Chronology of the birth and death of the Maya civilization
The Maya claim that their epoch was preceded by four eras or sols, each of which ended in the destruction of the population.
The current era, the fifth, began on August 12, 3114 BC and ended, according to the Mayan calendar, on December 22, 2012.
Chronology
1000 BC The Olmecs sculpt monumental heads and statues in San Lorenzo in Mexico.
600 AD Birth of the Maya civilization in western Mexico and Guatemala.
900 The Toltecs found the city of Tollan.
987 Probable departure of the god QUETZALCOATL, the feathered serpent, from Tollan.
1367 Acamapichtli, first Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan.
1440 Montezuma, the last Aztec emperor, ascends to the throne.
1506 First landing of the Spaniards in the Yucatan.
1519 On March 4th, the Spanish conquistadors arrive, led by Herman Cortez.
1520 Death of Montezuama.
1546 Definitive defeat of the Indians.
1691 Bishop Numes de La Vega discovers the ruins of the city of Palenque. The whole city was brought to light towards the end of the 18th century by Don Antonio del Rio. In his report, del Rio wrote that the buildings had an architecture quite similar to the Roman, Egyptian and others. The publication of this report was by Paul Felix Cabrera who came to the conclusion that the Carthaginians before the Punic Wars (264 BC) arrived in Mexico giving rise to the Olmec people.
1697 Giovanni Careri discovers the ancient Mexican calendar. It was based, it seemed, on cycles of 52 and 104 years. Together with Don Carlos de Siguenza they manage to reconstruct a first chronology of the Maya (they also mention Atlantis).
1803 Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humbodt deciphering the stone disc of the Aztec calendar. The symbols used were the same as those used in East Asia.
1822 William Bullock transfers archaeological finds to Europe for the first time.
1839-1840 John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Caterwood discover the city of Copan.
1845-1862 Bresseur de Bourbourg manages to decipher part of the Mayan hieroglyphs. The result of the study was that the survivors of Atlantis had introduced civilization into Egypt and Mexico. To support this thesis there is the similarity of the
Mayan and Egyptian writing. Also in this period other scholars enunciated theses on the Maya and their descendants. Lord Kingsborough was convinced that the Maya descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel. He pointed out that the signs used in the Mayan calendar to indicate the days of the month corresponded to the various parts of the human body, a bit like the medieval depictions of the twelve signs of the zodiac and their attributes.
Peter Tomkins explains that these signs could connect with the theory that the vital energy of the sun is distributed through the various planets in the glands of the human body that they control.
1899-1902 Alfred Maudsley makes topographical surveys of the Mayan ruins.
1920 (?) Edward Herbert Thompson discovers the town of Chichen Itza.
1950 Official reconstruction of the Mayan chronologies.
1951 The Mexican Alberto Ruz begins excavations in Palenque.
15/06/1952 Alberto Ruz discovers the "Slab of Palenque" in the Temple of Inscriptions.
1993 On 12 September Maurice Cotterel deciphered the code of the Mayan engravings on the Palenque plate. Cotterel argues that humanity is totally dependent on the cycles of the sun and sunspots.
