http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227104.400-temple-timbers-trace-collapse-of-mayan-culture.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

from (New Scientist):

THE builders of the ancient Mayan temples

at Tikal in Guatemala switched to inferior wood a few decades before they suddenly abandoned the city in the 9th century AD. The shift is the strongest evidence yet that Mayan civilisation collapsed because they ran out of resources, rather than, say, disease or warfare.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080815/sc_nm/mexico_mayans_dc;_ylt=Ai__sHm3gJgHB9PH7re7bNes0NUE

Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.

Clad in scuba gear and edging through narrow tunnels, researchers discovered the stone ruins of eleven sacred temples and what could be the remains of human sacrifices at the site in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Archeologists say Mayans believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers — including an underground road stretching some 330 feet — was the path to a mythical underworld, known as Xibalba.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2008/08/in-1839-an-american-writer.html

In 1839, an American writer and explorer named John Lloyd Stephens was sent to Central America to serve as Special Ambassador. He traveled around the continent during his time there, and, after happening upon Mayan ruins at Copán, visited almost 50 other such sites, gathering material for a travelogue that has long been credited with enlivening modern interest in Mayan culture.

Almost one hundred and seventy years later, that interest persists. In fact, as years tick closer to Dec. 21, 2012 (the date claimed by the Mayan calendar to be the End of Days) fascination nears a fever pitch. Daniel Pinchbeck recently published a psychedelic-philosophic hypothesis called 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. Next year brings 2012, a film about dealing with increasing natural disasters as that Mayan apocalypse approaches, starring Amanda Peet, John Cusak and Danny Glover.

And now Gregg Gillis, AKA mash-up artist extraordinaire Girl Talk, says he plans to play a round-the-clock, millennial-anticipatory, dance-like-the-world’s-gonna-end-tomorrow set on that fated Dec. 21, four years from now.

Maya mystical Vision Serpent, part of the Tree of the World (via tolteca pilo)

View tolteca pilo’s map Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)

The venerated serpent, drawn under the Maya canons as being part of the Tree of the World. Charcoal and color pencil.

In ancient times this vision snake was invoked by the rulers and priets of old, in sacred rituals within temples or at the top of pyramids. This was done in order to contact the ancestors. The revered ancestors would then manifest in this world only through this vision snake. They will come out of the mouth of the snake. In many cases, it was done so the spirit of the beloved deceased could witness a specific event or festivity.