Event

Whether or not the end of the time is predicted in the Maya calendar, many of the ancient world civilizations hosted a belief in a universal cataclysm—the Eschaton, the coming of the Antichrist, the Last Judgment, the Kali Yuga, the Götterdämmerung. In conjunction with the Penn Museum exhibit “Maya: Lords of Time,” the 2012 Center for Ancient Studies Annual Symposium explores comparative perspectives on the end of time. 

Tentative Schedule

10:00am, Welcome - Annette Yoshiko Reed (Penn) and Robert Ousterhout (Penn)

10:15am, Simon Martin (Penn Museum), "Maya Cataclysm: The World Flood in Ancient Maya Religion and Calendrics"

11:00am, David Carrasco (Harvard University), "When the Sun Fell Into the Fire: Aztec Creation Myths of the End of Time”

11:45am, Jalh Dulanto (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú), "Inca! Let's draw a line across this world: Central Andean Notions of the End of Time"

12:30pm, Lunch break

1:30pm, Keynote lecture - Elaine Pagels (Princeton University), "The Book of Revelation in Art, Music, and Politics"

2:30pm, Coffee break in Mosaic Gallery

3:00pm, Richard Emmerson (Manhattan College), "Personalizing the Apocalypse: The Medieval Antichrist."

3:45pm, Benjamin Fleming (Penn), "The Kali Yuga and End Times in Hinduism: Cosmos and History in Crisis"

4:15pm, Concluding remarks - Peter Struck (Penn), "The End of Time and Time without End"

5:00pm, Reception in Mosaic Gallery

The event is organized by Bob Ousterhout and Annette Yoshiko Reed; for more information, please contact this year's CAS graduate assistant, Rose Muravchick.