Does Mayan Calendar Predict 2012 Apocalypse? Is 2012 a Doomsday?

The Mayan Calendar - The Mayan Prophecy for 2012

2008-01-07T20:04:00.000+08:00

The Mayan Calendar

The Mayan Calendar is something profoundly different than just a system to mark off the passage of time. The Mayan Calendar is above all a prophetic calendar that may help us understand the past and foresee the future. It is a calendar of the Ages that describes how the progression of Heavens and Underworlds condition the human consciousness and thus the frames for our thoughts and actions within a given Age.

The Mayan Calendar is not predicting the end of the world 2012, but the start of a new era; the golden age.

The Mayan Calendar - Sunday, December 23, 2012
The Mayan's predicted star constellations and eclipes of the sun and moon for centuries. They also predicted the end of time. Or did they?

More story http://www.experiencefestival.com/mayan_calendar

What's going to happen on December 21st 2012?

2007-06-22T07:42:00.000+08:00

Will the world end on 21st December 2012 because of the end of the Mayan calendar or because the winter solstice is "aligned" with the Milky Way?

It appears that Mayan ideas about time keeping and calendars were very cyclical. This is actually easy to understand because it's quite like our calendar which has cycles of various sizes very familiar to us. For example there is a:

1 Jan every year
day 1 every month
Monday every week
1am every day

The Mayan cycles were a bit more complex, such that every day in a 52 year period had a unique name from a combination of various different cycles (similar to the idea that there is a Monday 1st January only every 7 years or so). This 52 year cycle has is called a Calendar Round. To keep track of dates on longer time scales the Mayans then had what's known as the Long Count, which provides a unique numerical indicator for each day. Mayans did not count in base ten like we did, but usually instead in base 20 (although not always). The Mayan long count can be summarized as:

#days	Mayan count
1	1 kin
20	20 kin	1 uinal
360	360 kin	18 uinal	1 tun
7200	7200 kin	360 uinal	20 tun	1 kactun
144000	144000 kin	8000 uinal	400 tun	20 kactun	1 bactun

The name for a Mayan epoch apparently translates as 13 bactuns, which you can see is 13*144000 days or 5125.26 years (roughly). There is actually some minor disagreement over when the current Mayan long cycle started, but it was probably either August 11th or 13th 3114 BC, which means it comes to an end on either Dec 21st or 23rd 2012.

As I mentioned above the Mayan calendar was designed to be cyclical, so the fact that the long count comes to an end in Dec 2012, while having some significance for the Maya as the end of a great cycle (much like we celebrated the millennium (incorrectly as it happens) on Dec 31st 1999), does not mean that the "world will come to an end". It's actually true that there are Mayan names for periods of time longer than 13 bactuns, so that their calendar doesn't even end then, and even if it did there is no evidence to suggest that they (or anyone for that matter) have any special knowledge about the end of the world.

There are however a lot of theories knocking around the Internet which use the end of this calendar cycle to predict the end of the world. They often also mention the fact that Dec 21st is the winter solstice, and that the Sun on the solstice that year is "aligned" with the plane of the galaxy. On the winter solstice, the Sun always has a Declination of -23.5 degrees, and a Right Ascension of 18 hours, but exactly where this is on the sky relative to more distant stars changes very slowly due to the "precession of the equinoxes". We have a posted answer explaining this effect but how it's important in this answer (and how it was first noticed) is by the fact that it moves the position of the equinoxes, and solstices with a period of 26,000 years in a complete circle around the sky westward along the ecliptic. So the position of the winter solstice moves 360 degrees in 26,000 years. That means that it moves 360/26000 = 0.01 degrees a year. Defining an exact boundary for the plane of the Milky Way is tough, but it's at least 10-20 degrees wide across much of the sky, meaning that the solstice can be described as being "in the plane of the Milky Way" for 700-1400 years! To put it another way, the winter solstice that just past (2005) was only 0.1 degrees away from where it will be in 2012, a distance smaller than the size of the Sun itself (which is about 0.5 degrees in diameter). In any case the Sun crosses the plane of the Galaxy twice every year as we orbit around it, with no ill effect on Earth.

continue here: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=686

End of the World 2012

2007-06-22T07:34:00.000+08:00

Yes! 2012... shall be the year of reckoning. 2012 shall be remembered in history of mankind forever. Why?

