Within the yr 687, a horrible battle broke out between the traditional Maya kingdoms of Lakamha’ and Po’p. From their capital cities of Palenque and Tonina respectively, they fought one another for an astonishing 24 years earlier than the destruction lastly overwhelmed them each.

Given how fiercely they battled, it will be cheap to imagine that the 2 societies had diametrically opposed perception programs that introduced them into inevitable battle. However in reality this was not the case. New archaeological discoveries have revealed hidden religious and metaphysical hyperlinks that sure the 2 warring kingdoms intently collectively.

Stone pyramid at Tonina. (INAH)

A Stone Disk and a Statue: In Reward of the Corn God

The latest of those discoveries is a stone disk that options an intricately carved picture of the Maya god of corn, or maize. It was recovered by archaeologists from Mexico’s Nationwide Institute of Anthropology and Historical past (INAH) in 2021, and is simply now being offered to the general public.

The massive limestone disk is roughly 17 inches (43 centimeters) in diameter and three.5 inches (9 centimeters) thick. It was noticed throughout excavations on the Temple of the Solar on the Tonina web site within the state of Chiapas. It’s in practically pristine situation, regardless of having been made greater than 1,000 years in the past.

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Stone disk discovered on the Temple of the Solar, Tonina. (INAH)

Cautious evaluation by specialists has revealed that the disk was created to commemorate an occasion that occurred in 505 AD, a number of months after the dying of a ruler of the Maya kingdom of Po’p.

Within the engraved scene featured on the disk’s face, the Maya corn god is portrayed as sitting on a throne. He’s wearing a beaded jade skirt and is sporting a serpent masks headdress.

It appears the god on this case truly represents the departed Po’p chief, who was reincarnated within the land of the useless in that exalted type. Whereas quickly marooned in an underground kingdom managed by a jaguar god, his time within the underworld was about to complete, say the specialists who translated the message and imagery on the disk. He was about to be reborn on Earth once more, this time within the type of a corn plant that will produce meals for his folks.

This imagery and the story it relates reveals vital particulars concerning the cosmology of the Po’p folks. However much more considerably, the stone disk is intently linked to a different archaeological discovery made in Could of this yr within the archaeological zone at Palenque, which had as soon as been the capital metropolis of the rival Lakamha’ empire.

The artifact recovered there was a stucco sculpture of the exact same god of corn, which represented this revered deity as a severed head. The statue was undoubtedly created by the folks of the dominion of Lakamha’, and its existence exhibits each side in that horrific seventh century civil battle truly shared the identical metaphysical beliefs.

The Lakamha’ folks would have acknowledged the which means of the iconography on the stone disk, simply because the Po’p folks would have worshipped the corn god statue sculpted by the Lakamha’.

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View of the Tonina archaeological zone, Chiapas. (INAH)

A Shared Non secular Custom

The beautiful limestone disk was discovered throughout excavations of a crypt positioned on the north aspect of the Temple of the Solar, acknowledged Juan Yadeun Angulo, the INAH archaeologist answerable for the investigation on the web site. It’s believed that the our bodies of the rulers of the dominion of Po’p have been taken to this crypt after dying, the place they might be cremated and their ashes then used for ritual functions. Particularly, their burned stays could be integrated into balls used throughout sacred video games.

Archaeologist Juan Yadeun Angulo on the Tonina web site. (INAH)

“After exploring the crypt, we started to analyze the south aspect searching for some symmetry within the structure, which allowed us to search out this disk, which had been embedded within the constructing, already decontextualized from its unique web site, in all probability an altar,” Angulo defined in a press release issued by INAH.

The hieroglyphics on the entrance of the heavy disk have been largely readable, however there had been some deterioration in some locations. This made it unattainable for the consultants to decipher the title of the particular ruler portrayed on the disk’s face. However they have been capable of decode sufficient of the writing to interpret the disk imagery’s total which means.

The hieroglyphics on the entrance of the heavy disk have been primarily readable, however the precise rulers title was unattainable to decipher. (INAH)

Explicitly referencing the reference to the related statue discovered at Palenque, Yadeun Angulo emphasised that the Tonina stone disk “reveals a shared non secular custom across the god of corn, crucial of the classical world.” No matter their political variations, the kingdoms of Lakamha’ and Po’p relied equally on corn as a staple crop, and thus developed an equally highly effective curiosity in gaining the corn god’s favor.

United to the Finish

The histories of Tonina and Palenque have been intently intertwined. Every competed for entry to sources all through the seventh century, which put them on an inevitable collision course.

Conflict lastly broke out in 687, after the Po’p ruler Yuhkno’m Wahywal was kidnapped and sacrificed by Lakamha’ chief Ok’inich Kan Bahlam II, the eldest son and successor of Pakal the Nice. It appears Ok’inich Kan Bahlam II took this motion to impress battle with the Po’p, who he noticed as a possible supply of slaves and as an obstacle to his want to realize management over extra sources within the space. To show his greatness, the Lakamha’ chief wished to erect monuments much more wonderful than these constructed by his illustrious father, and he wanted extra labor and constructing supplies to realize that ambition.

Each side within the battle have been additionally looking for elevated entry to agricultural land and water sources within the Usumacinta basin. This may give them the higher hand as they every sought to change into the dominant financial energy within the area.

The battle continued for greater than 20 years. It lastly ended when the Po’p ruler, an extremely adorned warrior referred to as Ok’inich B’aaknal Chaak, overran the Lakamha’ kingdom and took Pakal’s second son, Ok’inich Ok’an Pleasure Chitam II, as his prisoner.

Within the aftermath of the devastation, the 2 capital cities of Tonina and Palenque and their kingdoms skilled a major decline in wealth, energy, and affect. There actually was no winner of the battle, because the unimaginable bodily, social, cultural, and financial harm it brought on proved catastrophic for all.

“These 24 years of battle have been the final straw that ended the Traditional Maya world, characterised by the enhancement of the nice lords, to provide strategy to an Epiclassic period, by which small and quite a few estates divided energy,” Juan Yadeun Angulo defined.

The mutual destruction the 2 Maya kingdoms introduced to one another was an ironic closing consequence, since they’d shared the identical non secular beliefs and traditions all alongside. As a substitute of counting on their widespread floor to type an enduring alliance, they turned on one another and fought till there was nothing left to combat for, making each kingdoms the battle’s final victims. In the event that they hadn’t left behind artifacts just like the stucco statue and the stone disk signaling their devotion to their corn god, historians and archaeologists would possibly by no means have realized how intently aligned the Lakamha’ and Po’p kingdoms truly have been of their cosmological views.

Prime picture: Stone disc alluding to the younger maize god corroborates the widespread non secular base of Toniná and Palenque. Supply: INAH

By Nathan Falde