The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik'Nal of Palenque (18 page)

June 10, 1994

“We have here 100 years of archeological study.”

Arnoldo’s words upon first viewing the contents of the sarcophagus continued to ring in my mind. We had made a momentous discovery, the intact tomb of Maya royalty inside an unknown substructure built during the 7
^th
to 8
^th
centuries CE. It was the second richest burial ever found, the second in a sarcophagus. But in fact we knew very little. The total lack of inscriptions left us without any epigraphic data. This is not so uncommon, however, for most burials at Palenque lacked glyphs to identify the occupants. Pakal’s extensively inscribed tomb is the exception, not the rule.

Now we are waiting for further laboratory analysis. The ceramics found in the tomb gave us the dates, but this conflicts with the earlier time period in which the substructure was built. Possibly the substructure had another purpose originally, and was converted into a tomb following an unexpected royal death. The stairs giving access to the outer level indicate that the tomb was visited after it became enclosed by the newer structure. This layered building practice is common among the Maya. Many structures we now can see represent at least three levels of buildings, each layer constructed over the one below. They also used rubble from broken-up structures to fill the inside of later buildings.

Initial examination of the skeleton calculated its height about 1.54 meters and age at death around 40 - 45 years. Given the height and size of the skeleton, tall for ancient Mayas, our physical anthropologists think it is probably a male. The offerings in the tomb, however, are not typical for male burials. There were no stingray spines used for penile bloodletting, no obsidian axes or knives, no jaguar claws. In contrast, the objects found relate more to women: the spindle whorl, plates and vases for serving food.

The sex of the royal person entombed in Temple XIII is critical. I hope INAH will send an expert soon to further examine the skeleton for evidence of its sex. It would be interesting if they chose Arturo Romano Pacheco, arguably Mexico’s greatest physical anthropologist, who examined the bones of Pakal forty years ago. Controversy surrounds his conclusions, because the age he attributed to Pakal was much younger than what was recorded in multiple glyphs in Palenque. Arturo declared that Pakal was no more than 40 years old when he died, while the glyphs record his death at 80 years old. We will see what comes of all this.

Meanwhile, our work goes on at the archeological camp in Palenque. Our camp has a long history, going back to the work of Alberto Ruz Lhuillier in 1949. Initially camp was set up with tents pitched in overgrown plazas and hammocks hung inside musty chambers. INAH constructed some buildings on the flat area at the base of the 400-meter high escarpment, the northern edge of the Chiapas highlands. The ruins cluster on a narrow shelf a quarter of the way up. Many great scientists have stayed in this camp. In makeshift laboratories, they analyzed findings and wrote reports. Over the years, the camp was upgraded to provide better housing in cabins and more current laboratory equipment. It’s quite pleasant here, our cabins tucked among tropical forests, not far from Palenque’s numerous streams. Walking to the site through the cascade trail takes you past several beautiful waterfalls and through residential complexes clinging to the mountainside.

Living close to jungles brings frequent contact with its creatures. My roommate Sonia Cardenas found a baby boa constrictor in her footlocker last night, and I’ve brushed many spiders off my pillow. Everyone contends with stinging insects in the field, from ants to mosquitoes to the dreadful garrapatas, tiny ticks that burrow under your skin. They like areas where clothes are tight, such as your waist, pantyline and wrists. Once embedded, they form red bumps that are terribly itchy and persist for weeks. We use lots of cortisone cream, though the locals prefer Xcoch (castor bean leaves crushed into a paste.)

Howler monkeys roar from the forest canopy day and night. It’s hard to believe that these smallish creatures can produce such deafening sound. Their deep, throaty roars conjure images of primeval beasts stalking prey through Pleistocene jungles. Packs of howlers call back and forth, echoing over miles of terrain. Early explorers who set up campsites inside Maya ruins thought they were hearing roars of jaguars. Of course, jaguars do not roar. They are stealthy creatures that stalk silently, creeping up on prey and making soft grunts just before the attack. None of us walk the jungle pathways at night.

Sonia and I worked all day in the lab cleaning ceramic fragments from different structures, removing limestone deposits encrusted over the years and stabilizing with resins on all surfaces. A few pieces from Temple XIII have come to us, and we fantasize about the tomb’s occupant. Even though team experts lean toward it being a man, we are siding with Fanny and betting it’s a woman. Together we review what we know about Palenque’s great “queens.” We use the terms “king” and “queen” for convenience, even though these don’t capture the true meaning of Maya rulership. Maya rulers were called
K’uhul Ahau
, best translated as “Holy Lord” or
K’uhul Ixik
for “Holy Lady.” Female rulers were often addressed with the male title, however.

There were four “queens” named in Palenque glyphs and inscriptions who are candidates for the Temple XIII burial. We know quite a lot about the first two women rulers, the grandmother and mother of Pakal. About the others, Pakal’s wife and daughter-in-law, we know much less.

