The Mayans were both right and wrong about Dec 21, 2012, scientists who used carbon dating said over the weekend.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University confirmed that the 13th Mayan Bak'tun really ended on December 2012. However, the other half of the prediction, that the end of the Mayan calendar would signal an Apocalypse, was an epic forecast failure, they added.

The basis of their conclusion on the accuracy of the Mayan calendar is that the team used carbon-14 dating of a wooden lintel that was engraved with a Mayan long-form date. The relic was found at Tikal, a Mayan city in Northeastern Guatemala.

They used the most common correlation, the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson (GMT) which proved the Mayan calendar was more or less correct. The GMT is usually the most commonly used correlation among the over 50 different correlations proposed.

The use of the GMT was part of the team's research on the impact of climate change on the rise and fall of the Maya civilisation. The study discovered that the drought between AD 800 and 1100 is likely the reason behind the collapse of the Maya civilisation.

The Long Count system has 20-day cycles which comprise a k'in, formed of 360-day cycles called tuns. The Bak'tun represented a cycle of 400 years, the last of which ended sometime in December 2012.

"From our perspective, the value of this data is for historical analysis. Now we can be more confident in our ability to compare environmental records with archeological records. Anything that has a Mayan date on it, we can be more certain about what the European date is," US News quoted environmental archeologist Douglas Kennet.

He assured that the dreaded Apocalypse would not happen.