First Named Maya Math-Astronomer Identified: Sak Tahn Waax
TL;DR Summary
Researchers analyzing microtexts from the Xultun site in Guatemala have credited a specific Maya scholar, Sak Tahn Waax (“White-chested Fox”), with a unique mathematical formula that maps Venus and other planetary cycles to the 260-day ritual calendar and the solar year. This is the first time a Classic Maya math/astronomy work has been attributed to an individual, shedding new light on Maya science and its place alongside contemporaries in India, Iraq, China, and Greece.
- We Finally Know The Name of a Revered Maya Astronomer-Mathematician: Sak Tahn Waax ScienceAlert
- Archaeologists decipher the name of a Maya astronomer for the first time National Geographic
- We finally know the name of a Maya mathematician Scientific American
- Maya mathematician’s name decoded alongside astronomical formula New Scientist
- Archaeologists Just Found the Earliest Known Named Scientist in the Ancient Americas Gizmodo
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