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Maya Expert: The 'End Of Times' Is Our Idea, Not The Ancients'

Maya Expert: The 'End Of Times' Is Our Idea, Not The Ancients'
Roque Planas
By 

National Reporter, HuffPost

** CORRECTS DAY TO SATURDAY ** In this Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 photo, tourists climb the pyramid at the archeological site in Coba, Mexico. Amid a worldwide frenzy of advertisers and new-agers preparing for a Maya apocalypse, one group is approaching Dec. 21 with calm and equanimity ó the people whose ancestors supposedly made the prediction in the first place. (AP Photo/Israel Leal)
** CORRECTS DAY TO SATURDAY ** In this Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 photo, tourists climb the pyramid at the archeological site in Coba, Mexico. Amid a worldwide frenzy of advertisers and new-agers preparing for a Maya apocalypse, one group is approaching Dec. 21 with calm and equanimity ó the people whose ancestors supposedly made the prediction in the first place. (AP Photo/Israel Leal)

It is Dec. 20, 2012 — and citizens of Earth are panicking, consumed by the idea that the world will end Friday, something they say was predicted by Mayan astronomers. Of course, most people are not panicking, and Maya expert David Stuart says no one should. The calendar, he says, has plenty of room to go.

In an interview airing on Thursday's Morning Edition, David Greene asks archaeologist Stuart, who helped translate influential ancient Mayan hieroglyphs in 1996, if he thinks the world will end on Dec. 21.

"Absolutely not," is Stuart's answer, dashing the hopes of students hoping for a three-day weekend, and any consumers who maxed out their credit cards in the belief that all history — not just their credit history — would come to an end.

Read more on NPR

Before You Go

MTYH: The Sun Will Kill Us All

5 Mayan Apocalypse Myths Debunked

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