Center for Ancient Studies Annual Symposium

The End of Time

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 the world as we know it.

10:00am – Welcome, Annette Yoshiko Reed 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, Mosaic Gallery

3:00pm – Richard Emmerson (Manhattan College)

“Personalizing the Apocalypse: The Medieval Antichrist.”

3:45pm – Benjamin J. 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, Mosaic Gallery

For updated information, contact Rose Muravchick (roseee@sas.upenn.edu).