Yohl Ik'nal

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Yohl Ik'nal
Queen of Palenque

Yohl Ik'nal.svg

Yohl Ik'nal's glyph
Reign December 23, 583 – November 4, 604
Predecessor Kan Bahlam I
Successor Ajen Yohl Mat
Died November 4, 604
Issue Ajen Yohl Mat?
Janahb Pakal?
Religion Maya religion

Yohl Ikʻnal [N 1] (Mayan pronunciation:  [johl ikʼnal] ), also known as Lady Kan Ik and Lady K'anal Ik'nal, (died November 4, 604) was queen of the Maya city-state of Palenque. She acceded to the throne on December 23, 583, and ruled until her death. [N 2] [1]

Maya civilization Mesoamerican civilization

The Maya civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. This region consists of the northern lowlands encompassing the Yucatán Peninsula, and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, running from the Mexican state of Chiapas, across southern Guatemala and onwards into El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain.

Palenque former city state in Central Amrica in present-day southern Mexico

Palenque, also anciently known as Lakamha, was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. AD 799. After its decline, it was absorbed into the jungle of cedar, mahogany, and sapodilla trees, but has since been excavated and restored. It is located near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, about 130 km (81 mi) south of Ciudad del Carmen, 150 m (164 yd) above sea level. It averages a humid 26 °C (79 °F) with roughly 2160 mm (85 in) of rain a year.

Contents

Family

Yohl Ikʻnal was a grandmother or great-grandmother of K'inich Janaab Pakal I, Palenqueʻs greatest king. [2] She was a descendent of K'uk' Bahlam I, the founder of the Palenque dynasty and she came to power within a year of the death of her predecessor, Kan Bahlam I. [3]

Kuk Bahlam I Ruler of Palenque

K'uk' Bahlam I, also known as Kuk and Bahlum K'uk',, was a founder and ajaw of the ruling dynasty at the Maya city of Palenque. He founded the dynasty on March 10, 431.

K'inich Janaab Pakal I, grandson or great-grandson of Yohl Ik'nal K'inich Janaab Pakal I.jpg
K'inich Janaab Pakal I, grandson or great-grandson of Yohl Ik'nal

She was the first female ruler in recorded Maya history and was one of a very few female rulers known from Maya history to have borne a full royal title. [4] She must have come to the throne due to extremely unusual circumstances, the details of which have not survived. [5] She was the one of two woman to have ruled Palenque, second was her daughter or granddaughter Sak K'uk' and was likely to have been either the sister or, more likely, the daughter of Kan Bahlam, who left no male heir. Her husband or her son was Janahb Pakal. [6]

Women rulers in Maya society

During the 7th and 8th centuries in Mesoamerica, there was an evident shift in the roles women played in ancient Maya society as compared with the previous two centuries. It was during this time that there was a great deal of political complexity seen both in Maya royal houses as well as in the Maya area. Warfare was a significant factor in political competition and marriage was one of the ways that alliances were made between the different polities. This was accompanied by a shift in women's roles from wife and mother to playing integral parts in courtly life, such as participating in rituals involving the supernatural world and at times ruling individual polities.

A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either veneration, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the first and last name. Some titles are hereditary.

Ancient Maya women had an important role in society: beyond propagating the culture through the bearing and raising of children, Maya women participated in economic, governmental and farming activities. The lives of women in ancient Mesoamerica were in not well documented: "of the three elite founding area tombs discovered to date within the Copan Acropolis, two contain the remains of women, and yet there is not a single reference to a woman in either known contemporary texts or later retrospective accounts of Early Classic events and personages at Copan," writes a scholar.

Reign

During the reign of Yohl Ik'nal, Palenque suffered an important defeat by Calakmul, one of the two great Maya powers of the Classic Period. [7] The battle took place on April 23, 599 but Yohl Ikʻnal reigned for several years more and died in 604. [8] After the defeat, Palenque apparently maintained its political identity but Yohl Ik'nal probably had to pay tribute to the ajaw of Calakmul. [9] There are indications that either Yohl Ik'nal or her successor successfully rebelled against Calakmulʻs dominance before 611. [10]

Calakmul archaeological site

Calakmul is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in the jungles of the greater Petén Basin region. It is 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the Guatemalan border. Calakmul was one of the largest and most powerful ancient cities ever uncovered in the Maya lowlands.

