Young Tzak B’u’ was playing with her friends when lords and ladies from a great city arrived in 599 at Ux te Kuh’, the town of her birth and that of her forefathers. She could not think that one of the slender young boys in the visiting party, Janaab’ Pakal, would be her companion for most of her life; how could she? The royal party fled their kingdom’s capital, Lakamhá (now Palenque), which was burned by proxies of the K’an (serpent) kingdom. The refugees were led by Ixik Yohl Ik’nal Ahaw, who is the first woman to lead Palenque’s destiny in her own right, with the full title of K’uhul Ba’akal Ahaw or “Holy Lord of the Ba’akal Kingdom.” Ux Te Kuh’ was an important ally that backed Palenque’s western flank. It is tentatively identified near El Retiro in today’s state of Tabasco, Mexico. Because of ongoing regional conflicts driven by Calakmul’s K’an kingdom and its allied factions, the city’s nobility moved to Ux Te Kuh in 611 CE. It was there, during his adolescence, that Pakal met Ix Tzak-b’u, who would later become his wife. Palenque is the name the Spaniards gave to the ancient city, which meant “stockade.” Lakamha’ in Ch’ol-Maya means “big waters,” for the 56 springs and 9 small rivers that come out from the upper slopes of the Yemal K’uk’ Lakam Witz, the “great mountain of the descending quetzal” that overlooks the city. Its tropical forest was home to jaguars, howler monkeys, deer, colorful parrots, and other birds. Numerous falls and eddies, falling through ravines and over significant natural stair steps, underline the city’s importance as a sacred place. Water is revered in most world mythologies, for it is essential to life and the birthplace of all life-forms. From the sixth to the mid-tenth century, Palenque was an important metropolis and a major regional player in politics, architecture, and trade. Ixik (lady) Yohl Ik’nal received her regal powers as K’uhul Ba’akal Ahaw, or Holy Lord of the Ba’akal Kingdom, on 21 December 583. She was the first of a few women rulers in Maya history to have held the full royal title. Palenque’s history is tumultuous, marked by frequent wars and great and not-so-great ahaws, or lords.

From the fifth century onward, conflicts escalated, driven in part by a growing population and the need to expand the cultivation of maize and other food crops. The heads of kingdoms were in constant search of more land, water, and allies to face encroaching, more powerful competitors. Trade in salt, cocoa beans, cotton, and jade, among other products, traveled through natural choke points in the landscape, such as rivers and mountain passes guarded by local lords, demanding alliances to avoid disputes over payment for the right of way that would otherwise escalate into warfare. The aggressiveness of the K’an, or serpent, kingdom of Calakmul in controlling such choke points and its attendant political dominance was persistent and is well-documented historically. Pakal did not forget the burnings in 599 and again in 611, by Calakmul’s regional proxies, when the city’s nobility had to flee to Ux Te K’uh.

During her reign (583-604), Palenque’s then lord Ixik Yohl Ik’nal A’hau was plagued with hostility from within and without. Regional antagonism was fueled by two enemies for different but complementary reasons. In Tabasco’s northern plains, Tortuguero leaders also claimed the city’s K’uhul B’aakal Ahaw, for its prestigious name, “Sacred Lord of the B’aakal Kingdom,” traditionally associated with Palenque’s historic right grounded in its founding place. B’aak translates as bone in the Ch’ol language, where chu’lel, together with blood, the “soul stuff of the universe,” as Schele and Parker (1993:14) point out, are the perpetual anchor of life; blood in life and bones in death. Claims and counterclaims to the city’s name fed a deep-seated enmity between the two kingdoms for generations. The second woman to lead the kingdom, Ikix Zac’K’uk, was Pakal’s mother, who ascended to K’uhul B’aakal Ahaw and led Palenque (612-615). A year earlier, in 611, four years before Pakal acceded to the crown, his family and the lords of the realm fled once more to Ux Te Kuh. Little did young Tzak-b’u, now a young woman, realize that her parents rescued her future in-laws and husband-to-be. It is during this second exile that Tzak B’u’ and Janaab’ Pakal, then in their early teens, fell in love.

Pakal was twelve years old when he inherited the kingdom on July 26, 615. Political pressure to delegitimize her son was a key driver in the antagonism Ix Zac’K’uk had to contend with domestic and regional factions. The relentless antagonism she faced was due in part to the discontinuation of the Maya traditional male line of descent, which regarded her as illegitimate. History, however, is foggy, for it seems that Yohl Ik’nal’s father, K’an B’ahlam.I had no choice but to shift to the female line of descent due to the lack of a male heir. At that time, there were indeed lords of the realm who could legitimately pretend to the title for their sons but were denied their claim.

As Linda Schele remarks, a faction of the nobles of the realm “…followed the traditional practice of other Maya dynasties, which also claimed descent from a founding king…they were declaring the dynastic succession to be a force transcending patrilineality.” However, “…each time women inherited the kingship and passed it on to their children, the throne automatically descended through another patriline. K’an Bahlam.I jumped the link between lineage and dynasty in the succession.” (1990:220-223). Tortuguero may have supported repeated attacks on Palenque by the K’an kingdom, which backed regional proxies, a move justified by the Lakamha’s ruler, who was perceived as illegitimate. This volatile political situation and the uncertainty of wavering allies forced Ix Zac’K’uk to abdicate in favor of her twelve-year-old son, Janaab’ Pakal. She remained regent until 628, when Pakal turned 25; she died in 647. Pakal’s father, K’an Ix ‘Mo, was not elevated to lordship status because he was from Ux Te K’u’s nobility. Their daughter Ix Tzak B’u’ married Pakal in Palenque on March 19, 626. At that time, the title Ahaw (holy) was added to her name as Ixik (lady) Tzak-b’u’Ahaw. The couple had three sons: Kan Bahlam (635), Kan H’oy Chitam (644), and Tiwohl Chan Mat (648), ensuring a male line of descent.

