Ancient Americas: Debunking The Maya Apocalypse
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2022
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of the most famous, and sophisticated, cultures of Mesoamerica, why are the Maya known only for predicting the end of the world?
In the first episode of our new mini series 'The Ancient Americas', Tristan is joined by Professor Matthew Restall from Penn State University to help debunk the idea of a Maya Apocalypse. Together, Tristan and Matthew take a look at where this idea of an apocalypse originated from, and why our modern conceptions of the Maya calendar are incorrect. A civilisation known for it's mathematical advancements, beautifully coloured buildings, and with Maya peoples still alive today - there's more to the Maya than we know.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Entrance on History Hit. |
| 0:14.1 | I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast I'm really excited for this episode |
| 0:18.9 | because we're kicking off a new series going across August and hopefully beyond two all |
| 0:24.0 | about the ancient Americas. |
| 0:25.9 | We're going to be talking about Mesoamerica, South America and hopefully an episode or two |
| 0:31.2 | on ancient North America as well. And to kick it all off we were delighted to get on the |
| 0:36.4 | podcast at very short notice so we're incredibly grateful to him fitting us into his very busy schedule. |
| 0:42.4 | We got on the podcast Professor Matthew Restall from Penn State University. |
| 0:47.3 | Matthew came on the podcast to talk all about the Maya. |
| 0:51.6 | Now talking all about the Maya in one podcast is not possible so we're focusing in here |
| 0:56.8 | especially on the Maya calendar. What this was the various versions of the calendar which they had |
| 1:04.5 | and of course we're going to be talking about the calendar which referred to 2012 as being |
| 1:11.1 | the end. But did the Maya believe that there was going to be an apocalypse at this time? |
| 1:15.8 | Did they think there was going to be Armageddon as has been commonly perceived in recent history |
| 1:20.7 | or did they think something else? Well Matthew brilliantly sorts fact from fiction on all of this |
| 1:25.7 | and I know you're going to absolutely love this episode and so without further ado to talk all |
| 1:30.0 | about the Maya calendars and the proposed apocalypse. Here's Matthew. |
| 1:37.9 | Matthew it's great to have you on the podcast today. It's nice to be here thank you for having me. |
| 1:42.6 | You're more than welcome and I'm incredibly grateful for you doing especially at such short |
| 1:46.5 | notice and I know you're incredibly busy at the moment and to talk about the Maya and in |
| 1:50.7 | particular the Maya calendars because it almost seems as if this part of the Maya Matthew is it |
| 1:56.7 | fair to say today perhaps it's one of the most talked about parts of their legacy. Yes I think it |
... |
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