archaeologists believe, the queen
mother of the next 15 rulers of the
Copán dynasty.
With the discovery of the queen’s
tomb, it soon became evident that
this part of the Acropolis consti-
tuted a sort of axis mundi—in
effect, a sacred stack of burials and
buildings hallowed by the presence
of one of almost unimaginable
power in the eyes of the inhabi-
tants of Copán. Given all the clues
pointing to K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’,
it seemed that his final resting
place could not be far away. The
eager archaeologists dug deeper
into the complex.
Finally, behind a facade of red
sun-god masks on a platform, they
discovered a skeleton they believe
is that of the founder himself. The
king was at least 50 years old, had
jade inlays in two of his teeth, and
passed into the afterlife with a bro-
ken lower right arm. There were
signs of other wounds, perhaps suf-
fered in battle or from the rigors of
the Maya’s ritual ball game.Burial goods in the
royal grave included
this deer-shaped ves-
sel that held chocolate.IN A TUNNEL 50 FEET BELOW THE GRASSY PLAZAS OF COPÁN,
an ancient Maya city in what is now Honduras, National Geo-
graphic staff archaeologist George Stuart peered through an
opening in a wall of dirt and stone. There, in a hot, stuffy,
earthquake-prone space, he saw a skeleton on a large stone
slab. Stuart’s archaeological colleagues had discovered a
royal burial—most likely that of K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’, or
Sun-Eyed Green Quetzal Macaw. The revered god-king, whose
name appears in many of the site’s hieroglyphic texts, was
the founder of a dynasty that maintained the power of this
Maya valley kingdom for some 400 years.
That momentous discovery was made in 1989, but Maya
scholars had long recognized the enormous significance of
Copán. From more than a century of research, they knew
that the ruined buildings beside the Copán River served as
the political and religious capital of an important kingdom
before its collapse more than a thousand years ago. Early on,
investigators came to realize that the section now known
as the Acropolis—a roughly rectangular area that rises high
above the river—served not only as the locus of some of the
city’s most spectacular architecture and sculpture but also
as the seat of governing power during the height of the Maya
Classic period, from about A.D. 400 to 850.
The rulers of Copán claimed descent from the sun and
ruled by that right. They presided over a kingdom of some
20,000 subjects, ranging from farmers who lived in pole-
and-thatch houses to the elite who occupied palaces near
the Acropolis. As the archaeologists tunneled into the Acrop-
olis, they came upon the most elaborately constructed and
furnished tomb yet uncovered at the site. The remains of a
noble lady rested on a thick rectangle of stone. She was richly
attired and wore one of the most extraordinary arrays of Maya
jade ever found. She was probably the wife of the founder,
1000 B.C.–A.D. 900 HONDURAS
Extraordinary finds at the site of the
ancient city of Copán in recent decades
have helped archaeologists take a giant
step forward in learning about the Maya.
I
A M AYA