Palenque (Spanish pronunciation: [pa'leŋke]; Yucatec Maya: Bàakʼ [ɓaːkʼ]), also anciently known in the Itzaʼ language as Lakamha ("big water" or "big waters"), was a Maya city-state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD. After its decline, it was overgrown by the jungle of cedar, mahogany, and sapodilla trees, but has since been excavated and restored. It is located near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, about 130 km (81 mi) south of Ciudad del Carmen, 150 meters (490 ft) above sea level. It is adjacent to the modern town of Palenque, Chiapas. It averages a humid 26 °C (79 °F) with roughly 2,160 millimeters (85 in) of rain a year.
Palenque is a medium-sized site, smaller than Tikal, Chichen Itza, or Copán, but it contains some of the finest architecture, sculpture, roof comb and bas-relief carvings that the Maya produced. Much of the history of Palenque has been reconstructed from reading the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the many monuments; historians now have a long sequence of the ruling dynasty of Palenque in the 5th century and extensive knowledge of the city-state's rivalry with other states such as Calakmul and Toniná. The most famous ruler of Palenque was Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal, or Pacal the Great, whose tomb has been found and excavated in the Temple of the Inscriptions. By 2005, the discovered area covered up to 2.5 km2 (0.97 sq mi), but it is estimated that less than 10% of the total area of the city is explored, leaving more than a thousand structures still covered by jungle. Palenque received 920,470 visitors in 2017.
History
Mythological beings using a variety of emblem glyphs in their titles suggests a complex early history. For instance, Kʼukʼ Bahlam I, the supposed founder of the Palenque dynasty, is called a Toktan Ajaw in the text of the Temple of the Foliated Cross.
The famous structures that we know today probably represent a rebuilding effort in response to the attacks by the city of Calakmul and its client states in 599 and 611. One of the main figures responsible for rebuilding Palenque and for a renaissance in the city's art and architecture is also one of the best-known Maya Ajaw, Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal (Pacal the Great), who ruled from 615 to 683. He is known through his funerary monument dubbed the Temple of the Inscriptions, after the lengthy text preserved in the temple's superstructure. At the time Alberto Ruz Lhuillier excavated Pakal's tomb, it was the richest and best preserved of any scientifically excavated burial then known from the ancient Americas. It held this position until the discovery of the rich Moche burials at Sipán, Peru and the recent discoveries at Copán and Calakmul.
Beside the attention that Kʼinich Janaab' Pakal's tomb brought to Palenque, the city is historically significant for its extensive hieroglyphic corpus composed during the reigns of Janaabʼ Pakal, his son Kʼinich Kan Bahlam II, and his grandson Kʼinich Akal Moʼ Naabʼ, and for being the location where Heinrich Berlin and later Linda Schele and Peter Mathews outlined the first dynastic list for any Maya city. The work of Tatiana Proskouriakoff as well as that of Berlin, Schele, Mathews, and others, initiated the intense historical investigations that characterized much of the scholarship on the ancient Maya from the 1960s to the present. The extensive iconography and textual corpus has also allowed for study of Classic period Maya mythology and ritual practice.
