Listening to the hype over the movie “2012,” some people are wondering if the Maya have predicted the end of the world in that year.

If you believe archaeologists, no. As the New York Times reports:

Mayan time was cyclic, and experts like Dr. [Ed] Krupp and Anthony Aveni*, an astronomer and anthropologist at Colgate University, say there is no evidence that the Mayans thought anything special would happen when the odometer rolled over on this Long Count in 2012. There are references in Mayan inscriptions to dates both before the beginning and the ending of the present Long Count, they say, just as your next birthday and April 15 loom beyond New Year’s Eve, on next year’s calendar.

If you believe NASA, no. Their website says, “Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012.”

* More on Anthony Aveni, a astronomer and Maya researcher, here on the Colgate University website.

Posted online on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009