CHICAGO, Dec. 7, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With parts of the world gridlocked with the fear of an impending "doomsday" on December 21st, 2012, a previously unknown Mayan Codex is brought to light by the family entrusted to safeguard it since the 1700's. To date only four codices of the thousands of codices originally created by the Mayan civilization have been authenticated to the time period. Although the codex has not been translated, a handful of preeminent scholars preliminary analysis reveals time after the December 21st date, and the piece carries significant importance as to content of the writings and its relationship to the Mayan calendar.
The team of researchers and specialists on the project is lead by Jerry J. Ferrara of Global Quest TV, who is often referred to as a real life "Indiana Jones." Ferrara, who serves as custodian to the Codex's owners ancient texts and artifact collection, has never seen anything quite like this piece. Ferrera was recently featured in a National Geographic special for his role in the groundbreaking "Bahia Emerald" story.
"I love what I do for a living. The Bahia Emerald was quite a discovery and project to be part of, but it is in a completely different category than the unknown codex. I have spent quite a bit of time with the family's collection and every scholar we have had look at the piece over the last year is in awe," commented Jerry J. Ferrara.
With only three Mayan Codices garnering complete acceptance by scholars and scientist (Dresden, Madrid, and Paris and the fourth, but not completely accepted Grollier), this particular codex has significant importance due to the time period it is from. Leading forensic researcher Roderick McNeil's original analysis dated the codex to 1540 AD (+/- 70 years) which places it towards the end of the Mayan civilization. The initial analysis methods gave only a 1 in 10,000 chance that the piece came from a period outside of that margin. The codex is also referenced to speak of both spiritual enlightenment as well as writings not previously seen in any of the presently accepted codices.
"We are honored to have the foremost experts in the world complete a second analysis next week. McCrone Associates are the most regarded in the industry, and have had a hand in some of the most treasured relics in the history of humanity," continued Ferrara. "Although it went through the original analysis in the early 1990's, we wanted to bring Joseph G. Barabe, a Senior Research Microscopist at McCrone Associates in to perform a second analysis now that it has been 20 years since the original project."
McCrone Associates Inc. have been involved in some of the most revolutionary discoveries since the history of civilization. McCrone Associates also received much media attention for their analysis of the Gospel of Judas and their role in the restoration and preservation of Abraham Zapruder's 8 mm film of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Due to the significance of the piece and the timing of the analysis in relation to the Mayan Calendar's impending long count end, media interviews will be limited. "We are asking media to contact us directly. Our team will have unprecedented camera access inside McCrone Associates during the process and we will be making portions of the testing process video and both stills and video of the piece available to the media," commented Chris Foltz, whose firm Christopher Foltz & Company is handling the public affairs for this historic project.
Members of the media and international press core are asked to contact Chris Foltz at 312-772-4865 or codex@christopherfoltz.com.