Rulers
A list of possible and known Maya rulers of the city, with dates of their reigns:
Mythological and legendary rulers:
- ?-Muwaan Mat c.2325 BC
- Ukʼix Chan c.987 BC
- Casper c.252 BC
Palenque dynasty:
- Kʼukʼ Bahlam I 431–c.435 AD
- "Casper" 435–c.487 AD
- Bʼutz Aj Sak Chiik 487–c.501 AD
- Ahkal Moʼ Nahb I 501–524 AD
- Kʼan Joy Chitam I 529–565 AD
- Ahkal Moʼ Nahb II 565–570 AD
- Kan Bahlam I 572–583 AD
- Yohl Ikʼnal 583–604 AD (female)
- Ajen Yohl Mat 605–612 AD
- Janahb Pakal c.612 AD (position uncertain)
- Sak Kʼukʼ 612–615 AD (female)
- Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal I 615–683 AD
- Kʼinich Kan Bahlam II 684–702 AD
- Kʼinich Kʼan Joy Chitam II 702–711 AD
- Kʼinich Ahkal Moʼ Nahb III 721–c.736 AD
- Kʼinich Janaab Pakal II c.742 AD
- Kʼinich Kan Bahlam III c.751 AD
- Kʼinich Kʼukʼ Bahlam II 764–c.783 AD
- Janaab Pakal III 799–? AD
Early Classic period
The first ajaw, or king, of Bʼaakal that we know of was Kʼuk Balam (Quetzal Jaguar), who governed for four years starting in the year 431. After him, a king came to power, nicknamed "Casper" by archaeologists. The next two kings were probably Casper's sons. Little was known about the first of these, Bʼutz Aj Sak Chiik, until 1994, when a tablet was found describing a ritual for the king. The first tablet mentioned his successor Ahkal Moʼ Naab I as a teenage prince, and therefore it is believed that there was a family relation between them. For unknown reasons, Akhal Moʼ Naab I had great prestige, so the kings who succeeded him were proud to be his descendants.
When Ahkal Moʼ Naab I died in 524, there was an interregnum of four years, before the following king was crowned at Toktán in 529. Kʼan Joy Chitam I governed for 36 years. His sons Ahkal Moʼ Naab II and Kʼan Bʼalam I were the first kings who used the title Kinich, which means "the great sun". This word was used also by later kings. Bʼalam was succeeded in 583 by Yohl Ikʼnal, who was supposedly his daughter. The inscriptions found in Palenque document a battle that occurred under her government in which troops from Calakmul invaded and sacked Palenque, a military feat without known precedents. These events took place in 599.
A second victory by Calakmul occurred some twelve years later, in 611, under the government of Aj Ne' Yohl Mat, son of Yohl Iknal. In this occasion, the king of Calakmul entered Palenque in person, consolidating a significant military disaster, which was followed by an epoch of political disorder. Aj Ne' Yohl Mat was to die in 612.
Late Classic period
Bʼaakal began the Late Classic period in the throes of the disorder created by the defeats before Calakmul. The glyphic panels at the Temple of the Inscriptions, which records the events at this time, relates that some fundamental annual religious ceremonies were not performed in 613, and at this point states: "Lost is the divine lady, lost is the king." Mentions of the government at the time have not been found.
It is believed that after the death of Aj Ne' Yohl Mat, Janaab Pakal, also called Pakal I, took power thanks to a political agreement. Janaab Pakal assumed the functions of the ajaw (king) but never was crowned. He was succeeded in 612 by his daughter, the queen Sak Kʼukʼ, who governed for only three years until her son was old enough to rule. It is considered that the dynasty was reestablished from then on, so Bʼaakal retook the path of glory and splendor.
The grandson of Janaab Pakal is the most famous of the Maya kings, Kʼinich Janaab' Pakal, also known as Pakal the Great. He began rule at the age of 12 years after his mother Sak Kuk resigned as queen after three years, thus passing power on to him. Pakal the Great reigned in Palenque from 615 to 683, and his mother remained an important force for the first 25 years of his rule. She may have ruled jointly with him. Known as the favorite of the gods, he carried Palenque to new levels of splendor, in spite of having come to power when the city was at a low point. Pakal married the princess of Oktán, Lady Tzakbu Ajaw (also known as Ahpo-Hel) in 624 and had at least three children.
Most of the palaces and temples of Palenque were constructed during his government; the city flourished as never before, eclipsing Tikal. The central complex, known as The Palace, was enlarged and remodeled on various occasions, notably in the years 654, 661, and 668. In this structure, is a text describing how in that epoch Palenque was newly allied with Tikal, and also with Yaxchilan, and that they were able to capture the six enemy kings of the alliance. Not much more had been translated from the text.
