 December 2012 marked the conclusion of a "bʼakʼtun"—a time period in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used in Central America prior to the arrival of Europeans.Although the Long Count was most likely invented by the Olmec, it has become closely associated with the Maya civilization, whose classic period lasted from 250 to 900 AD.The writing system of the classic Maya has been substantially deciphered, meaning that a corpus of their written and inscribed material has survived from before the European conquest.