Religion played a key role in Mayan society. The Mayans worshipped several Gods, who each controlled some element of life on Earth, as well as Gods who determined their life after death. During religious ceremonies, the Mayans often practiced the offering of human sacrifices as well as sacred rituals (Thompson, 262- 279).
First Breakthroughs in Decipherment
Perhaps the person who contributed the most to the decipherment of the Mayan inscriptions was Tatiana Proskouriakoff. She made several discoveries that made decipherment of these ancient scripts possible. It was the first attempt at understanding the meaning of the glyphs, and this in turn tells us about the ancient Mayan civilization.
She identified the glyph that represented birth. This was an "up-ended frog". She also identified the "toothache" glyph as the accession glyph.
She discovered that a set of glyphs usually covered the lifetime of a ruler, which lasted between 55 and 65 years. She also discovered that a glyph that presented a robed figure was a representation of a woman (Coe, 167- 184). Tatiana's decipherment of the marriage glyph as a crossed-bands compound, would later help scholars understand the marriage glyph of Pacal to Lady Tz'ak-Ahaw, which is written on the inscription panels in the Temple of Inscriptions (Proskouriakoff , 85-86).
The Discovery of Pacal's Tomb
In 1949, Alfred Ruz made a breakthrough discovery when he discovered the Temple of Inscriptions which was tucked away in the trees surrounding Palenque. He spent the next several years excavating the Temple and recording the inscriptions within. Because of Tatiana Proskouriakoff's recent discoveries in the decipherment, present- day scholars were able to determine that the Temple of Inscriptions was built by the ancient Mayans around 600 A.D.
The Temple of Inscriptions was built on three terraces and had a long, narrow stairway, which also contained several inscriptions. The temple faced the North and had five doorways on the front wall. Six piers were constructed at the top of the stairway. Each pier contained detailed inscriptions. Inside the temple there were several inscription panels. It is doubtful that the public ever entered into the temple to see the inscription panels. Scholars believe that scribes would read the texts to the public, starting with the east panel and ending with the west panel.
The inscription panels are divided into three sections. The first section contained the accessions of Palenque kings and the sequence of the nine Watun endings. The panels include the Mayan long count of when Lady Sak-K'uk', Pacal's mother, was seated as the ruler of Palenque. (This is interesting because although Lady Sak-K'uk' was married, she was the sucessor to the throne over her husband.) It also gave the long count of when Pacal was seated as the ruler in 9.10.0.0.0 (July 29, 615). Later decipherments determined, from calculating his birth until this time, that Pacal was only twelve years old when he came to the throne. The second panel contains Pacal's birthdate and accession to the Watun ending 9.9.0.0.0. Recent translations by computer programs have determined this date to be March 26, 603. The third panel describes momentous events that occurred during Pacal's reign. Five important events took place. The first event was a complex ritual dance that took place on April 19, 653. The second event was the visit of Nun-Bak-Chak on August 16, 659. The third event was a public meeting. The fourth depicted his marriage to Lady Tz'ak-Ahaw on March 22, 626. The fifth was her death on November 16, 672. These panels contained the history of the people at the time of the construction of the temple that Pacal felt was important for future generations to know. But who built the temple and who was the ruler of the Mayan during this time period? Little was known about the Mayan's ruler until one fateful day nearly four years after the discovery of the temple (Schele & Mathews, 95-108).
As Alberto Ruz and other workmen were excavating the temple, they discovered a step, followed by another. They soon discovered a vaulted stairway that they would later find was a passageway to the ruler of Palenque's tomb. It took four, long summers to dig their way down to a triangular door at the bottom of the stairway.
It was on June 15, 1952, that AIfred Ruz and his excavation crew looked upon a tomb that had been hidden away for over twelve centuries. It was from the inscriptions on Pacal's sarcophagus that we have learned about his life, reign, death, and beliefs about the afterlife (Schele & Mathews, 109-110).
