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Mission Statement
The Center for 2012 Studies is a think-tank dedicated to investigating how the ancient Maya conceived and thought about the 13-Bak'tun period ending of December 21, 2012. Evidence from a variety of disciplines will be assessed. Opinions and statements of scholars and investigators will be discussed. Links to pertinent academic resources will be provided.
The Center for 2012 Studies is not a place for addressing the wide spectrum of pop culture manifestations in the "2012 phenomenon" or the mass media's distortion and abuse of Maya tradition. There are other places where that has been and can be pursued. Here, I will provide a clear space for investigating the origins of the Long Count system and the evidence that 2012 was an intentional artifact of the early Maya's calendrical cosmology.
*All text and items linked on this page are copyrighted, All World and Translation rights are Reserved. To inquire about replicating and reprinting rights:
***the2012story@gmail.com***To offer feedback, debate, or discussion, on any of the essays, send email to: The2012story@gmail.com with the subject line "Center for 2012 Studies"
Featured Review-Essay of 2016:
November 12, 2016. In May of 2016 Maya archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni published yet another book that critiqued my work and 2012 ideas (his first appeared in 2009). As with his previous book, Aveni's new book (also published by the University Press of Colorado) contained many errors of fact and citation which painted for his readers a distorted and factually wrong picture of my work and background. Last year I requested that similar errors in his 2009 book on the 2012 topic be corrected, but all of the errors I pointed out were denied by both the author and his university press publisher, and when I appealed to the AAUP (the Association of American University Presses), they refused to take any action. It was a clear case of science, scientists, and academic publishing failing to do science and abide by their stated principles of error checking and correction.
This extraordinary situation, along with five other examples involving other scholars and scientists, was documented in my 2015 book Ivory Tower, House of Cards: How Scholars and Their Publishers Violate Science. The new situation, this year, played out differently, for two likely reasons which I discuss in my review. The end result is that this time all the errors I pointed out were duly acknowledged and corrected; the unsold remains of the first printing of Aveni's book Apocalypse Anxiety were pulped, and a corrected second printing and eBook were released in October, 2016. This signals a sea-change victory in correcting the false and inaccurate treatment of my work by "experts" who have misrepresented 2012 and published their factually flawed writings in peer-reviewed academic publications. The attempt to maintain old-school ideas about Maya astronomy, the World Age doctrine of period-ending world-renewal, and the precession of the equinoxes in Mesoamerican thought does not serve progress, nor does it have the support of facts and evidence. The piece is "Hand-wringing in Maya Studies: Approved Corrections to the Second Printing of Anthony Aveni's Apocalypse Anxiety."Additional new essays completed in 2016 include:
January 5, 2016. "Analysis of Astronomy Associated with the Dates on Zacpetén Altar 1".
June 2, 2016. "New Discoveries at the Maya Observatory in Chichén Itzá". (A much shorter version of my featured new essay for 2015, below.)
August 11, 2016. "The Ballgame Period-Ending on Xunantunich Panel 3, Clause 3".
In addition, I now make available my 2014 essay published in Clavis Journal. "Lord Jaguar's 2012 Sacrifice: Astrotheology and Magical Invocations in a Seventh-Century Maya Inscription"
Featured Review of 2015:
The 9th Edition of Michael Coe's classic book The Maya, released in June of 2015. Coe's 1966 book launched the 2012-doomsday meme. A startling update / revision was offered in this 9th edition, now co-authored with Stephen Houston.
Featured New Breakthrough Discovery of 2015:
"Chichen Itza Panel 1 and the 3-11 Pik Triple Station." January 23-24, 2015. Several discoveries interface here so that we can understand what the 9th-century Chichen Itza king, K'ak Upakal, was doing with the Caracol observatory, and how he presented himself as a great integrator of opposing cultural and cosmological worldviews --- the higher "third" that unites the dualing two. Panel 1 contains a 3-11 Pik Triple Station (a precession station). I determined this was a galactic alignment date in 870 AD. I also identified Captain Sun Disk and Captain Serpent on the circular plaque, and an eclipse date. Other items come into play, such that my Three Cosmic Center thesis and my interpretation of the cosmological polarity dynamic reconciled at Chichen Itza --- published in my 1998 book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 --- find solid support. To illustrate this I provide a chapter excerpt from that book.