The underreported influence of women in the archaeological record has only recently been addressed. During the Classic period (250-950), spouses of lords and officials appear on stelas, lintels, and ceramics, highlighting their important roles in state affairs and religious rituals.  On the stelae of several sites of the period, women of the nobility are depicted in ceremonial dress in distinct ritual contexts. Pakal’s consort was no exception, for he sought Ix Tzak B’u’s counsel on important aspects of women’s lives that were essential to the kingdom’s social order. From early to middle age, women’s tasks centered on daily family chores such as raising children, caring for elderly or sick family members, the all-important weaving of common and sacred garments, preparing food, and tending small gardens attached to the house, and domestic animals, among other tasks. They were also active in weaver groups and in secular and spiritual ceremonies. After menopause, women are more frequently represented in the archaeological record as participating in rituals and collective events. At that stage in their lives, women were influential contributors to the social and spiritual orders and to the well-being of their communities. Their significant contributions included their roles as midwives and physicians, their accountability for the cranial deformation of the nobility’s babies, the filing of adult teeth, and the curing of diseases, among other essential social functions. As well as mediators in the middle world between female deities of the “otherworld” (the world “above”) and those of the “underworld” (the world “below”), as priestesses and shamans.

Gods and deities were associated with their respective earthly gender as complementary opposites, perceived as two holy worlds. Within this dual spiritual context, men and women answered to their respective gender deities. That is why, to this day, male and female shamans must at times join forces during trances when they come into the presence of hostile deities or ancestors of either gender in the “underworld.” Life’s problems mainly arise from the living world, but also from a departed ancestor of a close or extended family who may still hold grudges at the time of his/her passing. In their trances, priest-shamans called on ancestors for help to resolve conflicts that had not been resolved at the time of the participant’s demise; antagonism still lingered beyond the grave. Of note is that the Yucatec-Maya word for shaman, ajmen, means “he/she who understands.”

Women were effective in public administration, but historical data indicate that they held, among other titles, the title of na ha k’ul un, or “ladies of the sacred books,” in which were recorded important community events as well as the administration of payment of tribute by allied polities or local levies. Furthermore, the spouses of merchants were respected for their ability to work alongside their husbands as traders under the auspices of Ek Chua, the Maya god of merchants. They led spiritual dances, such as during planting and harvesting events, as recorded in today’s Coras and Huichol communities. During solstice ceremonies, a couple danced together clockwise for planting and counterclockwise for harvesting, while calling to their respective ancestors and to the community’s gods for blessings, to provide the heat of the sun, rain, and plant growth; for gods cannot cultivate nor harvest, only humans can. Women in mid-level segments of society, such as the wives of sahals, rulers of subsidiary cities, and nakom military commanders or war chiefs, also held social functions and responsibilities towards the communities under their care, as did the ladies of the realm. The extended family and the community helped war widows raise children, who were provided with food, occupations, and social support.

Ladies of high segments of the realm, like their spouses, sought help from their ancestors in the “otherworld” to resolve personal conflicts or community issues. Appeals to the other side of life by ladies of the realm, the high priestess, and shamans during ceremonies during which self-inflicted wounds took place. The shedding of blood, carrier of chu’lel, the “soul stuff of the universe” that never dies, was essential for calling on ancestors for help in resolving situations or conflicts. Bloodletting ceremonies by both men and women are found on stelae in the archaeological record. Among many lintels in Yaxilán, Chiapas, on Lintel 15, noblewoman Ix Wak Tuun, lady of Ik’ (today Motul de San José), the wife of lord Yaxuum Bahlam.IV, conjured the Yax Chiit Naah Kaan, where the K’awiil’s wahy or spirit is seen emerging from the mouth of a snake. Her spilled blood fell onto thin paper strips placed in a ceramic bowl, which were then burned. The heat and smoke rose and assumed the shape of a snake, from whose mouth a deity or ancestor emerged to receive the penitent supplications. Sacrifices were to overcome one’s own, family, or community challenges or for petition, restitution, or compensation at dedicated times. Of note is that the snake, shedding its skin as it grew and removing worn-out skin, epitomized the undeniable proof of life’s eternal return.

The call to ancestors and deities by individuals and priest-shamans is still practiced today, as in the past, in traditional communities, albeit not to the same extremes, for the religion imposed on indigenous societies by the Spaniards foremost aimed to eradicate ancient beliefs. However, they could not uproot those beliefs that spanned tens of thousands of generations. The “dialogue” of the living with ancestors in the otherworld in Maya and other traditional communities is as essential spiritually today as it was in the past. For instance, K’iche’ or Tzutuhil Maya women weave a bodice for personal use, which is worn with no other garment between the bodice and the skin. This bodice is lovingly handwoven and features remarkably complex, brilliant patterns of lightning, floral lines, and other figurative and abstract designs in intense colors. The bodice is worn for special occasions, hidden beneath outerwear that only gods and ancestors can see. The Red Queen was the patron of weavers in her community, for she was related to Sak Ixik, the White Lady, associated with the young, rising moon, Ixik, who is often portrayed with T’ul, the rabbit, in her arms.

Another important task exclusive to women was the preparation of koyem, a traditional food for the deceased. Koyem was a cooked maize gruel placed in the mouth of the departed before burial, whose function was to feed the departed chu’lel, the immortal “soul stuff of the universe,” on its long voyage through the nine levels of Xibalba, the “underworld.” For high nobles, a fine jade pebble was also added or substituted to pay Xibalba’s black jaguar to allow the departed to buy and keep his/her heart while crossing the rivers of the underworld.

Once placed in her sarcophagus in the Temple.XIII and before putting the most essential part of her garment, the death mask made of 110 tiles of malachite, koyem was introduced into the queen’s mouth to sustain her chu’lel on its ultimate voyage. Of note is that the Classic Maya called their kings chu’l’ahaw or “lords of the life force” for the power vested in them by the gods. In traditional communities, chu’lel is believed to enter a baby at birth from Ol, meaning “the heart of” or a portal to the “otherworld,” and then settle in the heart and blood. Ol is also referred to as the “white flower” soul and, like chu’lel is immortal and will return in a newborn. According to traditional spiritual leaders, upon death, once blood turns to dust, chu’lel remains in bones for a period equal to the departed’s lifetime. After this period, it will join the ancestors and be granted to a descendant, a time factor that varies across cultures. The concept of eternal return, however, is present in most cultures of the Americas and others beyond. Ancient Mayas believed that individual souls took the och b’eh, meaning they “entered the road,” a reference to the path the soul follows to the deepest recesses of the sacred mountain (witz). The “white road,” or sac-beh, built of white limestone, refers to the Maya Wakah Kan, the mythic World Tree. In the natural world, the Ceiba tree is often linked to the Milky Way, as it is believed to be a vantage point from which deities and ancestors observe their descendants and flocks.

