Overview
- Researchers published their finding on Monday, July 13, 2026, reporting that thin plaster scraps from a mural‑lined chamber at Xultun, Guatemala, contain a decipherable mathematical text.
- The decoded text records a multi‑cycle formula that includes a 2,920‑day span, the convergence of eight solar years and five Venus years, and integrates other planetary and ritual cycles.
- Beside the formula are hieroglyphs reading “so says Sak Tahn Waax,” a name translated as “White‑Chested Fox,” which the authors present as the first identified named mathematician or astronomer in the pre‑Columbian Americas.
- The fragments were recovered from a chamber first exposed by looters in 2010 and were read after more than a decade of work using scale drawings and digital enhancement, but it remains unclear whether the named individual worked or lived in that room.
- Scholars note the formula resembles material in the later Dresden Codex and say the find shifts how researchers think about authorship of Maya scientific knowledge while prompting further study and excavation to test links and settle provenance.