Featured Publications:
The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History. 2009. New York, London: Tarcher/Penguin Books. Released in early October. Related: Review of The 2012 Story in The Institute of Maya Studies Explorer, Vol. 39 Issue 1.
The breakthrough book! Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date. 1998. See information page with Amazon link.
"Approaching 2012: Modern Misconceptions versus Reconstructing Ancient Maya Perspectives" in 2012: Decoding the Countercultural Apocalypse (ed. Dr. Joseph Gelfer), Preface by Dr. Michael Coe. Related: Review of the above anthology by Lance Storm, Australian Journal of Parapsychology. Also related:
My review of 2012: Decoding the Countercultural Apocalypse (2011, ed Joseph Gelfer).
"Lord Jaguar's 2012 Sacrifice: Astrotheology and Magical Invocations in a 7th-century Maya Inscription" in Clavis Journal, Vol. 3. November 2014.
"Astronomy in the Tortuguero Inscriptions." Paper presented at the 75th meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA, www.saa.org). St Louis, April 15, 2010. See the Abstract on page 130 of this SAA publication. Also related:
Public Debate / Discussion about my SAA paper among critics and scholars, sponsored by the Maya Exploration Center. November-December 2010. (Published January 2011.)
"The Coining of the Realm (of the 2012 Phenomenon): A Critique of the Whitesides and Hoopes Essay" in Zeitschrift für Anomalistik, Band 14 (2014), Nr. 1. Related follow-up comments: "Deceptive Scholars Refuse to Correct Factual Errors in their Peer-Reviewed Study" and "Mayanism: An Ideological Prison Invented by John Hoopes."
The following three pieces were published by the Institute of Maya Studies, 2010-2012:
"Rulership and Rhetoric: Lord Jaguar and the Astronomy of Tortuguero Monument 6" in The Institute of Maya Studies Explorer, Vol. 39, Issue 12. December 2010.
"Photographic Clarification of Lord Jaguar's Birthday and the P4 Glyph on Tortuguero Monument 6." (Report on Field Trip to Mexico, March 2011). The Institute of Maya Studies Explorer, Vol. 40, Issue 12. December 2011. A more detailed analysis is here.
"12/21/2012: The Game Ball Goes Through the Goal Ring!" The Institute of Maya Studies Explorer, Vol. 41, Issue 12. December 2012.
"Astronomy and Mythology: Reconstructing What 2012 Meant to the Ancient Maya." November 2012. Essay written for publication in the New England Archaeological Research Association Journal (NEARA), based on my presentation at NEARA in April 2012. Not published due to length and time constraint (i.e, the end of 2012).
"Fear and Loathing in 2012-Land" in You Are Still Being Lied To, ed. Russ Kick (New York: The Disinfo Company). January 2009.
"2012: How the Ancient Maya Saw It." Published in the Lonely Planet Belize Guide, 2011.
"Heretics: Truth Tellers Who Upset the Protectors of Consensus Lies" in The Heretic Magazine, Volume 1, ed. Andrew Gough. August 2012.
"Synopsis. The Astronomy of Baktun 13: December 21st, 2012 AD." I like to throw this in for some historical perspective. This one-page synopsis was distributed at the Institute of Maya Studies in 1997-1998, and was sent to scholars along with my invitation to receive my book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012. In concise language, it presents the astronomical aspect of my "2012 alignment theory." The title was also used for my IMS presentation, given at the Miami Museum of Science in August 1997 (see transcription of this presentation below).
Featured Presentations:
"Lord Jaguar and the Astronomy of Tortuguero Monument 6." Presentation at the Insttute of Maya Studies, January 19, 2011. In six parts on Youtube.
At Earth Keepers, Hot Springs, Arkansas. December 2012.
The audio portion of my presentation in Copan, Honduras, "Echoes of the Galactic Alignment through the Maya Classic Period," for The Great Return conference. December 19, 2012.
At the Megalithomania conferences: "Maya Temples: Time, Astronomy, and Spiritual Teachings." First clip. Second clip. Third clip. U.K. and U.S. 2011.
Casual book store talk, Columbia, Missouri. February 2008.
"Not About Doomsday." Interview w/ Regina Meredith. Sedona, AZ. October 2005.
"A Walking Tour of the Izapa Ballcourt," with John Major Jenkins. 2008.
