How well the K’uhul B’aakal Ahau and his daughter accomplished the rituals was key to their people’s future.
The high initiate ahauob, priests and priestesses gathered in the Sak Nuk Nah, including rulers and high priesthood of several B’aakal subsidiary cities. Within the small structure this group of fifty people found places to sit upon reed mats, waiting in silence. All had completed purification rituals and donned simple ceremonial clothing, primarily white garments with blue, black, or green trim. Drafts of cool air flowed into the room through the tunnels, chilling the stone walls and floor already cool from the winter earth. Torches mounted on wall brackets cast flickering light into the darkness of the underground structure.
The distant sound of rattles signaled the approach of Kan Bahlam and Yohl Ik’nal. As the royal pair approached through the passageway from their chambers, the smell of copal incense drifted into the room. Soon they entered, making a circle around the altar throne once in each direction, then the ruler sat upon the throne with his daughter standing at his right side. Kan Bahlam wore a short skirt with mat designs and a headdress displaying symbols of K’awiil – patron of rulers and Yum K’ax – maize god, while Yohl Ik’nal was attired as Ix Azal Uoh, a form of Ix Chel as mother earth goddess who wove the fabric forming the lives of her creatures. Attendants waited in the doorways until summoned, carrying small bundles wrapped in white cloth, ceremonial headdresses and bloodletting implements.
On momentous occasions such as K’altun endings, the ultimate sacrificial offering of royal blood was required. Blood was the most concentrated source of itz, sacred life-force energy. As the gods gave life to humans, so humans offered back the blood that coursed through veins carrying that life force, the sustenance of their existence in the physical world. Droplets of blood were collected on bark paper in ceramic cups and burned to release their essence as smoke that coiled and morphed into Vision Serpents. These metaphysical entities opened the channels of inter-dimensional communication; from their gaping jaws would emerge divine or ancestral beings who delivered messages to the vision-seeker.
The messages sought during this ceremony focused on the coming katun, the next 20 years for the people of B’aakal. The nature of the messages, their beneficent or malefic intent, depended upon how the gods received the gifts prepared for them.
First came the offering of god-bundles. Following lengthy chanting, during which Yohl Ik’nal fanned incense smoke upon all gathered, the ruler summoned attendants to bring forth the bundles. There were three bundles that Yohl Ik’nal had prepared for the Lords of the First Sky. Kan Bahlam had prepared three headdresses for the B’aakal Triad.
An attendant knelt, presenting three bundles on a silver tray as Yohl Ik’nal spoke:
“Lords of the First Sky, Lords of the Jeweled Tree born of earth and celestial vault, the shining tree of precious gems reaching from the Middleworld of people to the Upperworld of spirits, it is I your earthly daughter, Yohl Ik’nal, who offers to you each your ak’tu’ gift-thing. These gift-things have I created with my own hands and work and effort, breathing upon them love and devotion and gratitude. You are the Jewels of the First Sky, you radiate brilliance and beauty beyond compare. You are perfect, yet you may have enjoyment of such beauties of the earth realm. Beauty to beauty goes, precious resplendence finds its matching radiance. These are my offerings.”
She lifted the first god-bundle, holding it upward then moving it in the symbolic gesture of the Maya cross. Slowly she unwrapped the bundle to reveal a necklace of deep red coral beads interspersed with spirals carved from spondylus shell, rose-hued with hints of opalescence. These treasures had been obtained with great effort and considerable risk from off-shore reefs in the great eastern sea, where vigorous waves threatened to dash divers against sharp ridges and big-toothed fish called xoc – shark awaited distracted swimmers. A set of large earspools of red coral, carved with the sun glyph, complemented the necklace to perfection.
“To you, 6 Chan Yoch’ok’in, I offer this gift-thing. May it bring you pleasure.”
The gathered elite immediately appreciated the perfection of this gift. The god’s name meant “sky you possess/enter the sun” whose center was red fire.