From the position of planetary movements and astrological calculations... the significance of number three for present civilization is immense. The 12th year of 21st century totals number three.

Talking of 2012 means... we have already stepped into the 21st century which numerically totals three. The 12th year also totals to three. A significant upheaval on the whole shall be the order of the day.

Adharma (lawlessness) would be rooted out for ever. 2012 and beyond is the period of spiritual elevation. 2012 rings start of golden era. Beyond 2012 it shall be harmony and peace all over.

The society would have learnt its lessons. Unethical practices and wanton desires would take a back seat. The lure of money and position would cease to exist. A pot of gold found lying in the backyard would not have a claimant!

The glitter of gold and diamonds would be passé. The spiritual wisdom would become the order of the day. 2012 is the year of sacrifice. Both... the sinner (committer of crime) and the innocent will be sacrificed. One who has committed crime shall face the gallows. Those who uphold and cherish values in the society would sacrifice their lives for the sake of humanity.

The sacrifice by the eminent would be by will. To cleanse the society of its ills in 2012... many would come forward and sacrifice self on the altar of God. Unless that happens... the upheaval in the society is not possible. The blood of the innocent would be spilled. There is no other remedy.Every individual who is found guilty by the society would be done away outright. The legal laws, judiciary, administration and the political setup would not provide a much needed respite to them. 2012 is the year of Florence Nightingale. The dawn of the New Era (the golden period) could not occur without innocents laying their lives for the sake of their country.

continue here: http://www.godrealized.com/2012.html

21 December 2012, The Mayan Calendar End-Date

2007-06-22T07:30:00.000+08:00

Most of us are not archaeologists or astronomers, anthropologists or astrologers. Yet the majority of what is written about one of the most exciting and relevant subjects of our day - the approaching Winter Solstice 2012 end-date of the Mayan Calendar - appears in words aimed at specialists and couched in language that can be hard to read. This article is written for the Everyday Earthling who may be hearing a lot about the Mayans, their calendars, hieroglyphs and mysterious temples scattered throughout the jungles of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.

Let us begin with some questions. Why is there so much talk about the "end of the Mayan calendar" and what does it mean? Is there something significant we should know about the Winter Solstice date of December 21, 2012? How were the Mayans able to track long periods of time and why would they want to? Why should we care about the Mayans today? Is there anything we can learn from them? I'll begin by sharing how my own interest in the subject developed and go on from there.

I first learned about the Mayans in 1987 from Jose Arguelles' book The Mayan Factor. It was during the months leading up to the event known as Harmonic Convergence that Arguelles, artist and visionary, introduced me to the 20 Mayan daysigns and the thirteen Mayan numbers - and to the wonderfully engaging and mysterious 260 day Mayan ceremonial calendar, called the Tzolkin (pronounced chol-kin). My pursuit of knowledge about pre-Columbian culture had begun.

continue here: http://www.crawford2000.co.uk/maya.htm

The End of The World

2007-06-22T07:28:00.000+08:00

Compiled by Dee Finney

The sacred Aztec calendar is properly called the Eagle Bowl. It represents the solar deity Tonatiuh. The amazingly accurate calendar has been in use in various forms for more than 2,000 years. A Zapotec prophecy, based on the Eagle Bowl, states:

“After Thirteen Heavens of Decreasing Choice, and Nine Hells of Increasing Doom, the Tree of Life shall blossom with a fruit never before known in the creation, and that fruit shall be the New Spirit of Men.”

The 13 Heavens and 9 Hells were each 52 years long (1,144 years total). Each of the 9 Hells were to be worse than the last. On the final day of the last Hell (August 17, 1987), Tezcatlipoca, god of death, would remove his mask of jade to reveal himself as Quetzelcoatl, god of peace.

