Many people will know, if only through reference, of the Mayan prophecy which foretells the destruction of the Earth in 2012. Few people will know, however, that this is but one interpretation of the Mayan Long Count calendar. Numerous theories have been posited about the “end of the world” and include Earth’s collision with a passing planet, known as Planet X or “Nibiru” in the Mayan language, or a black hole, or the arrival of the next solar maximum. Despite all these grand theories on the Mayan calendar, many historians studying the Mayans have dismissed these claims as misrepresentation and scientists have observed this phenomenon as similar to the Y2K bug of the late 1990s.
These theories persist, however, and it is in part due to the profound and powerful art which the Mayans produced. It has often been described as some of the most beautiful of the classical New World period in its sculpture and architecture but it has a frequent link to death and the gods of death. A sculpture titled “The Mask of Death and Rebirth” discovered in Mexico and dated around 900AD represents the three stages of life (birth, middle life, death) encased in the head of another and is visually graphic and detail in its depictions of the stages of life.
It is not just the sculptures which refer to the idea of death or the Mayan fascination with destruction. The Mayan calendar is a detailed and powerful vision of time including past and future. According to this calendar, there were four previous “suns” before us which have all ended in cataclysm or destruction and this is where the date of the fifth age ending is said to derive from it. As a piece of artwork, it is beautiful. With seven circles each depicting different dates or times and the great detail in the face of the God in the centre of the piece with faces at the bottom of the calendar that face each other, it is visually stunning.
The calendar nonetheless is focused on the end of time, the end of stages or the end of the world. Mayan artwork is linked intrinsically with themes of death and destruction but it is only because they believed in rebirth that we are blessed with such powerful imagery in their artwork and that we interpret it to have negative connotations. It is important for us to visualise and embrace the philosophy of the Mayans, that their artwork is the promise of a better life, a better world. As visually stunning as it is, the message is simply beyond words.
By: Ian Caithness
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