firsthand years earlier with Erick Gonzalez, Carlos Barrios, and Don Alejandro. My own response to Sitler’s essay addressed “Maya statements” about 2012 and called for iconography to be included as “documentation” that could be read with just as much clarity as epigraphic writing.12 My intention was to emphasize, once again, Izapa and its carved monuments as important sources for understanding 2012.
TORTUGUERO MONUMENT 6
As 2006 waxed to fullness, Sitler’s pointed questioning of epigraphers uncovered a very important textual date from the Classic Period site of Tortuguero, near Palenque. Like the 3114 BC Creation monuments, it was dated 13.0.0.0.0 with 4 Ahau in the tzolkin position. But the Tortuguero monument had 3 Kankin in the haab position, rather than 8 Cumku. This meant that it referred to the current era’s cycle ending, on December 21, 2012, rather than the previous 13-Baktun cycle ending, in 3114 BC. It was thus the only known specific date reference to 2012. For many years scholars had been saying that we had no references to 2012 in the archaeological record. Since 2012 is the next logical cycle ending, based on the 13-Baktun structure of the Long Count, the point is somewhat moot. My work, for example, proceeded on the assumption that the 13-Baktun cycle represented a standardized era-cycle length for the ancient Maya, and thus 2012 was implied by the plentiful Creation Texts that referenced the 13-Baktun cycle completion in 3114 BC. Michael Coe, Sylvanus Morley, and other scholars had assumed the same; it’s simply a repeating structure within a cyclic time philosophy. But now Sitler had pushed the case with scholars on the University of Texas online forum, and epigrapher David Stuart revealed that a few scholars had indeed been aware of the Tortuguero date for some time. Why the date wasn’t offered up for discussion long ago, and had to be pried out of the archives, is complicated and fraught with misunderstandings. As events unfolded, I suspect it had to do with not wanting to add fuel to New Age fires. The lapse is not that important; things happen when they will.
David Stuart offered to provide a translation of the text, and of course we all anxiously waited. Following the date phrase and reference to the end of the 13th Baktun, the inscription reads that “
In April of 2006, when the translation was released on the University of Texas online forum, a heated exchange commenced that revealed attitudes on two sides of the discussion.14 First, within a few days Maya scholar John Hoopes pointed out that Internet sites had picked up on the translation and were hailing it as “a new discovery.” David Stuart responded, “I guess I should’ve known I was creating a monster with that initial post.” Geoff Stray responded that in all fairness it certainly did appear like a new discovery to outsiders “because the epigraphers have been keeping the information to themselves, in fear of ‘creating a monster.’ However, this secretive attitude is not the answer, because it leads to essays by academics like Bob Sitler [“The 2012 Phenomenon”] stating that there are no unambiguous 2012 references in the Classic Maya texts. The closed shop is so closed that the information has failed to reach academics in adjacent fields, such as Sitler, who has a PhD in Hispanic literature, and has only found out about the Tortuguero Monument 6 after writing his essay.”
Stuart responded by saying “I’m certain that if anyone had ever posed the question ‘Do any Maya inscriptions mention 2012?’ to us active epigraphers… that we would immediately say, ‘look at Tortuguero Monument 6.’” And yet, strangely, he felt no need to offer a correction on the assertions of his colleagues, repeated dozens of times on the e-mail lists he subscribes to, that “there are no Maya inscriptions that mention 2012.” Stuart continued: “Frankly, the Tortuguero passage, buried in lots of other data, hasn’t been a huge deal to most of us because it is damaged and very, very ambiguous… even if the glyphs there were clear and legible, no Mayanist I know honestly believes that the Classic Maya foresaw something that might actually come true in our day and age.”
Stuart’s last comment suggests he is conceiving of whatever 2012 means through the filter of what many New Age writers say it must mean—a dire prophecy for earth changes and/or spiritual enlightenment that “might actually come true.” The possibility that it had any meaning at all for the ancient Maya doesn’t seem to come into play. The availability of sparse references to this monument were technically public, if “the 2012 watchers” could afford to travel cross-country to attend conferences and buy expensive conference proceedings, and knew where to look for possible information that they’d been told time and again doesn’t exist.
Stray acknowledged that scholars weren’t necessarily keeping the information to themselves, but noted that their cliquish exchanges revealed their true feelings—John Hoopes’s mock comment, “It’s amazing how quickly word gets around the Web (It wasn’t me, honest!),” and Stuart’s reply, “Thanks, John. I’ll believe it wasn’t you!”15 Another well-known scholar elsewhere likened the 2012 people who actively interject their observations and comments on the academic e-mail forums to “a pit of vipers.”16
I wrote an article on the Tortuguero inscription, pointing out that the mere presence of Bolon Yokte Ku, a usual suspect in Maya Creation narratives, suggested that the Maya therefore thought about 2012 as another type of Creation event, analogous to the one in 3114 BC.17 I also pointed out that the deity may be present on the important San Bartolo murals recently found in the Peten and on one caiman-tree image at Izapa, both of which involve very early pre-Classic Creation Myth scenes.
More information about the importance of the Tortuguero inscription came two and a half years later from epigrapher Stephen Houston, although his new analysis was claimed to show that the 2012 reference “has nothing to do with prophecy or the supposed, dread events that await us in AD 2012. About that the Maya are notably silent… or, truth be told, a bit boring.”18 Of course, he was right on this assessment, but like Stuart he was interpreting whatever meaning might be attributed to 2012 through the filters of what New Age people believe it is about—some kind of “prophecy.” The implication, again, is that the Tortuguero 2012 reference doesn’t tell us much, end of story. This was a case, as events unfolded, of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Houston’s analysis, posted on the epigraphy blog he runs with David Stuart, showed that the 2012 date was linked by a distance number to the dedication of a building, probably the sacred enclosure that once housed the monument containing the inscription. Such a practice was common. The Maya would often invoke Long Count dates in the past or future, usually a Katun or Baktun ending, to be present to witness the building’s consecration and ritual birth. Deities associated with cycle endings in the Long Count had a special role, as they oversaw the end- beginning nexus that any cycle ending in the Long Count represented. Their ceremonial presence, being invoked for a temple’s inaugural birth, was both meaningful and logical.
I decided to reply to Houston’s post in the hopes of engaging a dialogue, and wrote:
Why would they have wanted to link the building dedication to the baktun ending in 2012? In other words, an underlying belief about baktun endings generally, or perhaps the one in 2012 specifically, must already be present that would explain why the future baktun ending has any importance for a contemporary building dedication. And what might that be?
Is there a seed-planting “foundation” paradigm to building dedication ceremonies that make them conceptually analogous to Creation events? Would 13.0.0.0.0 (in either 3114 BC or AD 2012) have been an appropriate reference point for a building’s birth? And would the deities connected with those era-inaugurating Creation events have been considered appropriate overseers to consecrate the dedication? I’d suspect so.
Exploring these lines of thought might help us understand more deeply the cosmological significance of building dedications, as well as how big cycle endings like the ones in 830 AD and 2012 were perceived by the ancient Maya and were intertwined with other elements of Maya ritual. I don’t see how these things are boring.19