Palenque is one of the few Maya sites with “queens” who ruled in their own right. The Palenque “queens” hold immense fascination for me. These women shaped dynastic succession and wielded influence for generations. Certainly they were among the most powerful women in the western hemisphere, yet almost no one has heard of them. Ruler succession was usually along the male line, but not always. We have epigraphic evidence of women rulers in Tikal, Dos Pilas and Yaxchilan but all these women acted as co-regents with husbands or sons.

The ancient city of
Lakam Ha
, “Place of Big Water,” was by around 500 CE the dominant city in a region called
B’aakal
– the polity of B’aak, “bone” in Mayan. We call these regions “polities” because the geographic areas of a dominant city’s influence contained several subsidiary cities. People lived in the western part of the site by 500 BCE, according to the ceramic record. By 400 CE the community had grown and become more complex, interacting with the Peten region to the east. The Bahlam or “Jaguar” dynasty was founded around this time by
K’uk Bahlam I
, the first ruler considered fully human. He acceded in 431 CE.

Before him, however, was a divine lineage going back to mythological time and the Primordial Mother Goddess,
Ix Muwaan Mat
. The dynasty hit its apex with the creative genius of Pakal in the mid-seventh century CE. It declined along with the other Peten and Chiapas sites in the late tenth century.

I should give Pakal’s entire name and title:
K’inich Janaab Pakal I
, K’uhul B’aakal Ahau, called “Pakal the Great,” the most renowned ruler of Palenque. His name translates to “Sun-Faced Lord Shield.”

Around 150 years into the B’aakal dynasty, the first woman ruler acceded. Her name was
Yohl Ik’nal
, “Heart of the North Wind.” She acceded in 583 CE and ruled in her own right for 22 years during times of both abundance and conflict. Most likely she was the daughter of Kan Bahlam I, the prior ruler. As more than one Mayanist said of her, “she must have been a remarkable woman.” She guided her polity through attacks from Bonampak and Dos Pilas, plotted by archrival Kalakmul (Kan in Classic times), and kept succession in her family against opposition. She was Pakal’s grandmother.

The second “queen” was
Sak K’uk
, “White Resplendent Quetzal.” Daughter of Yohl Ik’nal and mother of Pakal, she acceded in 612 CE and ruled for three years until Pakal acceded at the age of 12 in 615 CE. Probably she was co-regent for some years and continued to advise him. However, there is controversy about exactly who ruled from 612-615 CE. Glyphs name Muwaan Mat as ruler, though some contend this was another name for Sak K’uk. Most intriguing is the link back to the Primordial Mother Goddess Ix Muwaan Mat. Maybe Sak K’uk joined forces with the Goddess to cope with the chaos that befell the city after Kalakmul’s devastating attack in 611 CE.

The third “queen” was
Tz’aakb’u Ahau
, “Accumulator of Lords.” Wife of Pakal, they married in 626 CE. She was from Tortuguero (B’aak), a site that had close ties to Palenque. The inscriptions refer to her as “from Toktan” the legendary city where the dynasty originated. Also called “Lady of the Succession,” she bore three or four sons, two becoming rulers after Pakal. The Mayan word
tz’aakb’u
was important in ancient Maya politics, and refers to the ordering of royal succession. This honorific name was undoubtedly given to her when she married Pakal. Her actual name is not known.

The fourth “queen” was
K’inuuw Mat
, “Sun-Possessed Cormorant.” Also from another city, she was the wife of Pakal’s youngest son. Although this son did not accede (he died earlier than his older brothers), he was the only one to produce heirs. Their son K’inich Ahkal Mo’ Nab III acceded in 722 CE, and the Bahlam lineage of B’aakal continued through this union. As mother of the royal succession, she wielded influence during a time when nobles were gaining power and there was foreboding of dynastic and cultural decline. Her role in preserving Maya cultural heritage bears examining.

June 17, 1994

The hot, humid climate of Palenque accelerates both growth and decay. After the ancient city was abandoned around 1000 CE, voracious jungle vines quickly climbed stairways while trees sprouted in plazas and brush grew between stones of walls and terraces. Within 100 years the city was hidden beneath waves of greenery forming forested hills where once pyramids stood. Another few centuries and the stone walls crumbled while torrents of rain dissolved the bright paint covering Palenque’s structures and eroded exquisitely carved panels and glyphs. By the time the Spaniards arrived, only a few roofcombs peeped through forest panoply and the great city was but a faint memory among local Maya descendants.

I’ve become accustomed to the cool, dry climate of Mexico City where my school (Escuela Nacional de Conservacion, Restauracion y Museografia) is located. Today the heat in here Chiapas is oppressive. Sweat drips as I write, moistening my notebook. But I will soon adjust, for this area is my home. I was born in the village of Palenque, a few miles from the ancient Maya site. Maya people have always lived here; early Spanish explorers gave the name to my village in the 1500s. Perhaps my family is descended from the Mayas that mysteriously abandoned their great city during the Classic Maya “collapse.”

