The site, which once supported a considerable population, has a 35 m tall pyramid, two ballcourts, 24 stelae, several plazas, and five large water reservoirs. Incompletely charted in the 1970s, it is the largest-known Classic Maya site that has yet to be archaeologically investigated. Nearby sites include Chaj K’e’k Cué, believed to be the residential area of the Xultún elite; Isla Oasis; and Las Minas. The latter sites contain large limestonequarries.
Since 2008, excavations in Xultun have revealed several important features. One is a Late-Classic room with murals on three sides, showing three dark seated characters with large mitres ; a kneeling official extending a stylus to the seated king, Yax We'nel Chan K'inich ; and three other characters, together with unique Maya calendarnotations chiefly relating to lunar astrology. 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. 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 of human victims. At the same time, there is a double reference to a place of origins, with the numbers personified by their respective jaguar-related patrons.
History
Up to now, the dynastical history of the important kingdom of Xultun - which has its own emblem glyph - is not well known and can only very partially be reconstructed from information on the site's heavily eroded stelas and from the inscriptions of other kingdoms with which it interacted, such as Caracol, Tikal and Naranjo. A fuller picture is nonetheless possible by taking into account data from the archaeology of the wider Xultun - San Bartolo habitational area. The kingdom's Classic importance is reflected by its role as a center of refined painting 'schools'.
