I'll have a series of comments, but at this moment I don't have the time to do a comprehensive one. Maya mythology is much more complicated than my Aztec one. There are a number of differences attributable to local variations and not a Maya-wide uniform mythology- such as the Aztec 5 creations.

On matters of the calendar and archaeoastronomy the most reliable sources are David Stuart and Anthony Aveni.

Stuart, D. 2011 The Order of the Days New York: Harmony Books

Aveni, A. 2009 The End of Time. the Maya Mystery of 2012 Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado

Both of these authors have other books. Unfortunately My copies of Aveni's books on calendars and time and his archaeoastronomy books were donated to a graduate student in archaeostronomy in Houston.

In the first place, The 3114 BC date is NOT the true zero of the Maya calendar see:
Stuart p. 239
"[Speaking of a date on Stela 1 of Coba in which the beginning of the calendar is dated to 28.285 x 10 x(27) years] Here, then is the amount of elapsed time represented by the inscribed date on the Coba stelaae, represented there in Maya fashion with a long sequence of thirteens. The Maya “Creation” of August 11, 3114 BC, took place more than twenty-eight octillion years after the true initial base date in the incomprehensible past. So, contrary to what some have often said, the 4 Ahau 8 Kumk’u “era” date was not the absolute beginning point of the Long Count system. This really isn’t too surprising, since some events of he Maya mythology are said to have taken place well before 3114 BC, as we see, for example, in the inscribed tablets at Palenque and on the stelae of Qirigua and Copan. It’ s therefore preferable to consider the 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 8 Kumk’u as a relatively recent “Creation” among others, and a relatively late event within a far, far larger narrative about the gods and the cosmos. It’s best considered as the base for the current bak’tun count, and a numerological station of great significance, when all the units from the bak’tun and above were set at thirteen. The “true zero” date for the entire scheme, over twenty-eight octillion years ago, was the point at which all of the thirteens of these units were actually set back to zero."

Bernard

(Edited/formatting - Hermione)




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2012 11:04AM by Hermione.