During the historic Izapa and the Birth of Time tour and conference, June 2010, speaking to the Tapachula Town Council.
"Introducing the Ballcourt Monument Park near Izapa". June 2012.
"Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 with John Major Jenkins." At the "Final Odyssey" 2012 conference in San Francisco. 2008. In four parts on Youtube. Of related interest, my comments during the Men's Panel at this conference (see, e.g., the 7:00 mark of Part 2).
Special Offering: "The Astronomy of Baktun 13: December 21st, 2012 AD." Transcription of my presentation at the Institute of Maya Studies on August 20, 1997. With photos, new footnotes, and list of slides. Here we see articulated the early key elements of my pioneering 2012 reconstruction work, echoed much later by other Maya scholars (in their publications of 2011, 2012, and 2015).
Featured Interviews:
KPFA Berkeley "Against the Grain" with C.S. Soong. March 2011 (radio). (No longer available on the KPFA website so I provide the link to my website.)
Interview for the Examiner (print). September 2012.
Interview on Red Ice Radio with Henrik Palmgren. December 9, 2012.
"Behind the Scenes" interview with Richard Garner on The One Network (Canada). November 2011.
Interview on the Red Carpet at the 2012 doomsday movie premiere, November 4, 2009. Related: "Teen Hollywood" coverage of the premiere, and interview. Also related:
Interview in Time Magazine, with Stephen Snyder. November 19, 2009.
Feature piece on my work in the New York Times. July 2007. Also here.
CKUW radio, Winnepeg, Canada. "These Changing Times" with Jarrett Cole. Three-part interview in September-November 2013 - one, two, three. Interview in June 2015.
"2012 Unveiled: An Interview with John Major Jenkins," with Carrie Grossman. Featured interview in Common Ground Magazine (print). November 2011.
Interview for Graham Hancock documentary / website. Mexico, January 2010.
Interview on Marty Leeds' Mathemagical Radio Hour, Episode 3. July 2014.
Interview with Jimmy Church on "Fade to Black." No. 46. April 2014.
NRG Daily interview with Rita Louise. This must be from 2002 or 2003.
CNN Interview, early 2009. A comparison between the published piece and the original email exchange with the interviewer.
Selected Trip Reports:
The Great Return Conference in Copan:
Trip Report: "The 13th Baktun Completion." January 6, 2013
(My Baktun-ending trip to Mexico, Guatemala, and Copan in Honduras, December 14 - 30, 2012).Inca-Alchemy. The Trip Report from the Peru Tour / Conference. December 28, 2013 - January 9, 2014. Ollantaytambo and the Milky Way's center.
Trip Report: Reflections on the Symbiosis Eclipse Gathering. Pyramid Lake, Nevada. May 2012. And: June Venus Transit.
Maya Dreamtime Conference. September-October 1999. Trip Report. Glastonbury, England. Also contains Copenhagen.
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The Essays - The Center for 2012 Studies:
"Astronomy in the Tortuguero Inscriptions." John Major Jenkins. Paper presented at the 75th meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (www.saa.org). St Louis, April 15, 2010. See the Abstract on page 130 of this SAA publication: http://saa.org/Portals/0/SAA/Meetings/Individual%20Abstracts.pdf.
"The Maya Exploration Center Facebook Discussion on the Astronomy of 2012 and Tortuguero Monument 6." A critique and discussion of my SAA paper (linked above), sponsored by the Maya Exploration Center and hosted on Facebook in November-December 2010. Compiled by John Major Jenkins, January 2011. 212 pages. Contributors include Barb MacLeod, Michael Grofe, Carlos Barrera Atuesta, Ed Barnhart, Stanley Guenter, Robert Sitler, John Major Jenkins, Geoff Stray, Miguel Sague, and Gerardo Aldana.
"Photographic Clarification of Lord Jaguars Birthday and the P4 Glyph on Tortuguero Monument 6." John Major Jenkins. June 16, 2011. The results of a visit to the Carlos Pellicer Museum on March 28, 2011 to examine Tortuguero Monument 6. Includes new photographs by the author.
"The Birth-Sacrifice Monument." John Major Jenkins. Posted online July 8, 2011.
