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Phew! This Mayan Calendar Doesn't Stop at 2012

We've got thousands of years left, according to new discovery

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted May 10, 2012 5:17 PM CDT

(Newser) – Everybody can calm down now: Looks like the Mayans didn't think the world would end this year after all. Researchers have discovered astronomical calculations on the wall of an ancient Mayan site that suggest "dates thousands of years beyond" 2012, reports National Geographic. The find came at the Mayan ruins known as Xultan in Guatemala, where archeologists discovered a small room used by 9th-century record-keepers.

"So much for the supposed end of the world," says the lead author of the study in Science. "We keep looking for endings. The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It's an entirely different mindset." Archeologists are still deciphering many of the hieroglyphics, and the find is expected to yield far more about Mayan society than the debunking of the 2012 myth. "To be uncovering glyphs and reading them right off the wall—to be the first one in 1,200 years to read something?" says another scientist. "I mean, it's pretty wild."

Artwork, the first to be found on walls of a Maya house, adorn a dwelling in the ruined city of Xultun in northeastern Guatemala.
Artwork, the first to be found on walls of a Maya house, adorn a dwelling in the ruined city of Xultun in northeastern Guatemala.   (AP Photo/National Geographic, Tyrone Turner)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 20 comments
pogodavis
Oct 5, 2012 12:47 AM CDT
the mayan who carved the calender in stone ran out of rock.  like you have one sheet of paper and you write the greatest novel of all time; fill up both sides and you can't finish.  but wait the other part of the calender is on another rock that has not been found  maybe!
realtruth
May 11, 2012 8:36 AM CDT
Dammit!!! The jinxed the hoax..   Now 2012 will surely come true!!
Tscare
May 11, 2012 3:06 AM CDT
The mayans aren't geniuses,and they can't really tell when the world will end Their are many theories for the ending of life as we know it Theirs the theory that a mega quake will occur soon,and the theory that the earths magnetic sphere is weakening allowing an increase chance to be hit by meteors,and their are alot of meteor and astroids around the earth  Theirs also the theory that the universe will shrink,instead of expanding,at an alarming rate to cause collisions between the planets  Who knows... The mayans obviously don't =P
 

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