignment2012.com

-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org
[mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org] On Behalf Of Antoon Vollemaere
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 3:07 AM
To: AZTLAN
Subject: [Aztlan] No Apocalypse Maya in 2012

No APOCALYPSE Maya in December 2012. Why?

The special aspects of the Maya correlation problem are for example :
1) What is the real signification of the date 4 AHAU 8 CUMHU?
2) The period BEFORE 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu.
3) The period AFTER 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu till the Spanish Conquista.
4) The end of the Maya calendar, after 5200 Tun cycles of 360 days.

This message concerns only the first part. The zero point for our 
calendar is theoretically the birth of Jesus Christ. Every important 
ancient ethnical group had its starting point for their calendar. This 
was the case for the Egyptians, Chinese, Jews, Greek, Romans, Muslims, 
etc., as well as for the Maya. In their monument texts and in their 
pictorial manuscripts (codices) the Maya scribes indicated the number of

days passed since a base day called 4 AHAU 8 CUMHU. The Maya astronomer 
took in account every single day, without losing a day. If we are able 
to place this famous day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu in our Julian calendar system, 
it would be easy to pinpoint all the codices and monuments dates on our 
old Julian calendar scale and we will be able to write eventually a 
correct and honorable Mayan history. There are today at least 52 
different Maya calendar correlation propositions! The most striking fact

is that there are more than 1,000 years between the first correlation 
(Bowditch 14.01. - 3632) and the last correlation proposition (Vaillant 
2 259.04. - 2593) for the Maya base day 4 AHAU 8 CUMHU. This means that 
Maya history can be moved back or forwards, with a maximum of 1000 
years, depending of your choice of correlation number! In other words, 
one can falsify Maya history with many many centuries. And that is what 
unfortunately and sadly has happened. Since more than 100 years (1905 to

2007), every date and calendar information of monuments of, for example,

Palenque, Copán, Yaxchilan, Chichen-Itza, etc., or codices, is very 
wrongly calculated following the Goodman - Martinez - Thompson (GMT) 
correlations, with one of the following Julian Day Numbers (JDN). JDN 
584,280 03.09. -3113 GOODMAN (1905), first proposition
JDN 584,281 04.09. -3113 MARTINEZ (1918)
JDN 584,283 06.09. -3113 THOMPSON 2 (1950)
JDN 584,284 07.09. -3113 BEYER (1937)
JDN 584,285 08.09. -3113 THOMPSON 1 (1935)
JDN 584,286 09.09. -3113 LOUNSBURY (1978)
(2008 - 1905 =03 years.) Since long, many courageous students (more 
than 40) have tried to find a better and more correct correlation 
between the Maya calendar system and our European Julian (not 
Gregorian!) calendar. But the GMT correlations are very hard to die for 
so many human reasons. Nobody likes to correct their publications. 
Nobody seems to like the truth. Nobody is perfect, even mayanists; 
that’s very human.

When you use one of the GMT correlations, without an in-depth checking -

what almost every Mayanist seems to do, then you end the Maya calendar, 
after 13 BAKTUNS, or 5200 TUNS (cycles of 360 days), in december 2012. 
But... that is totally wrong. Why? Because everybody pays no attention 
to the fact that 4 AHAU 8 CUMHU is absolutely NOT the real zero point 
(0.0.0.0.0) of the Maya calendar, but it is a corrected solar position 
for a new count of the Maya days.
Let me explain why.

4 AHAU 8 CUMHU was indeed certainly not a real zero day because it was 
the 349th day of a Maya solar year starting with the day 7 EB. The 
question was to know how many days/years there were from the first real 
zero day of the Maya calendar till the new corrected day 4 AHAU 8 CUMHU?

As far as I can know, nobody has made before me an in-depth study of the

date signification, of the real meaning of the day 4 AHAU 8 CUMHU. By 
preparing my contribution for the International Congress of Americanists

at Rome (in 1972, yes I’m now heading for the cape of 80), I tried to 
reconstruct the period BEFORE 4 AHAU 8 CUMHU. It was an exiting research

without a computer, with a simple calculator. After a long busy 
Saturday’s work it was for me fantastic to find out that, after exactly 
1000 years of 360 days (2 BAKTUN + 10 KATUN), plus the normal 239 solar 
correction days, the Maya astronomers reached the famous day 4 AHAU 8 
CUMHU.

In other words, it means that, AFTER 4 AHAU 8 CUMHU, the Mayas needed 
only 10 BAKTUNS + 10 KATUN to reach the end of their amazing calendar. I

can tell you already that the end of the Maya calendar fell already on 
12 December 1546 (following the Vollemaere correlation), amazingly 
enough is this exactly a winter solstice.The Maya calendar is for me 
really a marvellous “Symphony of Time”! What were the consequences of 
this misleading choice of the GMT correlations? First of all, they were 
not based on astronomical facts but on incorrect Mayan/European date 
relations. The truth is that only astronomy can solved the Maya 
correlation problem. This is what we already did. We solved the Maya 
correlation problem in 1984 (see our bibliography on website America 
Antiqua III). We have on pages 51 - 58 of Codex Dresdensis a long 
sequence of a start day called 12 LAMAT 1 MUAN, 1400873 days after 4 
AHAU 8 CUMHU, followed by 69 columns of warnings (windows) for a very 
serious possibility of a coming eclipse. If one use, for example the 
Thompson correlation for this table, then we see clearly that his 
correlation is very wrong, because he warned only for 7 of the 14 solar 
eclipses correctly for a period of 11960 days (about 33 years). This is 
only 50 procent. Therefore alone must the GMT correlations be rejected. 
But there are so many other astronomical (eclipses) and ethnical reasons

(Aztecan Mexican presence in Maya region, etc) for rejection, to long to

explain now in one E-mail. Our correlation solution is 100 procent 
correct. You can find details in my 27 special correlation publications/

34 books and monographs, plus almost 200 contributions 
http://users.skynet.be/fa039055/voll3kat.htm
and also very briefly on my website AMERICA ANTIQUA III 
http://users.skynet.be/fa039055
http://users.skynet.be/fa039055/corrlkat.htm
http://users.skynet.be/fa039055/indexkat.html
http://users.skynet.be/fa039055/forgtgtm.htm
http://users.skynet.be/fa039055/thtable3.htm

I will gladly answer precise questions, individually or collectively, 
and if necessary point by point. I can enlarge my website at the end of 
the month and I’m preparing a series of Correlation .pdf files (ready on

short term) and the publication of a compact synthesis of all my 
correlation publications : “Codex Dresdensis 51-58 and TriTritos solves 
the Maya correlation problem”. Furthermore, I have the intention to come

to the USA, to visit my two (American) sons in the first half of 2008, 
and to give PowerPoint conferences, open for a correct scientifical 
debate, about “NO MAYA APOCALYPSE IN 2012 !” in planetariums and 
universities. It is a great and honorful challenge to give a correct 
history to the Mayas, after more than 100 years (a century) of wrong GMT

correlations.

Dr. Antoon Leon VOLLEMAERE
AMERICA ANTIQUA III
De Noterstraat 21
B.2800 MECHELEN - Belgium - Europe
antoon.vollemaere at skynet.be

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