In the mythology of the Aztecs, the first age of mankind ended with the animals devouring humans. The second age was finished by wind, the third by fire, and the fourth by water. The present fifth epoch is called Nahui-Olin (Sun of Earthquake), which began in 3113 BC and will end on December 24, 2011. It will be the last destruction of human existence on Earth. The date coincides closely with that determined by the brothers McKenna in The Invisible Landscape as “the end of history” indicated by their computer analysis of the ancient Chinese oracle-calendar, the I Ching.

The Mayan calendar is divided into Seven Ages of Man. The fourth epoch ended in August 1987. The Mayan calendar comes to an end on Sunday, December 23, 2012. Only a few people will survive the catastrophe that ensues. In the fifth age, humanity will realize its spiritual destiny. In the sixth age, we will realize God within ourselves, and in the seventh age we will become so spiritual that we will be telepathic.

continue here: http://www.greatdreams.com/end-world.htm

The Bible warns us not to trust in astrology

2007-06-22T05:22:00.000+08:00

Turn Away from Astrology, the Occult,Mediums, Divination and Sorcery

God tells us to turn to him and renounce the occult.

Many people, including Christians, think it's harmless to look at astrological charts or engage in various forms of spiritism. They think it is fun or entertaining.Others look to astrology, divination, and mediums for guidance, not just entertainment.But God clearly warns against such practices in many Bible verses. Some reasons the Scriptures warn against engaging in any form of the occult:

We are opening ourselves up to spirits other than God's.
We are not looking to God for guidance, but to the occult.
We are turning away from true faith in Jesus.
We are disobeying God's Word, the Bible. The Israelites often made the same mistake and turned from God, although God clearly warned them about this.

When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so (Deuteronomy 18:9-14). Saul, Israel's first king, started out well. He expelled mediums and spiritists from the land, yet then violated God’s word and his own conscience by consulting a medium (1 Samuel 28:3-25). His end was tragic (1 Samuel 31:1-6). New Testament Christians turned from sorcery. Let their example serve as an inspiration and a warning.

Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power (Acts 19:18-20). These verses are given to us as warnings. God wants us to learn from the examples he gives in the Bible, and to avoid making the same mistakes. He loves us and wants us to turn from anything that will get between us and the joyful life he offers!

Warnings about mediums and spiritists

Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 19:31).I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people (Leviticus 20:6).When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? (Isaiah 8:19).

Warnings about astrology

And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven (Deuteronomy 4:19).... and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky (Deuteronomy 17:3).All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. Here are no coals to warm anyone; here is no fire to sit by. That is all they can do for you—these you have labored with and trafficked with since childhood. Each of them goes on in his error; there is not one that can save you (Isaiah 47:13-15).Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel.This is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them" (Jeremiah 10:1-2).In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom (Daniel 1:20).

continue here: http://www.dougbrittonbooks.com/onlinebiblestudies-newagespiritualwarfare/astrologyoccultmediumsdivinationsorcery.asp

What's the significance of December 21, 2012

2007-06-22T05:19:00.000+08:00

Is this the end? December 21, 2012 (or December 12, 2012), the Mayan calendar's cycle will stop and restart. This Bible study encourages Christians, as well as astrologers and spiritualists, not to focus on yet another sure-to-fail prediction, and instead to focus on responding to God himself. Dec. 21, 2012 (or Dec. 12, 2012) will not have the impact many expect.

Many spiritualists, astrologers, and other people involved in "New Age" religions or "spirituality" think Dec. 21, 2012 is going to be a big day. (Some emphasize December 12, 2012 instead.) They say that the ancient Mayan calendar's cycle will stop and then restart then, and that something significant will take place. Their predictions range from cataclysmic events to the world being "reborn."

continue here: http://www.dougbrittonbooks.com/onlinebiblestudies-newagespiritualwarfare/mayancalendarprediction-december212012.asp

World Mysteries - Strange Artifacts - Mayan and Aztec Calendars

2007-06-22T05:16:00.000+08:00

Strange Artifacts

Historically, the Aztec name for the huge basaltic monolith is Cuauhxicalli Eagle Bowl, but it is universally known as the Aztec Calendar or Sun Stone. It was during the reign of the 6th Aztec monarch in 1479 that this stone was carved and dedicated to the principal Aztec deity: the sun. The stone has both mythological and astronomical significance. It weighs almost 25 tons, has a diameter of just under 12 feet, and a thickness of 3 feet.