After the death of Pakal in 683, his older son Kʼinich Kan Bʼalam assumed the kingship of Bʼaakal, who in turn was succeeded in 702 by his brother Kʼinich Kʼan Joy Chitam II. The first continued the architectural and sculptural works that were begun by his father, as well as finishing the construction of the famous tomb of Pakal. Pakal's sarcophagus, built for a very tall man, held the richest collection of jade seen in a Maya tomb. A jade mosaic mask was placed over his face, and a suit made of jade adorned his body, with each piece hand-carved and held together by gold wire.
Kʼinich Kan Bʼalam I started several building projects, including the Group of the Crosses. Sculptures from his government include portraits of this king. His brother succeeded him, reconstructing and enlarging the northern side of the Palace. The reigns of these three kings resulted in a century of expansion.
In 711, Palenque was sacked by the realm of Toniná, and the old king Kʼinich Kʼan Joy Chitam II was taken prisoner. It is not known what the final fate of the king was, and it is presumed that he was executed in Toniná. For 10 years there was no king. Finally, Kʼinich Ahkal Moʼ Nab' III was crowned in 722. Although the new king belonged to the royalty, there is no evidence that he was the direct inheritor of Kʼinich Kʼan Joy Chitam II. It is believed, therefore, that this coronation was a break in the dynastic line, and probably Kʼinich Ahkal Nab' arrived to power after years of maneuvering and forging political alliances. This king, his son, and grandson governed until the end of the 8th century. Little is known about this period, except that, among other events, the war with Toniná continued, where there are hieroglyphics that record a new defeat of Palenque.
Occasionally city-state lords were women. Lady Sak Kuk ruled at Palenque for at least three years starting in 612 CE, before she passed her title to her son. However, these female rulers were accorded male attributes. They were presented as more masculine, since they had assumed roles that were typically held by men.
Abandonment
During the 8th century, Bʼaakal came under increasing stress, in concert with most other Classic Maya city-states, and there was no new elite construction in the ceremonial center sometime after 800. An agricultural population continued to live here for a few generations, then the site was abandoned and was slowly grown over by the forest. The district was very sparsely populated when the Spanish first arrived in the 1520s.
Art and architecture
Important structures at Palenque include:
Temple of the Inscriptions
The Temple of the Inscriptions had begun perhaps as early as 675 as the funerary monument of Hanab-Pakal. The temple superstructure houses the second longest glyphic text known from the Maya world (the longest is the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan). The Temple of the Inscriptions records approximately 180 years of the city's history from the 4th through 12th Kʼatun. The focal point of the narrative records Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal's Kʼatun period-ending rituals focused on the icons of the city's patron deities prosaically known collectively as the Palenque Triad or individually as GI, GII, and GIII.
The pyramid measures 60 meters wide, 42.5 meters deep and 27.2 meters high. The summit temple measures 25.5 meters wide, 10.5 meters deep and 11.4 meters high. The largest stones weigh 12 to 15 tons. These were on top of the pyramid. The total volume of pyramid and temple is 32,500 cu. meters.
In 1952 Alberto Ruz Lhuillier removed a stone slab in the floor of the back room of the temple superstructure to reveal a passageway (filled in shortly before the city's abandonment and reopened by archeologists) leading through a long stairway to Pakal's tomb. The tomb itself is remarkable for its large carved sarcophagus, the rich ornaments accompanying Pakal, and for the stucco sculpture decorating the walls of the tomb. Unique to Pakal's tomb is the psychoduct, which leads from the tomb itself, up the stairway and through a hole in the stone covering the entrance to the burial. This psychoduct is perhaps a physical reference to concepts about the departure of the soul at the time of death in Maya eschatology where in the inscriptions the phrase ochb'ihaj sak ikʼil (the white breath road-entered) is used to refer to the leaving of the soul. A find such as this is greatly important because it demonstrated for the first time the temple usage as being multifaceted. These pyramids were, for the first time, identified as temples and also funerary structures.
The much-discussed iconography of the sarcophagus lid depicts Pakal in the guise of one of the manifestations of the Maya maize god emerging from the maws of the underworld.
The temple also has a duct structure that still is not completely understood by archaeologists. It has been suggested that the duct aligns with the winter solstice and that the sun shines down on Pakal's tomb.