Since 2008, excavations in Xultun have revealed several unusual features.
Three Astrologers One of the unusual features is a Late-Classic room (labeled 10K2) with murals on three sides, showing three dark seated characters with large mitres signalling their priestly function (west wall); a kneeling official extending a stylus to the seated king, Yax We'nel Chan K'inich (north wall); and three other characters, together with unique
Maya calendar notations chiefly relating to lunar astrology (northeast and east walls). Most of the characters bear hieroglyphic titles, some of these reminiscent of the senior-junior rankings of the traditionalist Maya
civil-religious hierarchy. The lunar notations strongly recall much later calculations found in the
Dresden Codex.
Temple of the Royal Jaguar Cult Another important feature, described by William Saturno in a 2014 presentation, is a building complex called 'Los Árboles', dating to the Early Classic. Its front is decorated with complicated stucco imagery relating to the royal cult of the
jaguar, also in evidence on several of the site's stelas. This cult was apparently associated with the dismemberment (imagined or real) of human victims. At the same time, there is a double reference to a place of origins (7 ''k'an
- 9 imix''), with the numbers personified by their respective jaguar-related patrons.
Sweatbath Goddess In 2012, an Early-Classic sweatbath nicknamed 'Los Sapos' (The Toads) was excavated, a part of a residential complex (Structure 12F-5). Around a small door in its northern facade, a stucco decoration in low relief was laid free of a crouching female person showing amphibian or reptilian hands and feet, and with amphibians, possibly toads, contained within the arms and legs. The head, originally over the door, was missing, so that the age and human aspect of the amphibian woman could not be determined. Nonetheless, she has been suggested to represent the aged midwife goddess,
Ix Chel. ==History==