What is this 2012 thing I keep hearing about?

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Of course there is also the writings of the ancient Sumerians.

6000 years ago they depicted all of the planets we know now (some not "discovered" by us as late as the 1930's)

The told of planets not discovered by others for thousands of years. The described the planets, their shapes, their colors, their orientations and told of their history.

We have only verified the colors, sizes & orientations to be true in the last few decades.

They told of another planet that is part of our solar system that is on a 3600 year elliptical orbit.

It should be back in our neighborhood sometime in the 2012 area.

I believe that the original prediction for this to happen was for the year 2003. When it didn't occur, another date had to be picked, and for what ever reason, the doomsayers chose 2012.

The idea that this "planet X" is even mentioned is quite debatable and it is the work of one interpreter, Zecharia Sitchin. He interpreted the word "Nibiru" to be this planet. Word meaning, of course, is determined by context. Nibiru (more technically and properly transliterated as neberu) can mean several things.

Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform texts present a confusing portrait of Nibiru. It sometimes represents a "crossing" or "dividing" point.

Scholars of cuneiform astronomy have not been able to determine with certainty what exactly Nibiru is. One thing is certain from the texts, though: Nibiru is never identified as a planet beyond Pluto.

For a far more detailed investigation of the meaning of Nibiru, look up the paper "The Myth of a Sumerian 12th Planet" by Michael S. Heiser, Ph.D., Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Of course, if I am wrong, and this wayward planet causes some type of cataclysmic event in 2012, you have every right to say "I told you so!"

Do you also discount the existence of 6000 year old Sumerian knowledge of all of the known planets that we know now including descriptions of size, shape & orientation?

 

[FarmerChick]

annmarie
I saw that show on the mayans or one like it...absolutely fascinating...truly!!!!

to remember most of it....uh, duh, me, I can't remember yesterday or this morning let alone what I saw on tv...HA HA HA

but I did remember thinking.....WOW

 

[k0xxx]

Do you also discount the existence of 6000 year old Sumerian knowledge of all of the known planets that we know now including descriptions of size, shape & orientation?

Well actually, yes. The belief that they knew of the existence of the other known planets are primarily based on the work of one man, Sitchin. His interpretation of the texts are highly debatable and it would seem that a vast majority of scholars do not agree.

I do enjoy a good story, and if true this would be a great one. I have my doubts though. While I would love to believe that ancient man knew of these things (by whatever means), I am highly skeptical and will remain so until I see something definitive. I've also enjoyed reading von Daniken and Temple, but I do not take their "interpretations" as fact. Still it remains enjoyable reading, though.

 

[supermom]

I watched something about this on the history channel. The Myans thought this was the end of the world because they watched the stars. They kept track of the movement of the stars and determined that every 26,000 years the sun would go behind the milkyway. This happens because the earth is a little lop sidded and sways a little so that it goes back and forth 1 degree every year I believe. On December 21, 2012 this is susposed to happen. It will be dark for a while and it will appear that the sun will not come up, but it's just behind the milkyway so the light doesn't reach us. Nasterdomus predicted the same thing. We know it will happen because of basic mathmatics, not because of somone seeing into the future.

 

[sylvie]

I watched something about this on the history channel. The Myans thought this was the end of the world because they watched the stars. They kept track of the movement of the stars and determined that every 26,000 years the sun would go behind the milkyway. This happens because the earth is a little lop sidded and sways a little so that it goes back and forth 1 degree every year I believe. On December 21, 2012 this is susposed to happen. It will be dark for a while and it will appear that the sun will not come up, but it's just behind the milkyway so the light doesn't reach us. Nasterdomus predicted the same thing. We know it will happen because of basic mathmatics, not because of somone seeing into the future.

I have heard about this but wasn't aware of the darkness expected. Thanks for explaining.

 

[Wildsky]

I really must live under a rock. Never heard of this. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[patandchickens]

They kept track of the movement of the stars and determined that every 26,000 years the sun would go behind the milkyway. This happens because the earth is a little lop sidded and sways a little so that it goes back and forth 1 degree every year I believe. On December 21, 2012 this is susposed to happen. It will be dark for a while and it will appear that the sun will not come up, but it's just behind the milkyway so the light doesn't reach us. Nasterdomus predicted the same thing. We know it will happen because of basic mathmatics, not because of somone seeing into the future.

Er, no offense, but Nope.

For starters "the milky way" is the galaxy of which our sun is part. It is physically impossible for the sun to go behind the milky way (especially from a vantage point on earth), in the same way that when you are standing in your kitchen it is physically impossible for your house to go behind Philadelphia.

It is true that the earth's axis deviates slightly on a roughly 26,000 yr cycle called "precession". This is not the best explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession (look at the final section; the first two sections are about more technical senses of the word) I am sure that googling could provide something even clearer.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever atall to believe that any PARTICULAR day in the procession cycle is any different from the others (certainly not from the day before or after it!), nor is anything special going to happen on the aforementioned date (I'm not sure whether that's necessarily accurate anyhow), nor is the world any likelier to end then than any of the bazillion OTHER dates on which people keep saying it is going to end (til that date passes and then everyone just quietly wanders off and pretends they weren't there )

Just sayin',

Pat

 

[supermom]

I'm sorry, we don't go behind the Milky Way, we line up with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy which is called the Galactic Allignment. The Myans associate this time with horrible things that will happen like famine, wars, plagues. It is also known as the dark rift. I watched all this on the HIstory channel, the episode was called "Nostradomus 2012". I have it on my DVR so my husband could watch it and I just reviewed it to see what all it said. It's pretty interesting if you can find it on the internet. I don't believe it is the end of the world, but they said the Myans believed that it was going to happen at the time of horrible things, like this world seems to be getting now.

 

[sylvie]

I'm sorry, we don't go behind the Milky Way, we line up with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy which is called the Galactic Allignment. The Myans associate this time with horrible things that will happen like famine, wars, plagues. It is also known as the dark rift. I watched all this on the HIstory channel, the episode was called "Nostradomus 2012". I have it on my DVR so my husband could watch it and I just reviewed it to see what all it said. It's pretty interesting if you can find it on the internet. I don't believe it is the end of the world, but they said the Myans believed that it was going to happen at the time of horrible things, like this world seems to be getting now.

For those that would like to view this program:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agpSUfyrMTo&NR=1

 

[dacjohns]

Article to read.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/27/2012.maya.calendar.theories/index.html