On that road, Ix Tzak B’u’Ahaw did not travel alone, for two individuals were sacrificed: a three-year-old boy who showed cut marks at the bottom of his skull and a young woman in her late twenties or early thirties, who showed knife cuts on her ribs and vertebrae. She also showed cranial deformation and filed teeth, indicating her noble status. They were found lying on each side of the Red Queen sarcophagus, the boy lying on his back and the woman on her face with her hands behind her back; we do not know if they were related. They were sacrificed for their chu’lel to serve that of Ix Tzak-b’u’Ahaw in the afterlife. Temple.XIII was called “Temple of the Red Queen” by Mexican archaeologists Fanny Lopez Jimenez and Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz, who respectively discovered and opened the tomb in 1994. The temple’s name stems from the large amount of cinnabar, a red pigment of mercury sulfide, found in her sarcophagus, which was believed to preserve the remains and to ward off malevolent forces. Temple.XIII adjoins the massive Temple of the Inscriptions, the resting place of the queen’s husband K’inich Janaab’ Pakal Ahaw, who died on 28 August 683. Ix Tzak-b’u’ Ahaw preceded him by eleven years, on November 13, 672.

Second burials were not exclusive to high segments of society. In the lower segments, remains of prominent family members were found in several households. They were placed either in a grave lined with stone slabs or simply buried by poorer families; in either case, there were often ceramics or small carved stones in the tomb. Burial cysts are frequently found below the floors of the family compound: for males, in the courtyard or patio, and for females, within the complex, below the floors of the main room or access corridors. Of note is that they were visited multiple times over the years, with the skull and long bones temporarily removed for ceremonies, while burnt votive materials were also found. The cranium and long bones of members of close or extended family were added over the years and likely used periodically for ceremonies at designated times.

In many cases, remains of koyem made of cooked corn were introduced into the mouth of the departed to sustain his/her chu’lel on its ultimate voyage. These complex ceremonial rituals, recorded from the Early Preclassic period (1000 BC), underline ancestors’ primary function: to assert the identity and perpetuate the social position of the living family within the community. The grave and its venerated ancestor were at the core of the collective memory of a close and extended family. The dead buried in household complexes were believed to be part of the living daily lives, which were recreated at intervals through rituals. Of note, not all past progenitors qualified as ancestors; only lineage members who made a significant impact on resource acquisition or on lineage alliances were worthy of veneration. For destitutes and slaves, no formal burial took place; their bodies were discarded on common grounds.

Temple.XIII served the same functions as those of common graves, albeit on a higher level. Upon opening the crypt, a spindle whorl and a ceramic tripod incense burner were discovered on the sarcophagus lid, likely damaged by falling masonry from the roof. The spindle whorl attests to the queen’s association with Ix Chel, the moon goddess, while the tripod in which copal incense was burned, perhaps still had the smoke spiraling upward when the crypt was sealed. On the massive limestone sarcophagus’ slab was found a round hole drilled at the level of the queen’s upper chest. It was made to help her soul escape upward through a vertical round duct that reaches straight halfway up through the crypt’s roof to below the temple at the top of the pyramid. This “psychoduct” so called by archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, who discovered Pakal’s tomb forty years earlier in the Temple of the Inscriptions, helped her chu’lel escape the confines of the sarcophagus and join the ancestors; similar ducts were also found in the Temple.XVIIIA and Temple.XX at Palenque. In poor households today, a “chu’lel door” is a hole that is quickly opened upon death in the thatched roof above the departed lying on its couch, to help the soul join the ancestors.

Upon opening the coffin, archaeologist Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz found the queen’s remains covered with a thick coat of cinnabar or red mercury sulfide powder. On-site discovery and research, reported in his notable 2011 book “The Red Queen,” details his investigation of the crypt and the opening of the sarcophagus, whose remains occupied most of the space. His analysis led him to remark that “the position of the skeleton indicated a secondary burial, not a primary, because the bones did not strictly correspond to their natural anatomical positions; “they were placed correctly but not naturally” (2011:194). The Red Queen was found lying on her back, head slightly tilted forward, indicating she had been resting on a pillow, now gone. She was fully dressed at the time of burial. Her head was slightly turned northward, and her arms were naturally extended at her sides; her height was recorded at five feet five inches. Her long hair was carefully braided and used as support for the headgear representing Cha’ak, the mighty god of rain and revival, made of jade tiles, conch shells, and polished stones. The coffin is a massive monolith carved from limestone; its exterior and interior walls were covered with cinnabar, while a thick coat of the red powder thoroughly coated the remains. The abundant presence of cinnabar suggests meticulous attention to preserving the remains and safeguarding them from potential harm.  In powder form, cinnabar was widely used in burials across Mesoamerican cultures, but seldom in such profusion.

Over and on all sides of the queen’s remains were many shapes and carved green stones from necklaces, bracelets, and other kingly adornments made of malachite, jade, rock crystal, pyrite, amethyst, and other semi-precious minerals, as well as large seashells that stood out for their white mother-of-pearl color. The inventory of the sarcophagus was lengthy and complex because of the coffin’s four-foot depth, the narrow space between the coffin and the crypt walls, and the lid, which could not be entirely removed due to the chamber’s cramped space (2011:195). Furthermore, the opening of the sarcophagus was delayed because of the careful data collection and removal of the queen’s two sacrificed companions’ remains, that of the boy and the young woman lying on each side of the sarcophagus.

Among numerous royal adornments worn by the queen, two items in particular stand out. Her death mask, made of 110 tiles of malachite, the eyes made of two round dark gray obsidian stones for the pupils and four white triangular-shaped seashell tiles for the iris. Malachite is found in several areas of today’s northern Chiapas and central Tabasco. The malachite from her mask, however, was probably collected from the Santa Fe mine, several miles from the presumed location of Ux Te’Ku, the Red Queen’s birthplace. She was adorned with expensive jewelry: a large jade necklace, a diadem of shell and copper discs in a double row on her head, and large jade earrings and wristlets. The second item is a spondylus half-shell valve, placed on the left side of her head, which contained a miniature, finely carved limestone figurine of a woman. Spondylus princeps are found in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea and underline the city’s extensive long-distance trade. Of note, fossils are often found in the limestone surrounding Palenque, confirming the beliefs of the time about the “primordial sea” at the forefront of Maya mythology. But who was the prominently displayed miniature female figurine? The consensus among scholars is that it is that of the Red Queen herself, shown as she wanted to be seen entering the “otherworld” for eternity.

