The earliest known Mayan calendar has been found in an ancient house in Guatemala, yet offers no hint that the world's end is imminent, AFP reported.

The painted room in the residential complex at Xultun was likely the place where the town kept its written records, scrawling computations on the walls in an effort to find "harmony between heavenly events and sacred rituals," said the study in Science journal.

The hieroglyphs date back to the ninth century, making them hundreds of years older than the calendars in the Maya Codices, which were recorded in bark-paper books from 1300 to 1521.

(China.org.cn, CNTV May 14, 2012)

据法新社报道，目前已知最早的玛雅历法在危地马拉的一所古代房屋中被发现，但该历法未提及世界末日即将到来。

房屋位于苏尔顿，内部充满绘画。《科学》期刊发表的研究结果显示，这里看起来像是古镇保存文字记录的地方，玛雅人在墙上涂满了计算结果，旨在达到“天象事件和神圣祭祀之间的和谐”。

这些象形文字可追溯至公元9世纪，比起“玛雅抄本”提前了几百年，后者在树皮纸上记录了1300至1521的历法。