The Ahau Chronicles Volume 18 December 14, 2010 Subscribers: 357 Long Count: 12.19.17.17.0 Egypt Few places in the world hold such a prominent spot in our collective imagination than Egypt with its ancient pharaohs. Here we have the Old World equivalent of the Maya exhibiting a highly civilized culture whose expressions of power were memorialized in monumental pyramids and hieroglyphic writing. In the early days of Mayan archeology, after the exploratory expeditions of Catherwood and Stephens and others, the curious resemblance of Mayan and Egyptian culture was noted, leading some authors to suggest a distinct link or common heritage between them. Today, after the enshrinement of the Columbus myth, it is tantamount to academic suicide to even suggest such a heresy. However, since before I began my academic training in archaeology, I have had in my possession solid evidence of just such a link between the Maya and the Egyptians in the form of data from my investigations on Robinson Crusoe Island. Two separate expressions of this link are communicated through the mysterious revelations of the island monument. The first piece of evidence, detailed below, comes in the form of an elegant formula, mathematical in its precision, relating the pyramids of the Maya and the Egyptians at their precise geographic locations within a common frame of reference. Two consecutive Total Solar Eclipses, in 1998 and 1999, ended the second millennium by spelling out the true meaning of the sarcophagus lid of Pakal of Palenque. The use of eclipses as a cryptographic key demonstrates not only that the Maya had an absolute mastery of astronomy and could predict eclipses with astounding precision but that the Egyptians before them accurately foresaw the cosmic events of our present day and symbolically manipulated that knowledge into a profound mystery passed down through the ages and written across the face of the earth. The earliest dynasties of Pharaonic Egypt were founded shortly after 3,000 B.C. Two of the first accomplishments achieved during this consolidation of power were the inventions of the calendar and hieroglyphic writing. It could be argued that these two elements of ancient Egyptian culture were the critical creations that knit the people together over thousands of years to produce the incredible monuments the land is famous for today. It seems notable, however, that the only other culture to develop a hieroglyphic writing system, the Maya, also trace their calendar back to a similar period (3,114 B.C.). And since the whole notion of circular time is predicated on a return to origins, we should not be surprised to find both the Maya and the Egyptians waiting for us at the end of time, when the ending becomes a new beginning and the creator gods return to celebrate. For such a stunning revelation, the geometry of the puzzle-solving key is ridiculously simple. In previous newsletters I have discussed my concept of the “linear triplet”, three points equidistant in a line: OOO. As if for emphasis, this symbol is shown eleven times on the sarcophagus lid of Pakal. The linear triplet reflects Palenque with Lake Titicaca using the equator as a horizontal meridian and the 80th line of longitude as a vertical one. On Pakal’s sarcophagus lid he is shown sitting on the kimi’ glyph (death) which is made up of two dots bisected by a line, like the “dead” sun in eclipse as it passed over Mesoamerica in 1998. For unknown reasons I became preoccupied with the Yin-Yang symbol during my first stay on Robinson Crusoe Island when I originally discovered the monument in 1996. I found the simple geometry pleasing and later created several drawings based on the Yin-Yang using a compass I had bought in Arica on my way into Bolivia. The following year I would discover the Yin-Yang/linear triplet relationship of Palenque with Lake Titicaca shortly after the 1998 eclipse. And though it seems so obvious now in retrospect, it still took me years before I thought to apply the same technique to the final Total Solar Eclipse of the second millennium which passed over Europe in August 1999. A group of us journeyed to Bad Urach, in the Swabian Alps of Germany, to witness the eclipse but Greatest Eclipse occurred further east in Romania. At that location the sun was in total eclipse for 2 minutes and 22 seconds. Overall, the path of totality stretched across 150º of the earth’s surface. As I stared down at the 1999 eclipse map I couldn’t help being struck by how the entire continent of Europe resembled the reclining figure of Pakal on his sarcophagus lid. The scene quickly resolved itself into an ingenious representation of the 1999 eclipse path, including proper divisions of longitude. Again, the linear triplet, so prominent on the sarcophagus lid itself, holds the key to the meaning of the inscription. The entire scene is centered on the navel of Pakal, a location seen as the sacred umbilicus that connects all generations to one another, here represented with an effigy-head belt whose ear has a small “X” to mark the spot which correlates to the point of Greatest Eclipse on the eclipse map. The eclipse passed between Budapest and Belgrade with the point of Greatest Eclipse lying to the west of Bucharest. This point was used as the center of another Yin- Yang symbol, drawn over Europe much like I had drawn the 1998 Yin-Yang over the Americas. The one foci of the Yin-Yang is centered on the very tip of Pakal’s nose, where he focuses intently at an ambiguous symbol balanced like a piece of popcorn. I had always puzzled over this symbol and it’s ultimate meaning, as if it alone held the secret wisdom of the pyramid builders and was worthy of Pakal’s eternal gaze. This point, when interpreted within the 1999 eclipse map, neatly reflects the “nose” of Norway (near Ålesund) through the point of Greatest Eclipse and lands with a resounding bull’seye on the pyramids at Giza, Egypt. The large map on the following page shows the sublime precision of the ancient prediction. Though the exact center of the map below appears to slightly miss the precise point of Greatest Eclipse, the curving lines of longitude warping westward near the top of the map suggest that, if these were straightened out, the center of the Yin-Yang would shift to match the point of Greatest Eclipse. The Maya and Egyptians have collaborated on a cosmic program to end an age. Perhaps the most forceful expression of this cosmic program can be represented in the map below. Two back-to-back Total Solar Eclipses at the end of the millennium produce identical Yin-Yang symbols targeting the two hieroglyphic and calendar- obsessed cultures of the past along with the jaguar-shaped Lake Titicaca. The two symbols share an identical tilt and are almost identical in size, writ large across the globe with stunning precision. The elegant link between the Maya and the Egyptians takes the form of a syllogism, a logical inference familiar to anyone who has ever taken a standardized test. These are represented in the form “a:b::c:d” and in this case would be formatted thus: Palenque is to Lake Titicaca as the nose of Norway is to Giza (Palenque:Lake Titicaca::Norway’s nose:Giza). The linear triplet applied twice to the last two Total Solar Eclipses of the second millennium intimates the sacred geography of the earth. The 1998 eclipse along with Yin-Yang glyphs are recorded in the Temple of the Sun at Palenque while the 1999 eclipse is recorded in the famous sarcophagus lid of Pakal buried deep with the Temple of Inscriptions. Together they form an unmistakable deductive demonstration of the link between the Maya and the Egyptians, a metaphysical connection transcending time built into a calendar code keyed to the eclipse cycle. Eclipse events, like slivers of space-time, write the story of the cosmos across the earth. But the eclipses of our present day represent the most fascinating chapter ever composed.