Wednesday, February 2, 2011

K'inich Janaab' Pakal-Palenque Dynasty 603 - 683ad

K'inich Janaab' Pakal (23 March 603 – 28 August 683) was ruler of the Maya polity of Palenque in the Late Classic period. Pakal ascended the throne at age 12 on July 29, 615, and lived to the age of 80. The name pakal means "shield" in the Maya language.Palenque (Baak' in Maya) was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date back to 100 BC to its fall around 800 AD. After its decline it was absorbed back into the jungle.
During a long reign of some 68 years Pakal was responsible for the construction of some of Palenque's most notable surviving inscriptions and monumental architecture.
Temple of the Sun, Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico
Classic Maya civilization city state.  This dedication temple built around 683A.D. 


After his death, Pakal was deified and said to communicate with his descendants. Pakal was buried within the Temple of Insciptions. The secret to opening his tomb—closed off by a stone slab with stone plugs in the holes, which had until then escaped the attention of archaeologists—was discovered by Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier in 1948. It took four years to clear the rubble from the stairway leading down to Pakal’s tomb, but was finally uncovered in 1952. His skeletal remains were still lying in his coffin, wearing a jade mask and bead necklaces, surrounded by sculptures and stucco reliefs depicting the ruler's transition to divinity and figures from Maya Mythology