Archaeologist Merle Greene Robertson has suggested that a vaulted tomb under Temple 20 at Palenque is that of Queen Yohl Ik'nal. [7] She was considered important enough to be depicted twice on the sarcophagus of her grandson or great-grandson K'inich Janaab Pakal I and to be sculpted in stucco on the wall of his tomb. [11]

Merle Greene Robertson American Mesoamericanist

Merle Greene Robertson was an American artist, art historian, archaeologist, lecturer and Mayanist researcher, renowned for her extensive work towards the investigation and preservation of the art, iconography, and writing of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Central America. She is most famous for her rubbings of Maya carved stelae, sculpture, and carved stone, particularly at the Maya sites of Tikal and Palenque.

Temple 20

Temple 20 is a pyramidal building, dated to between AD 430 and 600, located at the Maya city of Palenque in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico with a funerary chamber that contains remains of a high rank character. Archaeologist Merle Greene Robertson has suggested that the vaulted tomb under Temple 20 is that of Queen Ix Yohl Ik'nal.

Sarcophagus box-like funeral receptacle

A sarcophagus is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σάρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγεῖν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarcophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos. Since lithos is Greek for "stone", lithos sarcophagos means "flesh-eating stone". The word also came to refer to a particular kind of limestone that was thought to rapidly facilitate the decomposition of the flesh of corpses contained within it due to the chemical properties of the limestone itself.

Regnal titles
Preceded by
Kan Bahlam I 		Queen of Palenque
December 23, 583 – November 4, 604 		Succeeded by
Ajen Yohl Mat

Notes

  1. ↑ The ruler's name, when transcribed is IX-(Y)O:L-la IK'-NAL-la, translated as "Lady Heart of the Wind Place".
  2. ↑ These are the dates indicated on the Maya inscriptions in Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, Acceded: 9.7.10.3.8 9 Lamat 1 Muwan and Died: 9.8.11.6.12 2 Eb 20 Keh.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Stuart & Stuart 2008, pp. 139–142. Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 459. Skidmore 2010, p. 39.
  2. ↑ Skidmore 2010, pp. 56–57. Webster 2002, p. 132.
  3. ↑ Stuart & Stuart 2008, p. 139. Drew 1999, p. 264.
  4. ↑ Stuart & Stuart 2008, p. 139. Martin & Grube 2000, p. 159. Drew 1999, p. 264.
  5. ↑ Stuart & Stuart 2008, p. 139.
  6. ↑ Stuart & Stuart 2008, p. 238. Martin & Grube 2000, p. 159. Skidmore 2010, pp. 56–57.
  7. 1 2 Stuart & Stuart 2008, p. 140.
  8. ↑ Stuart & Stuart 2008, pp. 140–142.
  9. ↑ Stuart & Stuart 2008, p. 142.
  10. ↑ Stuart & Stuart 2008, p. 144.
  11. ↑ Stuart & Stuart 2008, pp. 177, 180. Skidmore 2010, pp. 56–57.

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References

Drew, David (1999). The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN   0-297-81699-3. OCLC   43401096. 
Martin, Simon; Nikolai Grube (2000). Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. London and New York: Thames & Hudson. ISBN   0-500-05103-8. OCLC   47358325. 
Sharer, Robert J.; Loa P. Traxler (2006). The Ancient Maya (6th (fully revised) ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN   0-8047-4817-9. OCLC   57577446. 
Skidmore, Joel (2010). The Rulers of Palenque (PDF) (Fifth ed.). Mesoweb Publications. p. 39. Retrieved 12 October 2015. 
Stuart, David; George Stuart (2008). Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN   978-0-500-05156-6. OCLC   227016561. 
Webster, David L. (2002). The Fall of the Ancient Maya: Solving the Mystery of the Maya Collapse. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN   0-500-05113-5. OCLC   48753878. 
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