An examination of the iconography and setting of a previously undocumented large carved boulder near the pre-Classic site of Izapa in southern Chiapas. Explores its relationships with Maya Creation Myth and symbolism at nearby Izapa. Includes photos of two additional undocumented carved boulders.Email exchange with Dr Ed Barnhart, July 2010. This email exchange with the Director of the Maya Exploration Center resulted from my SAA presentation in April, 2010 (linked above). It led to the Maya Exploration Center Facebook Discussion in November-December, 2010 (also linked above).
"Review-Essay of Dennis Tedlocks Book 2000 Years of Mayan Literature (2010)." April 10, 2010. Some have criticized Tedlock's re-languaging of the names of Maya sites, deities, and temples. Unfortunately, this distracts from his many compelling observations about Maya astronomy and mythology, which I focus on in my review-essay. Namely, Tedlock repeatedly demonstrates that the dark rift in the Milky Way is an important reference point for ritual events. He also alludes, albeit obliquely and incompletely, to the era-2012 alignment. He also elaborates on the 2012 perspective that he and Barbara Tedlock presented at the Tulane "2012" conference in February 2009.
"Dating the Construction of the Izapan Ballcourt, and Corrections on the Study of Astronomy in the Izapan Ballcourt." October 18, 2011. Summary: First, there is no hard evidence that dates the construction of the Izapan ballcourt to the Classic Period or post-Classic Period, as insinuated by the Brigham Young University (BYU) archaeologists who studied the site. Rather, the C-14 dates that were taken from Mound 125a, which "adjoins" the ballcourt, are in fact pre-Classic and Middle pre-Classic. Clarifications of statements made by the BYU archaeologists are provided, and their assumptions about the original function of the ballcourt are questioned. Second, misleading statements and citations that don't check out by one Maya scholar are corrected, regarding the history of the study of astronomy in the Izapan ballcourt. Third, one example of academic omission in citing my earlier published work on Izapan iconography and astronomy is discussed, and corrected.
"A Tripartite Figure from the Izapa Group F Ballcourt." This essay, written in early 2007 and originally titled "Three Mini-Essays on the Trinary Structure of Maya Cosmology," explores the tripartite symbolism of a figure found in the mound at the west end of the Izapa ballcourt. It draws from the work of Susannah Ekholm and offers a composite image of the reconstructed figure. The tripartite symbolism is supportive of the three-level symbolism I have proposed for Izapa (Jenkins 1998), which is identifiable in the geographical layout around the site (ocean, land, sky), as well as in the three main monument groups (A, B, and F) with their respective "cosmic centers" and associated deities. Two additional notes in this essay explore a tripartite clan structure in Highland Maya society and the three-level ritual symbolism of metates and thrones.
"The Comalcalco '2012' Date - an Academic / Media Rerun." A response to the AP piece of November 2011 in which a purported "discovery" of a second 2012 date is announced by INAH in Mexico. This piece is designed to concisely address and clarify the background to this story, which is actually a rerun of earlier events. November 29, 2011.
"Toward Reconstructing the Ixil/Quiché Venus Calendar." (Or: How the Dresden Codex Venus Calendar placement (November 18th, 934 A.D. = 1 Ahau 18 Kayab) evolved into one possibly used by the Highland Maya of Guatemala.) Here's one from the archives, folks! Written in 1992, this essay explores an adjustment mechanism to the predictive Venus Round system evident in th Dresden Codex a possible and putative one-time shift around 1246 AD among one or more Maya groups in Highland Guatemala, achieving: 1) a corrective recalibration of the predictive system with actual Venus risings, and 2) a coordination of the Venus Round beginning date with the Calendar Round beginning date. This essay is also revealing of my knowledge-base and the level of work I was doing twenty years ago, when I declined to pursue a course of Guaranteed Student Debt by attending the University of Colorado at Boulder (where I had been accepted as a 27-year-old non-traditional student). I do not regret that decision. May 1992.
"A Reassessment of Date Ambiguities on Tortuguero Monument 2." March 2, 2012. Deciphering dates in Maya inscriptions often requires accepting "scribal errors." The previously proposed date decipherment for Tortuguero Monument 2 requires one, but additional data in the text suggests that another date is indicated, one that points us to Lord Jaguar's birthday in 612 AD. Further examination of Monument 2 in the Carlos Pellicer Museum may resolve the issue.
