A fascinating report in Science today, and featured in an upcoming issue of National Geographic, is that of a newly discovered mural including astronomical tables at the classic Maya site of Xultún.
Trees grow atop a newly discovered mound over a house built by the ancient Maya that contains the rendering of an ancient figure, possibly the town scribe. The research is supported by the National Geographic Society. Photo by Tyrone Turner © 2012 National Geographic
Xultún was a regional capital in the Peten of Guatemala, with an occupation that dates between ca AD 200-800: and on the walls of one of its rooms are painted a list of the movements of heavenly bodies. This story obviously required a photo essay.
For this project, I was thrilled to be able to enlist my former contributing writer Nicoletta Maestri, a student of Maya archaeology completing her PhD who has visited the region on at least one occasion. Our report is based on the Science article, and other materials gleaned from external research. We have not seen the National Geographic article, although most of the photos used in the essay were taken by Tyrone Turner © 2012 National Geographic.
By the way, my favorite thing about this article is that there is evidence that the scribes wrote and corrected their tables over generations, as their observations grew more acute.
- Classic Maya Astronomy at Xultun, a photo essay
- Read more about Xultún
- Saturno WA, Stuart D, Aveni AF, and Rossi F. 2012. Ancient Maya astronomical tables from Xultún, Guatemala. Science 336:714 - 717.
Some news items featuring this report:
- Painted Maya Walls Reveal Calendar Writing, John Noble Wilford, in the New York Times
- Looting Leads Archaeologists to Oldest Known Mayan Calendar, Heather Pringle in Science Now
- Unprecedented Maya Mural Found, Contradicts 2012 "Doomsday" Myth, Erik Vance for National Geographic
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