Archaeologist Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz’s report underlines the uncertainty as to the delay between the Red Queen’s death and the sealing of her sarcophagus. We know that customarily lengthy dedication rituals took place before burial, as evidenced by the epigraphic record and other funerary contexts. The span of time for burial preparation and ceremonies, however, may not have exceeded three to five weeks. Following the removal of organs, but not the heart, her body was bathed and cleansed, then covered with cinnabar for preservation and to ward off malevolent forces. She was then dressed in the trappings of her royal rank. Round the clock, as these processes took place, priests and shamans of the royal household offered constant prayers and invocations. Once preservation ceremonies were completed, she was carried in procession from the Palace to the Temple.XIII, her last resting place, on an open litter across the central plaza, thronged with thousands of people and the deafening sound of hundreds of drums and large conch shells calling for deities and ancestors’ attention. The ceremony was led by her husband, K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, and her three sons, together with her extended family, the High Priest, the High Priestess, the Eldest Shaman of the kingdom, and lords of friendly cities, both near and far. Once her sarcophagus was sealed and the crypt’s entrance blocked with limestone, dedication rituals and pilgrimages were recorded in the city’s ceremonial calendar. From that time forward, Ix Tzak B’u’Ahaw was an ancestor and a deity, guardian of her community’s well-being in the afterlife, to be venerated at designated times.

The Red Queen’s eldest son, K’inich K’an Bahlam.II became Palenque’s ruler on 7 January 684 upon the death of his illustrious father K’inich Janaab’ Pakal Ahaw. The son exceeded the father in the scale of construction programs, expanding the royal palace and building the famous Cross Group complex with the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Cross, and the Temple of the Foliated Cross, homes of the triad gods, the powerful guardians of the dynasty and the city. At the entrance of the complex is the Temple.XIV; visitors may climb up its steps to see the remarkable limestone carved panel on the back wall of the sanctuary. Lord K’an Bahlam.II, who died on February 16, 702, is shown ritually dancing over the waters of the primordial sea, while receiving the Manikin Scepter K’awil (God K), the powerful symbol of the Cosmic Monster (Shele, Parker, 1993:46), affirming supreme authority from his mother Ix Tz’ak-b’u Ajaw, who had died twelve years earlier. The panel is known as the “Apotheosis of K’an Bahlam,” depicting a scene that took place in the otherworld. This so-called “resurrection panel” was commissioned by his younger brother and successor K’inich K’an H’oy Chitam, Palenque’s Lord from May 30, 702, as a reminder of his dead brother’s rebirth” (Schele et al., 1993). On the panel is seen their mother, Ix Tz’ak-b’u Ajaw, dressed in the guise of the full Moon Goddess Tik’il Ik’ (K’iche’ – Mam), extending the K’awil manikin scepter to her son, which again reinforces the powerful ascendancy and dominance of deified ancestors over their descendants.

Georges Fery is the author of “The Conquest of Peru.”

References:

Arnoldo Conzalez Cruz, 2011 – La Reina Roja

Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, 2013 – El Templo de las Inscripciones: Palenque

1. de la Garza, G. Bernal Romero, M. Cuevas Garcia, 2012 – Palenque-Lakamha’: Una Presencia Inmortal del Pasado Indígena
2. Freidel, L. Schele, J. Parker, 1993 – Maya Cosmos

Patricia A. McAnany, 1995 – Living with the Ancestors

Marta Ilia Nájera C., 1987 – El Don de la Sangre en el Equilibrio Cósmico

Vera Tiesler, Andrea Cucina, 2006 – Janaab’ Pakal of Palenque

Diego Reinoso, 1962 – Popol Vuh, Manuscrito Quiché

Schele, P. Mathews, 1998 – The Code of Kings

Alfredo López Austin, 1993 – La Cosmovisión de la Tradición Mesoamericana

Fernando Nuñez, 2012 – Las Sepulturas de Palenque

Photo Credits:

Ph.01 – Central Palenque – AndresArnesto-Alejandro-SorianoCarlosPaz/anxo-mijan-marono.com

Ph.02 – Ixik Yohl Ik’nal Ahau – georgefery.com

Ph.03 – Ixik Tzak-b’u Ahaw – georgefery.com

Ph.04 – She Who Understand – georgefery.com

Ph.05 – He Who Understand – georgefery.com

Ph.06 – Yaxchilán, Lintel.15 – britishmuseum.org

Ph.07 – The Sarcophagus – ArnoldoGonzalezCruz.2011

Ph.08 – Temple of the Inscriptions-L – Temple.XIII-R – georgefery.com

Ph.09 – Ixik Tzak-b’u Ahaw  – Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz.2011

Ph.10 – The Queen’s Remains – Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz.2011

Ph.11 – La Reina Roja – Arnoldo González Cruz.2011

Ph.12 – The Red Queen – georgefery.com

Ph.13 – Palenque Museum  – georgefery.com

by Georges Fery

Still not understood, however, is the significance of a three-and-half-inch jade cube placed in Pakal’s right hand and a jade sphere of the same size in his left. Shele and Mathews observe that “indeed they are the most provocative contents of the tomb” (1998). The cube and the sphere are symbolically related to oppositions, and allegorically perceived as the beginning and end of time periods such as the seasons, the 260-days Tzol’kin Sacred Calendar, K’atun endings or the B’ak’tun four-hundred-years cycle among other timelines. The Maya, however, left us no clues about the significance of the jade ball and cube, so we are left to wrestle with their meaning.

Once the last prayers and pleas were concluded in the crypt, the finely carved tombstone was slid back from its northern abutment to cover the sarcophagus, which was then sealed with mortar. Before leaving the sanctuary, however, Ah’kinob’ or high priests, placed one of Pakal ceremonial jade belt and small personal adornments on the north side of the tombstone. Below the sarcophagus were found fine ceramics and two finely carved stucco heads, one most likely portraying young Pakal and the other the mature Lord of Palenque.

Rituals accompanying Pakal’s burial may have spanned several weeks. Once prayers and ceremonies were concluded and dignitaries, from close and far had paid their last respects, the massive triangular limestone door to the crypt was closed. Over the years, however, the door was opened for ceremonies at dedicated times. Ominously, years of armed conflicts between polities brought destruction in the region. Pakal second son K’inich K’an Joy Chitam (644-721) attempted to subdue Palenque’s arch enemy, Toniná, eighty-two miles away in the Ocosingo valley, but failed and was captured on August 26, 711. He was held hostage but, surprisingly, was not sacrificed as was customary and a few years later, was released from captivity under unknown terms. Recurrent wars, however, became unavoidable between the two kingdoms and their respective proxies.