"Further Investigations on Tortuguero Monument 2." March 5, 2012. Given the ambiguous data that can result in several possible date interpretations, attention goes to a way to possibly resolve the ambiguity. The roughly drawn glyphs on the dorsal side are explored here, and a suggestion is made for a field trip to the Carlos Pellicer Museum to try, for the first time in decades, to make a clear assessment of those glyphs. If a DN or some positional data can be rescued, we may be able to clarify the date on the ventral side.
**A revealing discussion and debate on the two essays above can be found here or, in a larger contextualized narrative, here: http://www.update2012.com/Demonstration-for-Guenter.pdf**
"Sun and Moon at the Cosmic Crossroads in an Inscription from Palenque Temple XIX." March 22, 2012. The inscription on the stucco pier in Palenque Temple XIX contains three dates. Examining the astronomy reveals that the reason why a 5-Tun interval is used probably involves a lunar sidereal-cycle interval. Furthermore, the astronomy associated with the dates indicts the Crossroads of the Milky Way and the ecliptic and the sun's alignment with the Sagittarian Crossroads on 9.14.0.0.0. Additional 5-Tun dates from Tonina are examined that involve the changing declination of the moon as it sweeps by the Pleiades, occasionally occulting the Pleiades (and actually doing so in one date example) and thereby suggesting a methodology by which the ancient Maya may have tracked, or checked for, eclipses. Astronomy charts are provided.
"18 Rabbit's Sacrifice, Bolon Yokte', and the Associated Astronomy." In my examination of the three dates from the Palenque Temple XIX stucco pier (see the essay above), I identified a previously unrecognized lunar sidereal cycle. In consideration of Grofe's recent work on eclipses and Bolon Yokte', this led me to looking at related lunar phenomenon such as eclipses, and I subsequently found an eclipse near the May 12, 709 AD date. Pursuing this further, I found a 65-year eclipse pattern that places total lunar eclipses at the dark rift / Crossroads on eclipses visible over Mesoamerica between (at least) 514 AD and 774 AD. April 5, 2012.
"The Astronomy of the 2012 Text from Block V, La Corona." June 29, 2012. The existence of a second 2012 date reference was annouced by the La Corona Archaeological Project on June 28, 2012. The use of the 2012 date was described merely as a "literary device." This essay explores what kind of literary device it is, drawing from the precedent of the Tortuguero Monument 6 "2012" text.
"A Step-by-Step Guide to the 2012 Inscription from La Corona." July 5, 2012. A detailed follow-up to the previous preliminary analysis, with charts. It includes my censored post to the project epigrapher's Maya Decipherment blog, in which I attempted to discuss astronomy as an interpretive aid to hieroglyphic decipherment. This essay demonstrates that astronomy is relevant to understanding why the Calakmul king Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' referenced 2012 in the La Corona inscription.
"How to Assess and Understand a Maya Hieroglyphic Inscription." July 8, 2012. This essay takes a look at another hieroglyphic inscription that illuminates how Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' desired to frame his royal identity by showing astronomical relations of his birthday. The rhetorical strategy he employed was astronomically based, and this is congruent with what Lord Jaguar did on Tortuguero Monument 6. Yuknoom's ideological association with the "Venus cycle / Quetzalcoatl mythology" is here linked to his birthday as well as a solstice date, suggesting an analogy to the Maize God's solstice-time rebirth. These concepts map nicely on to his asserted connection to the 2012 solstice period-ending date through his birthday astronomy and the 9.13.0.0.0 date on Block V.
A previous piece that is relevant to the above three essays is: "Commentary on Stuart and Houston's Study of Maya Place Names." September, 1995. This early essay discusses how Maya hieroglyphs can contain references to astronomy. But this information is easily overlooked by epigraphers using a limited approach who assume that the locations of "mythological placenames" are purely imaginary and do not, or cannot, belong to an astronomical topography. This original essay of 1995 was adapted for publication as Appendix 4 in my 1998 book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012.
"The Maya Calendar Conundrum." November 13, 2012. Here is a brief presentation of an unsolved conundrum, involving math and astronomy. Why does the 13-Baktun cycle have 1,872,000 days? The answer may b stranger than we can conceive.
