Wow — I see I have gotten a lot of hits over the last couple of days for folks searching for information on the Comalcalco brick. Welcome! I’m glad to be of service, as I have seen some false information lately on the matter: hopefully you read my previous post (here: The Comalcalco Brick and the 2012 Non-pocalypse) that explains the matter, but I can add to it here, as well as debunk a few comments I’ve seen.
For instance, does the Comalcalco tile-brick “confirm” anything about a Mayan belief in a “major event” to come December 2012? No, it does not — not in any way, shape, or form.
Does the brick even talk about December 2012? That is disputed, and, in fact, there is very good reason to believe it does not. (Even if it did, as I explained in the last post, that would make it only the second item in existence that even mention the date at all, out of approximately 15,000 items. If the Maya believed it is supposed to be a major event of cosmic proportion, then they oddly said virtually nothing about it. Western obsessives, on the other hand…)
Some additional articles have appeared online about the Comalcalco brick, such as this so-summarized-as-to-be-terribly-misleading-in-places ABC News item. And other articles with more balance have been grossly misquoted or selectively quoted.
But for those willing to looking at the whole fact of the matter (not just what New Agers want to be true), MSNBC’s article, “Mexico adds yet another brick to the 2012 Maya legend” gives the bad news…
“Some have proposed it as another reference to 2012, but I remain rather unconvinced,” David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a message to The Associated Press.
Stuart said the date inscribed on the brick “is a ‘Calendar Round,’ a combination of a day and month position that will repeat every 52 years.”
The brick date does coincide with the end of the 13th Baktun; Baktuns were roughly 394-year periods, and 13 was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas. The Mayan Long Count calendar begins in 3114 B.C., and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012.
But the date on the brick could also correspond to similar dates in the past, Stuart said.
“There’s no reason it couldn’t be also a date in ancient times, describing some important historical event in the Classic period. In fact, the third glyph on the brick seems to read as the verb huli, ‘he/she/it arrives,'” Stuart wrote. “There’s no future tense marking (unlike the Tortuguero phrase), which in my mind points more to the Comalcalco date being more historical than prophetic.”
Dr. David Stuart has been one of the more vocal scholars out there debunking the conclusions of the non-scholars and New Age fanatics, and his last point should be taken seriously. Anyone who says that the Comalcalco tile “confirms” a belief that the Mayans saw the “end of the world” coming in 2012 are only seeing what they want to see.
The article later mentions that Mexico’s Institute of Anthropology and History, which is responsible for bring the Comalcalco tile-brick to public attention, agrees with the rest of the scholarly community (including Dr. David Stuart) — 2012-hysteria is not Mayan in origin but is rather Western:
The Institute of Anthropology and History has long said rumors of a world-ending or world-changing event in late December 2012 are a Westernized misinterpretation of Mayan calendars.
The institute repeated Thursday that “Western messianic thought has twisted the cosmovision of ancient civilizations like the Maya.”
The institute’s experts say the Maya saw time as a series of cycles that began and ended with regularity, but with nothing apocalyptic at the end of a given cycle.
Those who wish to claim that the Maya definitely predicted cosmic scale, “world-ending or world-changing event in late December 2012” simply have no evidence or worthwhile argument to stand on and have positioned themselves against the conclusions of the community of legitimate Maya scholarship. The “2012 phenomenon” really is essentially the creation of drug-using New Agers — and that’s really about as deep as it gets. The Comalcalco brick, it seems, offers little comfort to those looking to firm up non-existent support for their ideas.
So those of you arriving at this blog by searching for the Comalcalco tile or Comalcalco brick on Google, welcome, indeed! Before you leave the blog, I hope…
- that you learn something (more on 2012 is available on the blog – you might start here or at the list of items in the previous post),
- that you consider ordering a copy of our free, hour-long DVD (no gimmicks: it really is free) discussing the truth behind the 2012-hysteria, Mayan misconceptions, and, most importantly, Bible prophecy, available here,
- that you poke around the blog,
- and that you enjoy your stay!
Thoughts En Route 
And how about a mention of (and a link to) your pretty nifty, but so far rather lonely, 2012 Prophecy Blog, which I only discovered today? 🙂
Why, thanks, Mr. Wheeler! Since you’ve requested it, that makes it a slightly-less shameless plug! 🙂
The blog is 2012prophecyblog.com, and I have been repeating these recent posts there, too. I should have thought to link to it in the post, itself, but I’m still getting used to that sort of thing. But anything that encourages folks to check out the great resources at Tomorrow’s World is worth a shot in my book. And thanks for the kind words!