Archaeologists identify name of Maya scribe from Xultun murals in Guatemala

Culture Minister Luis Mendez announced Monday that archaeologists have identified the name of an ancient Mayan astronomer-mathematician from mural inscriptions at the San Bartolo-Xultun site on Guatemala's border with Mexico. The name Sak Tahn Waax, translated as White-chested Fox, appears in drawings spanning 400 BC to 900 AD.

Epigraphic analysis of more than 50 microtexts on the wall at Xultun allowed researchers to read calculations and tables that include the name.

The work incorporates a 260-day calendar, a 365-day solar calendar, a 584-day Venus cycle and a 780-day Mars cycle. The total calculation spans 2,920 days across five Venus synodic periods. Digital enhancement of drawings, photographs and scans revealed 11 hieroglyphs that allowed the decipherment.

Mendez stated that the glyphs appeared in a context where art was intertwined with science, mathematics, astronomy and everyday life. The formula most likely corresponds to November 7, 781 AD in the Julian calendar. MIT researcher Franco Rossi said the find is the first direct mention by personal name of a Maya scribe whose work included astronomical tables.

The Maya civilization declined around 900 AD before its final collapse following the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. Last year the culture ministry reported the unearthing of a nearly 3,000-year-old Mayan city with pyramids and monuments in northern Guatemala. In 2024 an American doctoral student found a sprawling Maya city in a Mexican jungle.