Setting the bundle on the edge of the altar throne, she lifted the next god-bundle and performed the same gestures. Upon opening, the gold necklace and earspools inside this bundle caught the dancing torch flames and burst into blazing rays, dazzling the eyes with brilliance. This golden metal came from the central mountains, where it was mined with immense effort by vassals of Teotihuacan, most powerful city of this northern region whose influence penetrated the Maya lands. Gold was much valued there, and the cost to obtain such a collection was substantial. The large necklace with 16 rows of beads gradually increasing in size, and flower shaped earspools were unusual and impressive.
“To you, 16 Ch’ok’in, I offer this gift-thing. May it bring you pleasure.”
Golden light was a fine representation of the meaning of this god’s name, “emergent young sun.” It invoked the first shafts of golden brightness slipping over the horizon at sunrise. Its costliness was in keeping with the crucial role of the sun in Maya life.
This bundle placed upon the altar throne, she lifted the final one, performed gestures as before and opened it. Here were necklace and earspools of jade, smoky veined and mysterious, so dark as to be nearly black. Yet the veins in the jade provoked a curious fascination, thin networks of pearly gray contrasting with hidden forest depths, a mesmerizing pattern. Acquiring such a large and fine collection with exact coloration and patterning must have cost dearly.
“To you, 9 Tz’ak Ahau, I offer this gift-thing. May it bring you pleasure.”
This god’s name meant “conjuring lord” and indeed the gift was deeply shamanic, with its shape-shifting qualities plumbing the depths of mystery. The assembled ahauob breathed an inner sigh of relief and appreciation as she placed the final bundle on the altar. The novice ceremonialist had divined to perfection the qualities for gift-things that merged with the essences of the gods.
Kan Bahlam rose and bowed to his daughter, arms across chest in the gesture of supreme honoring. His eyes twinkled as they met hers, for he was well pleased. She bowed in return and sat, as he began the offerings to the B’aakal Triad.
By long tradition, these gods received hats or headdresses as their gift-things. The art was in creating imaginative and symbolic headdresses that included all the important elements for each god. Kan Bahlam had reflected long upon this, acquired the finest materials and directed artisans personally in selecting styles and colors. After chanting the obligatory ritual prayers, in exactly the tone and cadence as had generations of rulers before him, he signaled for attendants to bring forth the gifts. Each headdress was held in turn by Kan Bahlam while circling the altar three times, showing details to everyone in the group.
The first born of the B’aakal Triad Gods, Hun Ahau was given the sacrificial bowl hat created from exquisite ceramic bowl pieces painted by the most talented Lakam Ha artists. Attached were implements used for bloodletting such as the perforator bone from a stingray spine, obsidian needles, tendrils of bark paper and clear red beads in dangling rows suggesting a stream of blood droplets. Red macaw feathers continued the theme of spurting blood and ahau face glyphs framed the head border.
The second born, Mah Kinah Ahau was given the white paper hat. It was the custom of B’aakal rulers to tie on a white headband when they assumed rulership. The underworld sun-jaguar, whose celestial body was the full moon, acted as the uay of this god. With white paper streamers and arching white feathery plumes, jaguar skin bands around the base and ahau face glyphs, the headdress incorporated these themes and added blue quetzal feathers for the watery qualities of the underworld.
The third born, Unen K’awill was given the fire sky-god hat with red as the prominent color. This serpent-footed deity depicted as an infant represented the royal bloodline of B’aakal. With infant glyphs around the
headband, shining mirrors of pyrite representing the lightning force of K’awill, serpents coiling and twining atop and flaming red macaw feathers mixed with black-tipped white egret feathers, the headdress brought the qualities of the god into full expression.
After presenting each headdress to the group, Kan Bahlam placed it on the altar throne and performed hand signs that invoked the deities to merge with the hat. His powerful form commanded attention from unseen forces as well as human. All eyes were riveted upon the ruler and everyone sensed the uncanny chill of other-worldly presences. Many people there, Yohl Ik’nal included, experienced a tingling sensation up the spine and felt gooseflesh form on arms. No one doubted that the B’aakal Triad gods had entered the chamber to claim their headdresses.
