At the Guatemalan site of Xultun, archaeologists have for the first time deciphered the name of an ancient Maya mathematician-astronomer: Sak Tan Wash, "White-Breasted Fox"

At the Guatemalan site of Xultun, archaeologists have for the first time deciphered the name of an ancient Maya mathematician-astronomer: Sak Tan Wash, "White-Breasted Fox". The inscription was found among more than fifty mathematical micro-texts on the wall of a small room that researchers regard as the working study of the court calculators. The name follows the phrase "so says" at the end of a unique formula that combines the 260-day ritual calendar, the solar year and the cycles of Venus and Mars, an approach to describing the planets not previously encountered in known texts. Classic Maya inscriptions are usually devoted to kings, gods and wars, and the names of scholar-calculators had until now not turned up at all. Excavations at Xultun continue: about nine hundred hectares of urban buildings still lie beneath the forest.