The lid measured 3.8 meters by 2.2 meters, and was the first sight that Ruz saw. The lid contains information about Pacal's death and his beliefs in the afterlife. A panel surrounds the center image. Three individuals are depicted on this panel. It was later discovered that these individuals were Pacal's administration and top officials. These individuals must have been very important to Pacal's reign to earn the honor of being depicted on Pacal's sarcophagus. It is believed that they must have helped tremendously with the construction of the temple. The center image contains a great tree that emerges out of a bowl of sacrifice and continues up behind the body of the dying king. The tree represents the Milky Way that stretches across the entire sky. A supernatural bird also appears in the center image, which is supposed to help the ruler get to the afterlife by using magic powers produced by the bird. Pacal is holding a double-headed serpent that symbolizes his power and wisdom. A turtle necklace was placed around Pacal's neck representing his rebirth as the Maize God. Pacal is pictured in an awkward position that symbolizes the great transformation that he is undergoing as his life ends and he enters into his journey to the Otherworld. The netting on Pacal's skirt symbolizes how Pacal left this world as the Maize God. It was often that Pacal compared himself to the Maize God and nearly all of the inscriptions that depict Pacal's name contains the crossed pattern which symbolizes the Maize God. The lid also contained text which read, "They closed the lid, the sarcophagus of the Maize God [Pacal]." The death of the last eight generations of kings are also told on the lid (Schele & Mathews, 110-124) (Schele & Freidel, 216-228).
The coffin is two meters long, and the center was carved out to a body shaped cavity. Here laid the remains of the great ruler of Palenque, Hanab-Pakal. Pacal was adorned with rare jade ornamentals. Mayans believed that Pacal could use these priceless ornamentals to buy his way into the Otherworld. There was red paint covering the inside walls of the sarcophagus, which was also found on Pacal's bones. Studies of Mayan burials conclude that the red paint was used to give them the appearance that they were still alive. Little is known about the nine life size figures that line the walls where Pacal's sarcophagus rests. It is believed that they depict the dynasty of Pacal for the last seven generations (Coe, 125- 132).
Recent Discoveries and Decipherment
Recent discoveries have been made about the deciepherment of the text on Pacal's sarcohagus by several scholars. David and Linda Schele, Floyd Lounsbury, Peter Mathews and Merle Robertson, each with an extensive knowledge of Mayan monuments and hieroglyphs, met at several conferences starting during the 1970's. Their brainstorming of ideas have led to new insights about the ancient texts.
By studying the different glyphs that seem to be Pacal's name, they discovered that the gylphs really represented Pacal's ancestors who shared his name: his grandfather, Hanab Pacal, and Pacal I. They also deceiphered the verbs contained in the texts such as "accession" and "birth of" (Coe, 193- 217).
Although many great architectual discoveries had been made, it was not until Tatiana Proskouriakoff and recent scholars decipherment of the scripts that we have come to know about Pacal the Great, and the ancient Mayan civilization. There are several glyphs which still remain undeciphered. Present scholars are collaborating ideas to try and decipher the remaining glyphs. With the decipherment of the Mayan glyphs, we come to understand more about the ancient Mayan civilization.
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References
Coe, Michael D. Breaking, the Maya Code. Thames and Hudson Inc: New York, 1992.
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana. Maya History. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1993.
Schele, Linda and Peter Mathews. The Code of Kings. Scribner: New York, 1998.
Schele, Linda and David Freidel. A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. William Morrow and Co: New York, 1990.
Thompson, J. Eric. S. The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization. 2nd Edition. University of Oklahoma Press: Oklahoma City, 1970.
pages.prodigy.com/GBonline/palenque.htmlwww.mesoweb.com
. BROTHER JUST SAY YOU DONT WANNA SHARE THE KEYS TO THAT CIPHER. I WOULD HAVE UNDERSTOOD AND RESPECT THAT.