On December 17th, 1760 the stone was discovered, buried in the "Zocalo" (the main square) of Mexico City. The viceroy of New Spain at the time was don Joaquin de Monserrat, Marquis of Cruillas. Afterwards it was embedded in the wall of the Western tower of the metropolitan Cathedral, where it remained until 1885. At that time it was transferred to the national Museum of Archaeology and History by order of the then President of the Republic, General Porfirio Diaz.

continue here: http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_3.htm

The Mayan Prophecies

2007-06-22T05:14:00.000+08:00

Published 1995 (c) by Adrian Gilbert and Maurice Cotterell

Short Overview.The authors demonstrate how the Mayan Holy Number 1,366,560 days, known as the birth of Venus and the basis of their calendar, indicates ancient knowledge of sun spot cycles and their effect on the human race. They explore the popular myth of Quetzalcoatl and its origins in Maya ideas concerning the sun cycle.

They show the links between the pre-Columbian civilizations of Central America and the Old World, in particular Egypt. Examining the archaeological record, they find further evidence for linking the origins of Mayan civilization with the mythical lost continent of Atlantis, which according to Plato was destroyed in a series of catastrophes.

They reveal that the Mayan calendar prophesies the end of our own "Age of the Jaguar", the fifth and final "sun" in 2012 AD. This, according to Cotterell's sun-spot theories, will be brought about by a sudden reversal in the earth's magnetic field.

The book is lavishly illustrated with 40 colour plates as well as many black and white pictures and diagrams. It is a book full of startling discoveries not only about the past and the seemingly remote civilization of the Maya but ourselves and the destiny of the human race.

Introduction

Mexico is a strange country that contains many secrets. On March 4 1519 Hernan Cortes, with 11 ships, 600 foot soldiers, 16 horses and some artillery landed on the coast near what was to become Vera Cruz. By August 13 1521 he had conquered the Aztec Empire, the most powerful state in all of the Americas. Part of the reason for his success was a case of mistaken identities, the Indians believing that he was a god named Quetzalcoatl whose return had long been prophesied.

The Spanish for their part were both fascinated and appalled by what they found in this 'New World'. To them the indigenous religion, which included human sacrifice on a grand scale, was both barbarous and satanic. Accordingly they set about destroying it without trace. Whole libraries of colourful bark-books were burnt and those natives who did not die from disease, hunger and over-work were forcibly converted to Catholicism.

continue here: http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/mayan/

21st December 2012 - the date when they believed the world would end

2007-06-22T05:11:00.000+08:00

Some insights and visual presentations can be found here.

There are many websites related to 2012 - due mainly to the Mayan prediction. The reason the Maya expected the world to end isn't clear. Their calendar was composed of various cycles and there are many and various theories about how these relate to cycles in the universe that could effect us badly.

continue here: http://www.exodus2006.com/2012.htm

Will the world end in 2012?

2007-06-22T05:08:00.000+08:00

Will the world end in 2012? No, it won’t.

Will there be a major cataclysm in 2012? Quite possibly.

Although this book concentrates on a potential global catastrophe at a random date within our immediate future, there are three powerful arguments for that date being Dec 21, 2012. I present them here, not as certainties, but as possibilities worth considering.

continue here: http://survive2012.com/why_2012_maya.php

Another 2012 documentary

2007-06-22T05:03:00.000+08:00

Pre-empting the 2008 release of Time of the Sixth Sun, "The Shift of the Ages" will be released on June 23, 2007. It has been commissioned by Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj, a 13th Generation Mayan Elder and present head of the Guatemalan Council of 440 Elders.

