The first mural identified at Xultún came after the discovery of an amazing set of preserved murals at the associated preclassic site of San Bartolo. The latest murals were discovered in 2010, when Maxwell Chamberlain identified a heavily eroded painting on structure 10K-2 at Xultún, which had been exposed by looting. This small rectangular structure has a corbelled masonry vault roof. A large number of murals on this room's walls were exposed by additional investigations and reported in Science on May 11, 2012. These murals include the earliest Maya hieroglyphs which appear to refer to the movement of the moon, and possibly Venus or Mars.
The mural illustrated above is dominated by two and perhaps three figures, three men who are painted in black and red vegetable dye and are wearing identical costumes. These men have been interpreted by the excavators as scribes, who may have lived in the house and maintained the hieroglyphic record. The record they were maintaining consists of a string of columns with bar and dot numbers spanning approximately 48 centimeters (19 inches) in length. This string includes only three different numbers, and it resembles calendrical and astronomical tables known previously only from the Dresden Codex, a manuscript composed in the 11th or 12th century.
- Read more about Xultún
- See the bibliography for this project
