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Special Report: Matt Looks Into The Ancient Maya Prophecy of 2012

Monday, June 26, 2006

April 3, 2006 (WPVI) -- 44-year-old Darren Daulton, the leader of the Phillies' last World Series team, is causing some people to scratch their heads. Particularly, about his fascination with December 21, 2012.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN IN 2012? Daulton: "I don't know, other than, our level of consciousness will be raised...Something really significant will happen by 2012. I think everybody is going to be, hopefully, all the wars and stuff will turn around, and there'll be a, turn this around to a heaven on earth." What is dutch talking about? Simon Martin/Penn Museum: "It is true that there's this long cycle coming to an end in 2012." Simon Martin, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's Archaeological Museum, has been studying Mayan culture for three decades.

Martin says Daulton is right about one thing: the ancient Mayan Calendar ends its five-thousand-year cycle on December 21, 2012. "There's certainly evidence that they thought something was going to happen in 2012. But they also project history into the far future." The Mayan culture thrived in Latin America two thousand years ago. It developed its own system of monolithic calendars, more accurate than those of early Europe.

Each "cycle" depicted different periods of human development. The latest cycle began in 3114 B.C. and ends in 2012.

Some believe it raises apocalyptic possibilities. "The Maya had a mythology about the cyclical creation and destruction of the world." "2012, and the end of the current Maya calendar, has long been the subject of speculation. This book claims the Earth's magnetic poles will switch, destroying life as we know it. This one says a new age of enlightenment will give birth. Others say 2012 will end up being much like the Y2K rollover in the year 2000: it will come, it will go, and not much of anything will have changed." The Maya built roads and cities without metal tools, tracked eclipses, may have invented the concept of zero in arithmetic. But then, in 900 A.D., the civilization inexplicably collapsed. "They had a lot of sort of experience of the cosmos, and calendrics, and time, something that particularly fascinated them. Today, I think we're still in awe of all the things they achieved." You won't find Martin hiding in a bunker in late 2012. Be hopes to be visiting a Maya ruin - and continuing his efforts to solve the enigma, of an ancient civilization.

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