In 721 Pakal’s third son, K’inich Ahkal Mo’Nab’ (671-736), inherited the kingdom. In the following years, in fear of another invasion, he resolved to fill the intramural stairways in the Temple of the Inscriptions with rocks and rubble to protect the crypt. It remained undisturbed until 1952, when Ruz and his team found the limestone door to the stairs on the temple floor, and removed the tons of rubble and debris, and reached the door of the crypt.

To understand the tombstone complex iconography, it must be read according to the cardinal orientation of its imagery, that is from bottom (south) to top (north), for Pakal is shown emerging from the Underworld (below), struggling to reach the Otherworld (above). As did Ruz, later archaeologists and scholars, we will focus on the central part of the tombstone’s iconography and examine its imagery, which details what happened to Pakal at the time of his death. As Shele points out, “his awkward position shows the moment of greatest transformation in his life.” His net skirt shows him dressed as the youthful Maize God, Hun’Nal Ye. Pakal is shown escaping on his Sak’Be or white road up the world tree, the wakah chan. The verb describing the event read och beh, meaning “he entered the road” that is, the Milky Way, the wakah chan celestial metaphor. The tree’s roots reach deep into the Underworld while Pakal is “moving away from the Sak B’aak Naah Chapat, the mythic “White Bone Snake” that connects the world of the living to the world of ancestors” (1993). It is shown as the portal through which Pakal passed in death. The snake’s upper mandible reaches to the back of Pakal’s neck while the lower one extends below his left knee as he escapes the snake’s maws. The mandibles were forced open by the gods, freeing him from the cycles of mortal life. Pakal is reaching toward eternal life to be reborn as Hun’Nal Ye the maize god, to secure bountiful maize harvests for Palenque’s future generations.

The rebirth scene on the tombstone is a powerful reminder of a major recurring event in the lives of the ancient Maya, the eclipse of K’inich Ahau, the Lord Sun. Eclipses were understood as the undeniable proof of the eternal return. During his reign, Pakal and his wife, Ix Tz’ak-b’u Ahau, led the ceremonies as spiritual lords of the sun and moon deities. Together with high priests and priestesses they monitored the eclipses, pleading for the release of the sun from the shadow of the moon. On the tombstone, the “White Bone Snake” (the Underworld, the past), and the “White Snake” (the Otherworld, the future) mythologically held the same functions as those of the sun and moon battling the shadows of the eclipse. Each snake sanctioned eternal life in their respective realm for they both answered to complementary opposites.

The double-headed “White Snake” facing Pakal is draped over the horizontal arms of the tree adorned with jade flowers. Since the words “sky” and “snake” are both kan in Maya, snakes were figuratively associated with the Milky Way that connected their lords to that realm. Kan is shown as a rope ending as sak-nik the “white flower” sign, while the double-headed serpent evokes the twisted form of an umbilical cord. Pakal shows that he controls this conduit, the source of power and ancestral wisdom.

From the wide-open mouths of the double-headed “White Snake” small deities emerge. Such as the Jester god embodiment of the sacred headband of kings, comes forth from the left mouth (east), while from the right (west) comes out K’awiil, the manikin scepter with one of its legs shaped as a serpent, symbol of supreme lordship. Grasping the serpent footed K’awiil is an emblematic figure depicted on lintels and other mediums in Classic Maya portraiture. We can surmise, as Schele point out “that a king holding K’awiil is grasping the path to the Otherworld and the means by which it is opened” (1993). The serpent, however, does not depict the zoological animal; it is a metaphor attached to the snake’s shedding of its skin (molting), perceived as its perpetual rebirth, and evidencing life’s eternal return. Pakal is shown ending his journey on the Sak’Be, the “white road” or “milky way” which started when his body left the palace. His posture, however, indicates that he is looking up at Itzam Yeh, the Great Celestial Bird, associated with the Milky Way, the celestial Cosmic River. He is facing his destiny in the “Otherworld” heading north, away from the accursed east-west cycles of the eternal return.

Arguably as important as the tombstone imagery are Pakal’s eight ancestors, who are carved on the four sides of the sarcophagus and are, figuratively, holding the tombstone of their descendant. As Schele and Matthews note “…each figure is shown emerging from a crack in the earth along with a tree.” We know “who these eight ancestors are for they are named in the glyphs placed below each figure as well as in their headdresses, as is the name of a tree.” Furthermore, scholars showed the remarkable pattern of these ancestral portraits since Ahkal Mo’Nahb.I (465-524) appears at the northern end of the west side. Schele’s analysis stresses that “to view the subsequent generations one must, from inside the coffin, look alternatively back and forth from one side of the massive stone to the other to understand the succession in time of the ancestors.” These are the Tza’qol B’itol, the “grandmothers-grandfathers” inheritors of ancestral knowledge, a concept likened to a forest of kings growing around Pakal’s coffin.

However, “the trees do not represent an untamed forest, for the ancestors are shown with known fruit trees the Maya cultivated and tended in orchards around their houses, bearing fruits season after season, witnesses to life’s eternal return” (1998). As Scherer underline, “Late Classic-period Maya sarcophagus facilitated the ritual practice of ancestor veneration and were imbued with metaphors of rebirth and renewal” (2012).

Nine life-size warrior figures in full regalia are modeled in stucco on the walls of the crypt, also known as the B’olon Eht Naah or “House of the Nine Companions.” They are described as “the guardians of the sacred bones of their lord, the perceived custodians of the seeds of peace and abundance for Palenque’s future generations” (Freidel, Schele,1993). The “companions” wear ornate headdresses with quetzal-like bird feathers and capes, high-backed sandals, cross-leg ornate and pectorals. Each one holds a K’awil scepter; all wear a Bearded Jaguar God round shield on their wrists, as well as the rectangular mouthpiece of the maize god, perhaps to show that they are in the same state as their lord in the coffin they guard for eternity. The most telling information comes from the distribution of their skirts: eight wear short jaguar kilts and one wears a long knee-length net skirt. The figure with the long skirt has Ahaw No Ol inscribed in its headdress, which is probably part of the name of Ix Yohl Ik’nal, the only woman Ahau to rule Palenque in her own right from 583 to 604.