"A Brief Review of Martin and Skidmore’s New Correlation Proposal (the 584286)". November 19, 2012. Again, a narrow limit set on the allowable data has resulted in yet another correlation proposal. Someday, the importance of the ethnographic evidence, properly understood, may be acknowledged. See: Steps in Understanding Calendar Continuity and in Verifying the Correct Correlation.
"2012 in Retrospect." February 1, 2013. This piece is included here because it puts into perspective my well-documented (and ongoing) research into 2012 that is the focus of The Center for 2012 Studies, in the aftermath of the passing of December 21, 2012. For most writers who wrote on 2012, it is now an expired topic. In comparison, my work to reconstruct how the ancient Maya thought 2012 (which has been my modus operandi for over twenty years) continues without pause as new evidence is identified. As of April 2013, I am preparing two new studies of the astronomy in Maya inscriptions, one on Copan Stela C and one on Palenque Temple XXI.
"Lady K’abel: Planetary Deities in the Womb of the Milky Way Goddess on 9.13.0.0.0." April 22, 2013. This is a brief excerpt from a larger work which shows how the Galactic Center was mythologized by the ancient Maya as the womb of a female deity. This is a proposal I argued with other evidence in the mid-1990s. As new evidence appears, older arguments become more solidly supported.
"The Metahistoric Zero Date at 9 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in, and a Synchronized Sidereal Year and Tropical Year Commensuration with the 3114 BC Era Base." John Major Jenkins. June 30, 2013. Caveat: This essay presents a hypothetical possibility. I've identified constants that the Maya might have been using for the Sidereal and Tropical Years, but they are different than the ones Michael Grofe has found evidence for.
"Comments on the Symbolism of the Holmul Frieze." August, 2013. Here we have the king sitting on the underworld portal at the cosmic crossroads. Of course, this has nothing to do with the Dark Rift and the Crossroads of the Milky Way and the ecliptic (being sarcastic here).
"2012ology." December 5, 2013. I coined the term 2012ology in 2003, and used it in my introduction to Geoff Stray's book Beyond 2012 (2005). This is what it means.
"The Coining of the Realm (of the 2012 Phenomenon): A Critique of the Whitesides and Hoopes Essay." In Zeitschrift für Anomalistik, Band 14 (2014), Nr. 1. This peer-reviewed critique-review was written in late 2013, and was responded to by the authors. My response to their refusal to acknowledge several factual errors is here: "Deceptive Scholars Refuse to Correct Factual Errors in Their Peer-Reviewed Study" (August 2014).
"Did the Creators of the Long Count fix their 2012 cycle-ending to the Galactic Alignment?" June 7, 2014. This essay consists of three parts. First, I review Michael Grofe's comments in his 2003 study of the inscribed bones from Tikal, which has been freely posted since 2011 on the Maya Exploration Center website. Second, and as an extension of his comments and arguments, I present additional complimentary evidence and argument to address the question of this essay's title: Did the creators of the Long Count fix their 2012 cycle-ending to the Galactic Alignment? Third, I present a related excerpt from my essay written for the Benfer & Adkins archaeoastronomy anthology.
My "Comments on the 'Great Return' Essay of Barbara MacLeod and Mark Van Stone". August 2014. In their essay (published in Zeitschrift für Anomalistik in mid-2012) we find a rare acknowledgement of my contributions, as well as discussions throughout of key ideas related to my reconstruction work on 2012 (the dark rift, the Milky Way, precession, the Galactic Center). I responded to an invitation by the authors for them to be "persusaded" regarding knowledge of the precession of the equinoxes during the pre-Classic formulation of the Long Count calendar (see next item).
"Two Possible Scenarios." August 2014. My position derives from a logical understanding of the relative merit of two possible scenarios. I invited the scholars who extended to invitation to be "persuaded" to choose which one of the following scenarios seems most likely — or provide some other scenario or argument. After a month elapsed, for the convenience of the scholars involved I also provided an audio recording of the above piece (MP3 file).
"Maya Ballcourt Alignments: Comments on Stephen Houston's Article." July 31, 2014. This is in the form of an email sent to four scholars, describing the implications of Houston's interesting article on his Maya Decipherment blog.
"Iconic Kennings in the Symbolic Statements of Izapa." June 2014. An essay that expands the concept of "Diphrastic Kenning" explored by scholars, to include the iconography at Izapa that conceptually operates on the same principle.
