Since the decipherment of the ancient Maya heiroglyphic writing, it was discovered that the ancient name for this site was Siaan K’aan or "Born in Heaven". The name "Uaxactun" was given to the site by its rediscoverer, United States archeologist Sylvanus Morley, in May of 1916. He coined the name from Maya words to mean "Eight Stone". The name has two meanings; the Morley's stated reason for the name was to commemorate it as the first site where an inscription dating from the 8th Baktun of the Maya calendar was discovered (making it then the earliest known Maya date). The other meaning is a pun, since "Uaxactun" sounds like "Washington", the U.S. Capital and home of the Carnegie Institute which funded Morley's explorations.
Morley's initial investigation the site mostly focused on the heiroglyphic inscriptions, after this Uaxactun was not visited again unil 1924, when Frans Bloom made a more detailed investigation of the structures and mapped the site.
The Carnegie Institution conducted archeological excavations here from 1926 through 1937, led by Oliver Ricketson. The excavations added greatly to knowledge of the early Classic and pre-Classic Maya. The remains of several badly ruined late Classic era temple-pyramids were removed, revealing well preserved earlier temples underneath them.
For most of the Carnegie team's time at Uaxactun, communication with the outside world was via a 4 day mule convoy to El Cayo, British Honduras. Towards the end of the time an airstrip was opened up. Flights to Uaxactun continued and a small village grew here, as it became a center for gathering of chicle sap from the Peten jungle.
In 1940 A.L. Smith and Ed Shook of the Carnegie project returned to make some additional excavations.
In the late 1970s a rough road was opened up, connecting Uaxactun to Tikal and thence to Flores, Guatemala. Airflights were discontinued. In 1984 the road was much improved.
Shook returned again in 1974 to oversee consoladation and restoration of some architecture excavated earlier.
In 1982 Guatemala's Tikal National Park was expanded to included the ruins of Uaxactun within its protected area.