Palenque – the most magical and exquisite ancient Maya city. This place has been dear to me all my life. Spread across a plateau of the Sierra de Chiapas Mountains, the city looks north and west over the Tabasco plains. It has abundant water; seven streams cross its terrain and cascade through ravines. Lush tropical forests rich in edible fruits, plants and wildlife surround it. Mountains rise tall to the south, their peaks often draped in mist.

The mists of Palenque
. How often I’ve watched swirling mists furrow through mountain crevices, hover like silvery drapes, seep across plazas to lap at broad stone stairways. Mists that hide more than palaces and pyramids and temples. They obscure from our sight the lives of those ancient Maya people who once lived in this magnificent city. I yearn to see Palenque – Lakam Ha – through their eyes. What did the delicate roofcombs and graceful temples look like in their original colors, walls painted red-orange, friezes etched in vivid blue, yellow, black and green? The city perched on a narrow ridge partway up the mountain’s northern edge. Buildings draped over steep hillsides, their stepped platforms and multilevel plazas ordered by natural contours. In its heyday up to 8,000 people lived there, gathering below temples and filling plazas for ceremonies and feasting. I can almost smell copal incense drifting from incensarios lining pyramid steps, and hear the rhythmic beat of wooden drums and plaintive flute melodies.

Palenque is disconcerting to archeologists, while holding us in its mesmerizing grip. Buildings were constructed differently than at other sites near the Usumacinta River, called K’umaxha by ancient Mayas. Palenque has a striking style of simple stepped pyramids supporting a temple on top with sloped roofs crowned by airy roofcombs. Many buildings were decorated with exquisite friezes on pillars, side panels and interior tablets. In contrast with other sites that had many freestanding monuments such as stela, Palenque had only one. Lakam Ha glyphs expressed religious and lineage themes, while its neighbors’ glyphs were of a more bellicose nature, recounting victories of rulers.

There was only one quite small ball court in the city. Most important Maya sites had several large ball courts, because the ball game re-enacted Maya creation mythology as told in the
Popol Vuh
. This was central to Maya religious practices, but at Palenque greater focus was placed on the Triad Deities. The great Mayanist Heinrich Berlin first deduced their existence in 1963, designating them as God I (GI), God II (GII), and God III (GIII) because he could not read their name glyphs. Progress in epigraphy deciphered their Classic Mayan names and how they fit into Palenque’s creation mythology:

God I is
Hun Ahau
(One Lord), first born in the mythical realm of Matawiil. Around the time of Maya creation, he occupied “Six Sky Ahau Place,” a position on the Maya zodiac. His domain is the celestial realm, the Upperworld. His re-birth as a Triad member signaled his resurrection into a new, local religious order at Palenque.

God II is
Unen K’awiil
(Infant Powerful One), third born though Berlin identified him as the second god. The youngest, he assumes a baby jaguar form with a snake leg. As dynastic patron, he symbolizes royal power. His domain is the earthly realm and agriculture, the Middleworld. His title “Young Lord of the Five Heavenly Houses” refers to the Maya zodiac.

God III is
K’in Ahau
(Sun Lord), second born on 13 Kimi, day of death that ends the 13-day cycle. His domain is the Underworld. He is depicted as K’in Bahlam the Underworld Sun Jaguar represented by the full moon, or Waterlily Jaguar swimming in the watery Underworld.

The Palenque Triad Deities had an interesting birth sequence. All were born the same year (2360 BCE). GI and GIII were born four days apart, then GII came 14 days later. They all had the same mother – the Primordial Mother Goddess Ix Muwaan Mat. It’s not clear who fathered them, maybe the very ancient God I “The Father” who seemed to reincarnate himself as his firstborn “The Son.” The Triad Deities created the liminal quasi-human
U K’ix Kan
, who “came to be” in ancient times and lived hundreds of years. He brought forth the first truly human ruler, K’uk Bahlam I, who lived a normal mortal life in historic times, and founded the B’aakal lineage that built Lakam Ha.

The Maya of Lakam Ha were unique in their emphasis of these three deities. They were patrons of the ruling dynasty, the Holy Lords of B’aakal. Although the gods are found in many other Maya sites, only in Lakam Ha did they have such special roles with the rulers. The rulers embodied – actually became – Triad Deities and brought their beneficence to the people. Religion, history and politics were one and the same. Society was organized according to religious beliefs and cities constructed to mirror cosmology. While all Maya cities integrated religion and sociopolitical structures, Palenque was obsessed with weaving them together to demonstrate the ruling dynasty’s oneness with the deities.

The Maya title for ruler, K’uhul Ahau – Holy Lord conveys their role as divine emissaries, mediating between gods and people, maintaining the cosmic order of their universe. Rulers were not kings or queens in the European sense. We must be careful of super-imposing a Eurocentric view upon Maya culture, which was radically different from the kingdoms and warfare of medieval and renaissance Europe.