Furthermore, Schele and Parker suggest that “these rulers are the portraits of the full dynastic succession, in contrast to the sarcophagus’ figures which depict direct descent from father to son over seven generations” (1993). The cramped quarters of the crypt did not allow space for visitors, for there is only about a foot or so between the sarcophagus’ lid lengthwise and the sanctuary’s walls; the crypt was not made to receive visitors. No one could ever see the sarcophagus and read its full imagery, once the massive triangular door was sealed. The message was there for its own sake to exist in the afterlife, never to be read by the living.

The complex symbolism displayed on the tombstone illustrates a remarkable story about life, death, and rebirth. It took untold generations for the ancient societies to recognize ancestors as predecessors and descendants as successors in life’s eternal return. As noted by scholars “the world of humans is connected to the wakah chan the Maya axis mundi, the world tree, which ran through the center of existence.

The wakah chan was not located in any earthly or cosmic place but could be materialized through rituals at any point in the natural and human-made landscape” (Schele, Freidel, 1990). In his sarcophagus Pakal was close to his wife Ix Tzaa’ak’bu Ahaw, entombed in Temple.XIII which is contiguous to the Temple of the Inscriptions. Known in modern time as the Red Queen, she died eleven years before Pakal, on November 13, 672. Her life and those of women of Lakamha’ will be the theme of a forthcoming article.

Among the western Classic Maya, the deceased were frequently found buried following a two steps process, primary and secondary, a custom not exclusive to high segments of the societies. In Palenque, non-elite remains were found in several household. Burials took place below the grounds or floors of family compounds for males in the courtyard or patio, and for females underneath house floors within the complex. In several cases remains of koyem, a corn gruel was found, that was introduced into the mouth of the departed to sustain his/her chu’lel on its ultimate voyage. For high to mid segments of society, the grave and its venerated ancestors was preeminent in the collective memory of the close and extended family. For the wider community, a sarcophagus held individuals that were socially important and with whom society was not ready to part.

Beliefs and rituals followed the principle of a perceived binary world, inseparable of ancient daily lives, where gods and deities foreordained the pace of time and the alternance of seasons. Furthermore, the omnipresence of ancestors in people’s lives perpetuated, as McAnany notes “a triangulation that links the past and the future through the living, as an acknowledgement to the fleeting existence of life” (2010). At the heart of the eternal return are actual and allegorical ancestors. The first is attached to individuals while the second answers to the spiritual needs and identity of a community. The very existence of each one of us is evidence of our link in the chain of life, a perception that may be predicated on secular or spiritual grounds. There are, however, as many individual and collective perceptions of this reality as there are cultures and languages. This relentless spiritual search beyond ourselves, however, may perhaps reveal, as underlined by  Teilhard de Chardin that “…we are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience” (1964).

A pertinent reflection about life portrayed on Pakal’s tombstone whose legacy lives in the consciousness of present-day Maya communities.

Photo credits:

1. Pakal Death Mask @georgefery.com
2. The Tombstone @georgefery.com
3. Tombstone Drawing @Merle Green Robertson
4. The Ancestors @georgefery.com
5. The Nine Companions @georgefery.com
6. He Still Lives @georgefery.com

This is the second of a two-part series. Read part one here.

References – Further Reading:
Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, 2013 – El Templo de las Inscripciones: Palenque
Vera Tiesler, Andrea Cucina, 2006 – Janaab’ Pakal of Palenque
Freidel, L. Schele, J. Parker, 1993 – Maya Cosmo, Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path
Barbara Tedlock, 1982 – Time and the Highland Maya
Méndez Martinez, E. Valey Sis – Asociación Maya Uk’Ux B’e, 2008 – Cosmocimientos y Practicas Mayas Antiguas
Teilhard de Chardin, 1964 – La Grande Illusion
Patricia A. McAnany, 1995 – Living with the Ancestors
Jacques Cauvin, 1994 – Naissance des Divinités, Naissance de l’Agriculture
de la Garza, G. Bernal Romero, M. Cuevas Garcia, 2012 – Palenque-Lakamha’: Una Presencia Inmortal del Pasado Indígena
Fernando Nuñez, 2012 – Las Sepulturas de Palenque
Denis Fustel de Coulanges, 1864 – La Cité Antique
Linda Schele, Peter Mathews, 1998 – The Code of Kings

About the author:
Creative non-fiction writer, researcher and photographer, Georges Fery (georgefery.com) addresses topics, from history, culture, and beliefs to daily living of ancient and today’s communities of Mesoamerica and South America. His articles are published online at travelthruhistory.com, ancient-origins.net and popular-archaeology.com, in the quarterly magazine Ancient American (ancientamerican.com), as well as in the U.K. at mexicolore.co.uk. The author is a fellow of the Institute of Maya Studies instituteofmayastudies.org Miami, FL and The Royal Geographical Society, London, U.K. rgs.org. As well as member in good standing of the Maya Exploration Center, Austin, TX mayaexploration.org, the Archaeological Institute of America, Boston, MA archaeological.org, the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC. americanindian.si.edu, and the NFAA – Non-Fiction Authors Association nonfictionauthrosassociation.com.

Contact: Georges Fery – 5200 Keller Springs Road, Apt. 1511, Dallas, Texas 75248
(786) 501 9692 –gfery.43@gmail.com and www.georgefery.com

The Great Maya Tombstone

by Georges Fery

by The iconography of the Maya tombstone in the Temple of the Inscriptions has raised more questions than well-founded answers. A close look at the tombstone, its setting and history, may help understand the Maya timeless message about life and death. The Temple is the final resting place of K’inich Janahb’ Pakal Ahaw, Lord of the B’aakal kingdom at Lakamha’, near today’s Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico, where he was born on March 13, 603. From the end of the fifth to the late ninth century, Lakamha’ was an important metropolis and a major regional player in politics, trade, and architecture. Pakal ruled the kingdom from 615 to 682, making him one of the longest-reigning Maya monarch in history.

As holy lord of the B’aakal kingdom, Pakal was supreme in secular and religious matters, superseding the high priest and priestess, for the prefix K’inich means Lord, while Ahaw connotes Holy. The Maya called their kings ch’ul ahaw or “lords of the life force,” for the universal power vested in them by the gods. He, and he alone, was anointed by the gods of the unifying forces of light of the Otherworld and those of darkness of the Underworld. In the Maya cosmology, these “worlds” were understood as “complementary opposites” for, paradoxically, both were in turn friendly and hostile over humans and nature. For these reasons, they needed to be pacified through rituals at dedicated times such as, among others, planting and harvesting and important communal milestones.

