Mathematical texts from a Maya site in Guatemala identify an astronomer called Sak Tahn Waax.

from
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02170-8

Mathematics formula found on Maya wall rivals insights of ancient masters
Mathematical texts from a Maya site in Guatemala identify an astronomer 
called Sak Tahn Waax.

By Chris Simms
Email Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X
The well preserved Temple of the Great Jaguar in Tikal, Guatemala. The 
form is a distinctive pyramid shape with stepped design in a forest 
clearing.
The Maya temple Tikal in Guatemala is about one day's walk from Xultun, 
where researchers discovered mathematical formula scribbled on the 
walls.Credit: Kryssia Campos/Getty

A mathematical formula inscribed on a wall at the Maya site of Xultun in 
Guatemala has revealed the name of an important Maya 
mathematician-astronomer for the first time. Researchers suggest Sak 
Tahn Waax, or ‘White-Chested Fox’, was a scholar comparable with 
mathematical giants of the past.

In a study published 14 July in the journal Antiquity1, Heather Hurst, 
an archaeologist at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and 
her colleagues describe their analysis of a mathematical text from a 
chamber in Xultun that was originally excavated in 20112.

The chamber’s walls are painted with human figures and hieroglyphic 
texts. These include mathematical calculations based on astronomical 
calendars, which were used by the Maya people to decide the timing of 
events such as the inaugurations of kings. Hurst and her colleagues 
suggest that the chamber was a workspace for scribes making codices in 
the mid-eighth century ad.

The authors analysed one set of hieroglyphs in particular, referred to 
as Text 19. Hurst says that this set of mathematical calculations 
expresses the relationships between several calendar systems in a 
playful manner that hasn’t been seen before in Mayan texts. “I think it 
was a mathematical flex. Somebody was saying ‘I’ve got this amazing 
pattern, and it’s so good it needs to be written down’. It was like, 
‘Boom! Mic drop!’,” says Hurst.

“The discovery shows people that the Maya were very clever, creative, 
intellectually curious people who taught and learnt and sometimes did 
math for the sake of it,” says Eric Heller, an archaeologist at the 
University of Southern California Dornsife.

Identity revealed
Text 19 is a small, L-shaped group of eleven hieroglyphs with a combined 
height of about 10 centimetres. Hurst and her colleagues found that the 
first nine hieroglyphs of the set encode the Maya calendar and 
astronomical cycles.

The formula shows how one 2,920-day cycle could be divided up into the 
calendar units used by the Maya people. This 2,920-day cycle was 
important because it tied together key astronomical cycles, 
corresponding to both five Venus cycles (584 days each) and eight solar 
years (365 days each). However, the Text 19 calculations also relate the 
2,920 days to Uinal (months with 20 days), Tzolkin (the 260-day sacred 
calendar), Tun (a year with 360 days) and Mars years of 780 days.

“It’s just super nerdy math,” says Hurst. The hieroglyphs also show only 
partial dates, which made them hard to decipher. “They’re doing this 
abbreviated shorthand, so they give you the first half of a notation and 
the second half is implied.”

An infrared black and white image of the Text 19 from Xultun clearly 
showing the glyphs.
The mathematical formula on Text 19 appear as glyphs.Credit: Photograph 
by G. Ware, courtesy of the San Bartolo-Xultun Regional Archaeological 
Project

Until now, the identities of the mathematician-astronomers behind such 
calculations had remained mysterious. Hurst and her colleagues found a 
phrase in the penultimate hieroglyph in Text 19 meaning “so says”. This 
was followed by the name Sak Tahn Waax, in the final hieroglyph, 
suggesting that the writer was taking or giving credit for the 
calculation. “We know it’s a male name because it’s missing a prefix,” 
she says.

The fact that the writer is named is significant, because it suggests 
that mathematicians were recognized in Maya society as much as artists 
were, says Gerardo Aldana, an anthropologist at the University of 
California, Santa Barbara.

Equalling the greats
Enjoying our latest content?
Log in or create an account to continue
Access the most recent journalism from Nature's award-winning team
Explore the latest features & opinion covering groundbreaking research
Access through your institution
or

Sign in or create an account

Continue with Google

Continue with ORCiD
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02170-8

References
Rossi, F. D., Stuart, D. & Hurst, H. Antiquity 
https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2026.10378 (2026).

Article

Google Scholar


Saturno, W. A., Stuart, D., Aveni, A. F. & Rossi, F. Science 336, 
714–717 (2012).

Article

Google Scholar