So I'm here going to be the informative one. I've done my research, and I'm also backed by information from a source who's very career reputation rely on them getting their facts straight.
First things first: The Mayans didn't predict the end of the world. That's what that cool-ass-looking movie says, but it's just to make the thing get a bit more attention and sound cooler.
Now, for a bit of backstage knowledge. The Mayan system of numbers, or at least days, was based upon a combination of different calendar systems and ticked over in groups of twenty days. There were five or six, sets of these numbers, so, for the 'start of the world' there was 0.0.0.0.0.0 (or so) then, everything on the far right ticked up until 19, and then it changed to look like this: 0.0.0.0.1.0, then the far-right zero ticked over to 19 again, and then the number next to it changed to a two, etc. I can't remember if the supposed myth was that everything was lined up as 13.13.13.13.13.13 or not. Now, in setting their zero-zero-etc date, the Mayans picked around what was three thousand years before them, ie, the creation of the world. So from just that, the entire system is faulted from the start, if the myths are based on the number being in a certain series.
So, where does this leave us? Oh yes, the supposed and 'predicted' end of the world. In essence, once the main Mayan calendar was figured out, for a long time, there were no (average to major) discoveries of Mayan-inscribed dates that went past December 21st 2012. Because there were 'never' found dates past that, people assumed that the Mayans began predicting the end of the world. But then, recently and also in minor discoveries, there have been artefacts found that go past the date of 'the end'.
Remember when Nostrodamus predicted the end of the world? Nothing happened. Y2K? Nothing happened. 2012? Same deal.