Drummers beat a solemn cadence as Kan Bahlam and Yohl Ik’nal prepared for bloodletting. The ruler sat on the altar throne flanked by the Triad God headdresses. Attendants brought needle-sharp stingray spines and bark paper inside a ceramic bowl that they placed on a mat between his feet. The blood offering of male rulers was traditionally from the penis, symbol of generative powers bringing fertility to all creatures and abundant growth to crops, especially maize. Attendants kept an incenser of hot coals ready to light sticks which would set the blood-soaked paper on fire.
Yohl Ik’nal sat on a mat and placed the three god-bundles around her. For royal women, blood offerings were from the tongue or earlobes. Attendants brought spiny needles and ceramic bowl with bark paper, placing them before her. This was a moment she both anticipated and dreaded, her first sacrificial bloodletting. Psychologically prepared by fasting, purification and prayer, she had also imbibed a brew of pain-numbing herbs along with a mild hallucinogen. These brews were prepared from secret formulas by the High Priest and Priestess; few among the commoners knew they were used for the bloodletting rituals.
Even so, there would be pain. Her father warned her of this, and taught techniques to use for separating her awareness from the pain. It was required that this act be one of self-sacrifice, carried out by the sacrificer. Only by such volition, such strong acts of willingness and commitment, would the gods be pleased and the offering be pure. But it was hard not to recoil against trauma inflicted upon such vulnerable organs. She worried that she might not be able to withstand the pain without flinching. How important it was to show no reaction she knew well; all those observing would be alert to the slightest hesitation or shudder.
Kan Bahlam went first, grasping penis in one hand the spiny needle in the other. Gazing into the distance, he projected all his concentration into the starry realm of the gods and began breathing in deep and measured rhythm. Deliberately he withdrew awareness from the body. When he felt deep inner calm, a stillness that was at once emptiness and infinite expansion, he raised his hand and quickly plunged the needle several times into the penile shaft. No expression marred his restful features, no twitch shook his straight body. Blood flowed in small rivulets onto the bark paper, staining their whiteness with crimson splashes.
Yohl Ik’nal did not watch her father but kept her eyes closed, building inner concentration. Using the same breath technique she projected her awareness into the realm of the First Sky Lords. The Jeweled Tree captured her attention with its sparkling gems and propelled her along its trunk and branches into the sky realms. But a small part of her awareness resisted, hung back thinking of the sacrificial act. Quivers of fear trembled around her heart. She breathed more deeply, commanding her attention to focus. This inner struggle continued, she knew not how long for she floated in timelessness.
This must be done, echoed the recesses of her mind. This must be done correctly.
From a well of determination she had not known before, there surged a current of incredible strength. Sudden calmness descended and her consciousness exploded into infinity; she was the entire cosmos.
Now! Commanded the inner guide.
She stuck out her tongue, grasped the tip between pieces of bark paper and quickly stabbed the spiny needle upward from the bottom. This needle had a thin thread attached embedded with thorns to sustain blood flow. Through a power beyond her personal self, she did not flinch or alter her calm expression. When the needle penetrated through the tongue, she grasped its tip and slowly pulled it upward until the entire length of thorny thread passed. In some recess of a disconnected brain, pain registered. But the pain seemed small and distant, inconsequential. Her consciousness floated in exquisite realms of starry gems and exalted beings radiating love and peace.
Attendants collected blood as it dripped from her tongue, ruby droplets that trickled onto and slowly saturated the bark papers. They lit the papers and shortly a thin column of smoke curled upward. Kan Bahlam’s papers were already emitting smoke. The two vision-seekers focused upon their smoke columns that undulated and danced in the torchlight, morphing into serpents whose elaborate jaws gaped wide. From within these jaws would emerge messengers bringing predictions for the coming katun.
K’in Ahau, the second born of the B’aakal Triad, the Watery Sun Jaguar who traversed through the underworld at night, appeared in the jaws of Kan Bahlam’s vision serpent. Part of the message dealt with a time of strength and prosperity for Lakam Ha and stability in the B’aakal polity. The other part dealt with death and dynastic succession and was meant for Kan Bahlam alone. In his expanded state he accepted foreknowledge of his own death easily, although later when his human emotions were restored he would feel grief. The exact moment was not revealed, but he was given to understand he must lose no time consolidating his daughter’s position for dynastic inheritance. He realized that the hoof-binding ceremony to formally denote her as successor must be done soon. So would it be.
