This month's (August) edition of the National Geographic magazine carries an article on the Maya. I was excited when I first discovered it, but after reading it, and reading the comments made about the article by professional Maya-ists on the FAMSI mailing list (some of whom had been shown advance proofs of the article several months ago and pointed out factual errors that never got corrected in the final copy), I realised it should come with a warning - "This article is for entertainment purposes only".

For example, one of the answers in the online quiz offers the explanation: "The Maya used Long Count, a system starting at a mythological zero date, which can be traced back to August 11, 3114 B.C. According to this Maya calendar, the world is supposed to end on December 21, 2012." Wrong! The ancient Maya did not believe that the world would "end on December 21, 2012." The calendar cycle ends yes, but not the world - the calendrical count would start anew.

And there are many more mistakes and/or misleading statements in just the quizz even before one starts on the over-dramatized article text...

This article is clearly intended to appeal to the average joe who prefered the gory and simplified bloodbath of Apocalypto to dry but solid research. Although National Geographic has always been a popular rather than academic publication, since it actually bothered to contact known specialists on Maya history and astronomy one might have hoped they would have done better than just repeating (and perpetuating) common popular misinformation and misconceptions.

Oh, I almost forgot - the online version of the article can be seen on the National Geographic website: Maya Rise & Fall.