Xultun (pronounced shool-toon) is an ancient Maya city, some 25 miles northeast of the famous ancient city-state of Tikal, that thrived during the Maya Classic Period from 250 to 900 CE. It was originally reported in 1915 but has seen little archaeological excavation until more recent research began in 2008. In total, the site stretches over six square miles and is replete with monuments and temples—some of which stand as tall as 115 feet.
“It’s one of these big sites that no one ever heard of,” says Franco Rossi, an archaeologist at MIT and lead author of the paper.
Multispectral imaging of Text 19, found at structure 10k-2, revealed a unique set of cosmic calculations attributed to an individual named Sak Tahn Waax.
G. Ware
Prior research dated the materials within the 10K-2 structure to the second half of the 8th century, suggesting its inhabitants worked before the so-called “Maya collapse,” which saw widespread depopulation and migration across much of the Maya world.
One day, Rossi was pondering a faint scrawl on the room’s east wall. The text was below a large set of Maya hieroglyphs that had yet to be decoded. After mulling over the text using various software programs that can tweak shading and color, he had an epiphany: he could be looking at a name.
“You can look at some of these texts forever, and it won’t click,” says Rossi. “Then, one day you see it, and it just clicks.”