Unen K’awill, third born of the Triad, appeared in the jaws of Yohl Ik’nal’s vision serpent. The infant deity of royal blood, protector of succession, brought her the personal message of two children to be born of her union with Hun Pakal. The first, a boy, would succeed to rulership but there would be serious problems. The second, a girl, would also become ruler during troubled times but would use extraordinary tactics to handle these difficulties. Her success would lead to a golden age when Lakam Ha reached the apex of power, prestige and creativity. In the coming katun, the polity would prosper although the seeds of strife and disruption were being sown. At the center of this disruptive nucleus she could see the form of a scorpion, scuddering around snapping its claws and thrashing its tail to put stings of poison in the hearts of men.
Thus the katun messages for B’aakal were mixed: peace and prosperity for 20 years while change approached and danger loomed on the distant horizon.
Field Journal
Archeological Camp
Francesca Nokom Gutierrez
Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico
May 16, 1994
Today is the most exciting day of my life! Our archeological team just discovered a royal tomb! Rumors are flying around camp that it’s a woman – a Mayan queen. If it is, this will be the first queen’s burial ever found in the Maya world.
“It’s a woman, it’s a woman.” These words murmured by Fanny Lopez Jimenez after her first look into the sealed chamber hidden inside Temple XIII passed from mouth to mouth among workers, rippled across forests and rivers, soared over mountains, and soon will reach the ears of the world. But much work is necessary before we know what is inside the sarcophagus.
I must place this discovery in context, so it can be fully appreciated. Our team of young archeologists has been working in the ancient Maya site called Palenque since 1992, under the direction of Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz. We are part of several Special Archeology Projects to explore and maintain Mexico’s cultural heritage, created through INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropologia y Historia). During the 1993 field season, we concentrated efforts on the Great Plaza, especially the Palace and Temple of the Inscriptions. This season we are focusing on the string of smaller temples extending westward from the Temple of the Inscriptions: Temple XIII, Temple XII-A and the Temple of th
e Skull. If the Temple of the Inscriptions, burial monument of Palenque’s most famous ruler Janaab Pakal, were not so overwhelming these other three temples would be impressive in their own right.
Our field seasons are 6 months long, during the relatively dry period in the tropical forests of southern Chiapas. In winter months, the rains are so torrential that ground work is impossible, and scaling crumbling limestone stairs is dangerous. This is the last year of our project, so making this momentous discovery is all the more astonishing.
Let me reconstruct how the discovery happened. When the project began, each archeologist selected the temple, structure or pyramid they wanted to work. Fanny Lopez Jimenez, an archeology assistant, was assigned to Temple XIII because no one else was interested; everyone thought it was completely explored by Jorge Acosta in the 1970s and had no more information to offer. Fanny was happy with her assignment, working diligently to clear weeds from the base of the collapsed stairs and achieve structural stability.
On the morning of April 11, 1994, Fanny made a remarkable observation. While looking at the collapsed stairs of Temple XIII from a distance, she detected something more than the usual debris – a partially covered opening. At 2.8 meters above plaza level she saw a crack, its upper part still sealed by masonry but the lower portion was open about four centimeters where the debris had fallen away. It was a tiny crack, giving just enough space to create a fissure into the structure’s interior. Fanny and her workers did not have lamps at hand, but one had a small mirror that they used to direct sunrays into the crack. Peering in, they saw a narrow passage about 6 meters long. It was completely clear and opened onto another passage at right angle, in which they saw a large sealed door.
It was a substructure inside Temple XIII. An unknown substructure buried inside the surface building that we see next to the Temple of the Inscriptions. In a temple that everyone had written off as fully explored. On this momentous day, a process began that will change our understanding of Palenque.
The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik'Nal of Palenque Page 14