K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'

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K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' (lit. "Great-Sun First/Green Quetzal Macaw", fl. 420s) is named in Maya inscriptions as the the founder and first ruler of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization polity centered at Copán, a major Maya site located in the southwestern Maya lowlands region in present-day Honduras. The motifs associated with his depiction on Copan monuments have a distinct resemblance to imagery associated with the height of the Classic-era center of Teotihuacan in the distant northern central Mexican region, and have been interpreted as intending to suggest his origins and association with that prestigious civilization. However, modern strontium isotope analysis of the human remains recovered from the tomb attributed to him indicate that K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' spent his formative years much closer to Copan, and had not himself lived at Teotihuacan.

His tomb in the center of the Copán acropolis buried with jade and shell jewelry. His image occupies the first position in the carving on Altar Q showing the dynasty's king list and his image is found in significant positions in other monuments of later rulers.

Archaeological work done at Copan in 2000 excavated the tomb considered to be that of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo under the Acropolis. The skeleton exhibited a number of traumas including healed fractures of the arm, sternum and shoulder which have been argued to have resulted from ball court matches. Analysis of strontium in the teeth of the skeleton indicates that the individual spent their early years near Tikal in the Petén Basin region and then at some point between Tikal and Copan, and the isotopic signature did not match with a Teotihuacan origin. The implication of this result is that later Copan rulers, in particular K'ak' Yipyaj Chan K'awiil and Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat retrospectively sought to attribute Teotihuacano heritage to the 'founding' ruler of their dynasty as a means of legitimising the dynastic claim.^[1]

[edit] Notes

^ See Skidmore (n.d.) for summary of recent research.

[edit] References

Skidmore, Joel (n.d.). Copan's Founder. Recent Findings in Maya History. Mesoweb. Retrieved on December 18, 2006.
"Lost King of the Maya", Nova, PBS series, accessed April 8, 2006