In the last decade of his life, Pakal and his architects worked on his funerary monument, the Temple of the Inscriptions facing the ancient city’s central plaza.

The temple is the most remarkable sanctuary ever built in Mesoamerica. The eight-level funerary pyramid, and the temple at its summit making up its ninth level, was designed by Pakal and his architects who started its construction around 675, when Pakal was seventy-two years old. The structure was completed about five years before his death on August 8, 683. The temple at its top was dedicated on December 23, 688, by his son and heir, K’inich K’an B’ahlam (635-702), in time for his father’s funeral. The stepped pyramid’s foundations reach over ten feet below the central plaza’s grounds. The structure was originally covered with plaster that may have been painted red, for remains of pigment were found; of note is the absence of carvings on its stones. The name Temple of the Inscriptions comes from three large limestone panels found on the walls of the temple’s front corridor. In the past, the stepped pyramid was known as “Temple of the Laws” because on those panels are 617-glyphs that narrate Pakal’s achievements and proclaim his place in eternity.

The six piers atop the pyramid are adorned with stucco scenes. As noted by scholars, “we may never know what Pakal intended to display on the piers, for K’an B’ahlam, who completed the temple after his father’s death, took this public location to show the rituals in which he became heir to the throne and proved his divine nature.” In ancient Maya cosmology “the pyramid replicates the “First-True-Mountain of the World Rising out of the Primordial Waters of Creation” (Schele, Matthews, 1993, 1998). The crypt, located in the deepest recess of the pyramid, is associated with caves perceived as portals to the water world for water is integral to the belief in the beginning of life in Maya cosmology where the “Otherworld” points to a mythic world “above” the human plane, abode of the sun, beneficent gods, and life. Its opposite, the “Underworld” or world “below” is associated with sunset, the moon, malevolent gods, and death. The world of the living, between these two man-made worlds, is the “Middle World.” As Bassie-Sweet point out, “One of the most important structuring principles in Maya worldview was complementary or contrasting opposites, such as male/female, right/left, east/west, day/night, up/down or north/south” (2008).

To build the pyramid, not only did architects, master stonemasons and carvers answered Pakal’s architectural requirements, they also followed a sacred allegorical pattern that was beyond their professional expertise, helped in their tasks by calendar priests, knowledge keepers and wizards. For the burial ceremony, Pakal and his chu’lel – his “divine life force” or “blessed substance of the living universe” – were first brought from the palace up the pyramid’s front stairs. The stairs of the pyramid follow, as does the pyramid’s architecture, the four sacred directions of the Maya equilateral cross, the wacah chan or “world tree.” Each arm of the cross is associated with colors, deities, and functions. The pyramid faces northward onto Palenque’s main plaza. Climbing the stairway up to the temple, Pakal and his retinue faced South>yellow-K’an Xib’Chac, germ of life, origin of the winds). After prayers, rituals, and invocations in the temple, Pakal’s body and his chu’lel’ were carried down the three sets of the intramural stairways leading down to the crypt. The first flight of stairs followed the path of the Sun, so Pakal and his retinue walked down heading East>redChac Xib’Chac, sunrise, dawn. At mid-level, the second set of stairs sharply turns West>black-Ek Xib’Chac, sunset, dusk. Pakal’s last short five steps stairway into the crypt led him North>white–Zac Xib’Chac, resting place of the winds.

When Pakal was placed in his coffin his head pointing north, he transitioned from a divine king to a celestial ancestor. As the last rituals and invocations were completed, the crypt’s massive triangular stone door was closed. In his coffin, however, Pakal was never far from the living and, for this purpose, had a narrow conduit called the Tz’at Nakan, or “Serpent of the Wise Ones,” built to fit the stairwells. It was called a psychoduct by the renowned Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier (1906-1979), who discovered the stairwells in 1950 and the crypt in 1952. The serpent’s head is made of a mix of limestone plaster and was attached to the bottom of the sarcophagus which connected with the “psychoduct,” a rectangular limestone molding outside the door, matching each stair with a hollow round tube-like center that ended below the floor of the temple. It was the Tzat Nakan, through which Pakal and the priests established soul-to-soul contact, not soul-to-mind, at dedicated times. This feature is found in other structures at Palenque such as in Temples XIII and XVIII, albeit not so elaborate.

They each have a tube-like conduit that runs vertically from the crypt to below the temple floor, and a small hole on the sarcophagus lid was drilled at the level of the face to let the ch’ulel’ pass. These funnels bolstered the belief that the individual in the grave was still socially alive after death, with prerogatives attached to his spiritual powers, for ch’ulel’ never dies. It was then accepted, as it is today in most beliefs and religions, that a person has a body, and a soul. It was, however, the deified chu’lel’ that was the object of veneration. Upon death, while the body’s soft tissues decayed, its chu’lel remained within the skeletal bones for the duration of the person’s past life and was then reunited with the ancestors to be assigned to another life.

Upon discovering the stairwell and after removing the stones and debris from the intramural stairways, Alberto Ruz’s team reached the level of the sanctuary.

A massive triangular limestone door – seven and a half feet high, five feet wide at the base and eight inches thick – sealed the entrance to the crypt. There is no similar triangular door in Palenque or elsewhere in Mesoamerica. Facing the triangular limestone door, on the right side of the landing of the second flight of stairs, Ruz found the remains of five persons who had been sacrificed. They were dismembered to fit in a narrow stone box and were covered with cinnabar, a red mercury sulfide powder. Pakal’s so-called “companions” were sacrificed to serve their lord’s chu’lel’ in the afterlife with their own. Three of them were identified as “two males and one female in their late teens or early twenties; the other two could not be sexed due to the deterioration of the remains” (Tiesler, Cucina, 2006).

Opening the door became a laborious task to avoid damaging it. Ruz and his team eventually entered the twenty-by-thirteen-foot sanctuary and were stunned by the magnificence of the shrine. The massive monolithic twelve-to-fifteen-ton sarcophagus is ten feet long, seven feet wide and three-and-a-half-feet high. It was carved from a nearby limestone hill and took most of the crypt’s space. Because of its size and that of the monolithic tombstone, they were set in place together before the pyramid was built over the sanctuary. The sarcophagus rest on six carved square limestone blocks that raises it over a foot above the crypt’s floor made of large, quadrangular, finely leveled stones.