This chap seems to be the real deal (I found him on a non-2012 website), lending a lot of credibility to this doco being representative of the thoughts & feelings of the present-day Mayan people. Read about the film here.

continue here: http://news.survive2012.com/2007/06/another-2012-documentary.html

What will happen in 2012?

2007-06-22T04:56:00.000+08:00

According to their calendar, the Maya believed that their world would end on Dec 21, 2012. Of all the dates put forth by prophets and cultures for a doomsday, this is one with an authentic almost eerie feel to it. But what will happen? A global cataclysm is one possibility. Presented here is enough information to help you decide - be you an expert or a beginner.

What is Survive 2012?

Survive 2012 is a non-fiction book I am working on. Progress is currently slow as need to work hard in the corporate world to build the necessary funds. My thoughts & plans are constantly evolving in line with my continual research. Survive 2012 is also the name of this website which is an online version of the completed chapters, some half-finished chapters and some other bits and pieces. A brief explanation of my theory is here.

continue here: http://survive2012.com/

ALL ABOUT 2012

2007-06-22T04:47:00.000+08:00

The Tzolkin is a 260-day calendar based around the period of human gestation. It is composed of 20 day-signs, each of which has 13 variations, and was (and still is) used to determine character traits and time harmonics, in a similar way to Western astrology. The Maya also used a 365-day calendar called the Haab, and a Venus calendar, plus others. They measured long time periods by means of a Long Count, in which one 360-day year (a "Tun"), consists of 18 x 20-day "months" ("Uinals"). Twenty of these Tuns is a Katun; 20 Katuns is a Baktun (nearly 400 years); and 13 Baktuns adds up to a "Great Cycle" of 1,872,000 days, ( 5200 Tuns, or about 5125 years).

Mayan scholars have been attempting to correlate the Long Count with our Western Gregorian calendar, since the beginning of this century. There has been massive variation in the suggested correlations, but as early as 1905, Goodman suggested a correlation only 3 days from the most popular one today. Known as the GMT correlation, or "correlation # 584283", this was finalized in 1950, and puts the start of the Great Cycle ( day 0.0.0.0.0) on 11th August 3114 BC, and the end-date (known as 13.0.0.0.0.) as 21st December 2012.
Jose Arguelles has pointed out that the Tzolkin is a harmonic of the Great Cycle, and can be used to map history, as if it is measuring not individual gestation but species gestation, since 5 Great Cycles add to exactly 26,000 Tuns; the "Grand Year" or precession of the equinoxes - a higher harmonic of 260.
See: Mayan Database

Sunspot Cycles; Adrian Gilbert and Maurice Cotterell, in their book the Mayan Prophecies, say that the end of the Great Cycle is the culmination of a series of long-term sunspot cycles which will flip the sun’s magnetic field, causing earthquakes and flooding on earth. Moreover, the changing magnetic field will alter the endocrine production of the pineal gland. John Major Jenkins has pointed out that the detailed graphs of the cycles do not actually show significant termination points at the end of the Great Cycle; click here for Jenkins' full unabridged review of The Mayan Prophecies.

continue here : http://www.greatdreams.com/2012.htm

Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse?

2007-06-22T04:38:00.000+08:00

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald,

Special to USA TODAY

With humanity coming up fast on 2012, publishers are helping readers gear up and count down to this mysterious — some even call it apocalyptic — date that ancient Mayan societies were anticipating thousands of years ago.

Since November, at least three new books on 2012 have arrived in mainstream bookstores. A fourth is due this fall. Each arrives in the wake of the 2006 success of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, which has been selling thousands of copies a month since its release in May and counts more than 40,000 in print. The books also build on popular interest in the Maya, fueled in part by Mel Gibson's December 2006 film about Mayan civilization, Apocalpyto.
Authors disagree about what humankind should expect on Dec. 21, 2012, when the Maya's "Long Count" calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era.

Journalist Lawrence Joseph forecasts widespread catastrophe in Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization's End. Spiritual healer Andrew Smith predicts a restoration of a "true balance between Divine Feminine and Masculine" in The Revolution of 2012: Vol. 1, The Preparation. In 2012, Daniel Pinchbeck anticipates a "change in the nature of consciousness," assisted by indigenous insights and psychedelic drug use.