Announcement: "Lord Jaguar’s 2012 Sacrifice: Astrotheology and Magical Invocations in a 7th-century Maya Inscription." A piece outlined in 2011 and written in early 2014, to be published in Clavis: Journal of Occult Arts, Letters and Experience (Volume 3, November 2014).
Announcement: September 19, 2014. The updated Updated2012.com website! Includes hundreds of new pages of critiques and reviews, including the original material written for The Center for 2012 Studies compiled into one file: http://thecenterfor2012studies.com/original-2012center-document.pdf (pertains to the narrative of 2012-related writings and research in academia up to May 2010).
"The How and Why of 2012 Revisited". (May 23, 2014). One from the archives! My original "How and Why of 2012" article (December 1994) with new comments, notes, and the letter I wrote to Linda Schele in May of 1994.
"Frank Waters on 2012: Addendum to his 1975 book Mexico Mystique". September 5, 2014. In researching the legacy of Frank Waters, I discovered an essay he wrote in the late 1980s that was published posthumously in an anthology edited by his wife Barbara. It provides some striking comments and an update on his thinking about the 13-Baktun cycle ending.
"The Astronomy of Three Dates in the Xultun Tables." October 2, 2014. Based on the proposals in an essay by Aveni and the Brickers, I point out how the two Crossroads (of the Milky Way and the ecliptic) are the overlooked celestial reference points for the eclipse and Mars alignments they identified.
"Copan Stela C: Sun King in the Creation Place." October 29, 2014. A clarification of my discovery of, and two early publications on, the astronomy of the dedication date of Copan Stela C (November 29, 711 AD), and how I suggested further investigation.
"Comments on my Essay for Clavis Journal Volume 3, published November 20, 2014". December 1, 2014. Some context and comments on my essay titled "Lord Jaguar's 2012 Sacrifice: Astrotheology and Magical Invocations in a 7th-century Maya Text."
"Andrew Collins, Ronald Wells, and the Cygnus Rift Alignment". December 1, 2014. Compiled from previous exchanges and my email of September 17, 2014. Having read Wells' original essays, I can identify and clarify a murky area in his Cygnus Rift-solstice alignment theory that was adapted by Andrew Collins. Clarity and distinctions are important for understanding how this relates to the galactic alignment of era-2012.
"The Curious Case of the La Corona Frontispiece." June 15, 2015. This brief essay, with three sky-charts, is ancillary to my comments on the 9th edition of Coe's book The Maya.
The Center for 2012 Studies, Occasional Notes
I am collecting many items of research into an Occasional Notes archive. About eighteen of these are relatively short items already completed but never posted or published. As I prepare them as PDFs they will be posted below.
Occasional Notes, No. 1. "The Bolon Yokte Reference on the Copán Hieroglyphic Stairway." John Major Jenkins. May 30, 2010.
Occasional Notes, No. 2. "The Milky Way and Quirigua Zoomorph B." John Major Jenkins. May, 2010.
Occasional Notes, No. 3. "Astronomical Events Leading Up to Bahlam Ajaw’s Accession on February 4, 644 AD." John Major Jenkins. May, 2010.
Occasional Notes, No. 4. "Calendrical Patterns and Tortuguero Monument 1." John Major Jenkins. May, 2010.
Occasional Notes, No. 10. "Evidence that 2012 Represents a New Creation, or Worldrenewal." John Major Jenkins. June 9, 2010.
Occasional Notes, No. 11. "The Sun Binding Ritual on Tortuguero Monument 8." John Major Jenkins. May, 2010.
Occasional Notes, No. 16. "The ‘Ecliptic as Road of Souls’ Theory and the Iconography of Quirigua Zoomorph G." John Major Jenkins. June, 2010.
Occasional Notes, No. 18. "Steps in Understanding Calendar Continuity and in Verifying the Correct Correlation." John Major Jenkins. July 31, 2011. See also: A Brief Review of Martin and Skidmore’s New Correlation Proposal (the 584286).
Occasional Notes, No. 19. "The Third 'Reference' to the 2012 Date." John Major Jenkins. September 17, 2012.
Occasional Notes, No. 20. "Notes on Various Editions of Norton’s Star Atlas and the Galactic Alignment of Era-2012." John Major Jenkins. January 30, 2013.
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