The rectangular finely carved tombstone was smeared with cinnabar, a red mercury sulfide powder, associated with blood, the ultimate stream of life, also used to ward off malevolent forces. What struck all present was the exquisitely carved tombstone, unique in the Americas for its breathtaking iconography. The tombstone is twelve-and-a half-feet long, seven-and-a half-feet wide and ten inches thick and overlaps the sarcophagus by fifteen-and-half inches on the north and south sides; the overlap is only two inches on both its long sides” (Alberto Ruz, 1973).

The archaeologists’ challenging task was to carefully slide the tombstone on an abutment originally built on the north side of the sarcophagus. The tombstone two northern corners were damaged probably during the transfer from the quarry to the sanctuary, before the pyramid was built; one of the corners was recovered below the sarcophagus. The coffin was carved into the sarcophagus in the shape of a fish, a reminder of the primordial sea from where all life forms came and was finely polished inside. It is six-and-a-half-feet long, one-and-three quarter-feet wide, and fourteen-and-a-half inches deep. A limestone cover, four inches thick, in the same shape as the opening fitted with stone plugs in its four corners, sealed the coffin. Upon lifting the cover, Ruz and his team came face-to-face with K’inich Janahb’ Pakal. The Lord of Lakamha’ was found lying on his back with arms extended on his sides and was fully dressed at the time of burial. The remains and the inside walls of the coffin were covered with cinnabar.

In Classic Maya imagery, the Maize God wore a net skirt and a profusion of jade ornaments like those found in the coffin. Pakal adornments were of fine green jade which were carefully recorded by the archaeologists. They included bracelets with semi-round beads akin to corn kernels, necklaces, rings on each of Pakal fingers, belts, ear flares, cylinder hair ornaments, a diadem made of forty-one jade disks, headbands and belts worn by Palenque’s ruling elite” (Stuart and Stuart, 2008).

Small jade figurines of deities such as Sak’Hunal the “jester god” oldest symbol of kingship, and other objects made of semi-precious stones and nacre from spondylus shells (Spondylus americanus) were placed on Pakal’s sides. A small jade figurine was found over Pakal’s groin, which may represent the maize god Hun’Nal Ye from the myth of creation. Among Pakal’s outstanding ornaments is his death mask, made of a mosaic of thin jade plaques. Its unique characteristic, according to Ruz’s report, is that “the mask was modeled directly over Pakal’s face, for a layer of stucco was found adhering to the bones of the skull.” Does that suggest a secondary and not a primary burial? The mask was believed to overcome the body’s natural degradation and as noted by Ruz, “may have been to personify…and ensure the departed an eternal face in its grave” (1972). The eyes of the mask are made of nacre, the iris is of obsidian, while black paint was applied for the pupils. Around Pakal’s neck was a huge collar made of hundreds of jade cylinders and beads. The beads were cut to resemble squash, a plant grown together with maize and, according to legend, brought into the world by Hun’Nal Ye, the maize god.

Of note is a jade ornament consisting of the Maya logogram Ik, in the shape of the capital letter I, which signifies “spirit,” “life,” or “breath.” The ornament was placed in the slightly open mouth of the jade mask. The Ik symbol, in the shape of either a capital T or I, is found on walls, stelas, and painted on ceramics. The architectural design of ballcourts, where games of life and death took place, also answer to the shape of this logogram. Before the Ik symbol and the death mask were placed over Pakal’s face, it is probable that koyem, a cooked maize paste traditionally used and found in common graves, was put into his mouth to feed his ch’ulel’s long voyage to Xibalba, the “place of awe” the Underworld. Xibalba answers to the complementary fields and is associated to the beginning and end of life and the power of nature.

For in darkness seeds bid their time underground to sprout and meet the light of the sun. Human life is not foreign to this cycle, for life that begins in the darkness of the womb, past its time, returns to the grave. The tombstone above all, is “an essential statement of dynastic vitality and continuity that was necessary following the death of an exceptionally long-lived king” (Scherer, 2012).

The above is part one of a two-part series. Read part two here.

All photos by Georges Fery:

1. Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque
2. The first flight of stairs
3. The triangular door
4. The crypt
5. Pakal’s jade death mask

References – Further Reading:
Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, 2013 – El Templo de las Inscripciones: Palenque
Vera Tiesler, Andrea Cucina, 2006 – Janaab’ Pakal of Palenque
Freidel, L. Schele, J. Parker, 1993 – Maya Cosmo, Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path
Barbara Tedlock, 1982 – Time and the Highland Maya
Méndez Martinez, E. Valey Sis – Asociación Maya Uk’Ux B’e, 2008 – Cosmocimientos y Practicas Mayas Antiguas
Teilhard de Chardin, 1964 – La Grande Illusion
Patricia A. McAnany, 1995 – Living with the Ancestors
Jacques Cauvin, 1994 – Naissance des Divinités, Naissance de l’Agriculture
de la Garza, G. Bernal Romero, M. Cuevas Garcia, 2012 – Palenque-Lakamha’: Una Presencia Inmortal del Pasado Indígena
Fernando Nuñez, 2012 – Las Sepulturas de Palenque
Denis Fustel de Coulanges, 1864 – La Cité Antique
Linda Schele, Peter Mathews, 1998 – The Code of Kings

About the author:
Creative non-fiction writer, researcher and photographer, Georges Fery (georgefery.com) addresses topics, from history, culture, and beliefs to daily living of ancient and today’s communities of Mesoamerica and South America. His articles are published online at travelthruhistory.com, ancient-origins.net and popular-archaeology.com, in the quarterly magazine Ancient American (ancientamerican.com), as well as in the U.K. at mexicolore.co.uk. The author is a fellow of the Institute of Maya Studies instituteofmayastudies.org Miami, FL and The Royal Geographical Society, London, U.K. rgs.org. As well as member in good standing of the Maya Exploration Center, Austin, TX mayaexploration.org, the Archaeological Institute of America, Boston, MA archaeological.org, the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC. americanindian.si.edu, and the NFAA – Non-Fiction Authors Association nonfictionauthrosassociation.com.

Contact: Georges Fery – 5200 Keller Springs Road, Apt. 1511, Dallas, Texas 75248
(786) 501 9692 –gfery.43@gmail.com and www.georgefery.com