The buildup to 2012 echoes excitement and fear expressed on the eve of the new millennium, popularly known as Y2K, though on a smaller scale, says Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor at Publishers Weekly. She says publishers seem to be courting readers who believe humanity is creating its own ecological disasters and desperately needs ancient indigenous wisdom.
FIND MORE STORIES IN:

"The convergence I see here is the apocalyptic expectations, if you will, along with the fact that the environment is in the front of many people's minds these days," Garrett says. "Part of the appeal of these earth religions is that notion that we need to reconnect with the Earth in order to save ourselves."

continue here: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-03-27-maya-2012_n.htm

THE HOW AND WHY OF THE MAYAN END DATE IN 2012 A.D.

2007-06-22T04:25:00.000+08:00

THE HOW AND WHY OF THE MAYAN END DATE IN 2012 A.D.
by John Major Jenkins

Originally published in the Dec-Jan '95 issue of Mountain Astrologer.

Why did the ancient Mayan or pre-Maya choose December 21st, 2012 A.D., as the end of their Long Count calendar? This article will cover some recent research. Scholars have known for decades that the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan "Long Count" system of timekeeping was set to end precisely on a winter solstice, and that this system was put in place some 2300 years ago. This amazing fact - that ancient Mesoameri- can skywatchers were able to pinpoint a winter solstice far off into the future - has not been dealt with by Mayanists. And why did they choose the year 2012? One immediately gets the impression that there is a very strange mystery to be confronted here. I will be building upon a clue to this mystery reported by epigrapher Linda Schele in Maya Cosmos (1994). This article is the natural culmination of the research relating to the Mayan Long Count and the precession of the equinoxes that I explored in my recent book Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies (Borderlands Science and Research Foundation, 1994).

The Mayan Long Count

Just some basics to get us started. The Maya were adept skywatchers. Their Classic Period is thought to have lasted from 200 A.D. to 900 A.D., but recent archeological findings are pushing back the dawn of Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica. Large ruin sites indicating high culture with distinctly Mayan antecedents are being found in the jungles of Guatemala dating back to before the common era. And even before this, the Olmec civilization flourished and developed the sacred count of 260 days known as the tzolkin. The early Maya adopted two different time keeping systems, the "Short Count" and the Long Count. The Short Count derives from combining the tzolkin cycle with the solar year and the Venus cycle of 584 days. In this way, "short" periods of 13, 52 and 104 years are generated. Unfortunately, we won't have occasion to dwell on the properties of the so-called Short Count system here. The Long Count system is somewhat more abstract, yet is also related to certain astronomical cycles. It is based upon nested cycles of days multiplied at each level by that key Mayan number, twenty:

Number of Days / Term

1 / Kin (day)
20 / Uinal
360 / Tun
7200 / Katun
144000 / Baktun

Notice that the only exception to multiplying by twenty is at the tun level, where the uinal period is instead multiplied by 18 to make the 360-day tun. The Maya employed this counting system to track an unbroken sequence of days from the time it was inaugurated. The Mayan scholar Munro Edmonson believes that the Long Count was put in place around 355 B.C. This may be so, but the oldest Long Count date as yet found corresponds to 32 B.C. We find Long Count dates in the archeological record beginning with the baktun place value and separated by dots. For example: 6.19.19.0.0 equals 6 baktuns, 19 katuns, 19 tuns, 0 uinals and 0 days. Each baktun has 144000 days, each katun has 7200 days, and so on. If we add up all the values we find that 6.19.19.0.0 indicates a total of 1007640 days have elapsed since the Zero Date of 0.0.0.0.0. The much discussed 13-baktun cycle is completed 1872000 days (13 baktuns) after 0.0.0.0.0. This period of time is the so called Mayan "Great Cycle" of the Long Count and equals 5125.36 years.

continue here: http://www.levity.com/eschaton/Why2012.html