Yuknoom Ch'een II'[pronunciation?] (September 11, 600 – 680s), known as Yuknoom the Great, was a Mayan ruler of the Kaan kingdom, which had its capital at Calakmul during the Classic Period of Mesoamerican chronology.
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.
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.
King, or king regnant is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, while the title of queen on its own usually refers to the consort of a king.
Scroll Serpent was a Maya ruler of the Kaan kingdom. He ruled from AD 579 to 611. He acceded on September 2.
Reign
As he acceded in AD 636 and his successor followed him upon the throne in 686, Yuknoom the Great is known to have ruled the Kaan kingdom for fifty years during the height of its power and ascendency over Tikal.[1] He took the name of the Early Classic king Yuknoom Ch'een I upon his accession.
Tikal is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén, the site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Yuknoom Ch’een I was the first known Maya king of the Kaan Kingdom. He was maybe a father of King Tuun K'ab' Hix.
As Tikal was showing strong signs of recovering from the defeat of its king Wak Chan K'awiil almost one hundred years earlier, Yuknoom exerted himself against Kaan's great rival; he accomplished this in the context of a division in Tikal's dynastic line whereby both B'alaj Chan K'awiil of Dos Pilas and his probable brother (or half-brother) Nuun Ujol Chaak of Tikal came to style themselves holy lords of Mutal. The initial circumstances of the relationship between Dos Pilas and Tikal are murky, but in 650 Bajlaj Chan K'awiil was attacked and driven from his city, and he came to acknowledge the Snake ruler as his overlord and ally in the factional dispute with Tikal.[citation needed]
Wak Chan K'awiil, also known as Double Bird, was an ajaw of the Maya city of Tikal. He took the throne on December 27, 537(?) and reigning probably until his death. He was son of Chak Tok Ich'aak II and Lady Hand. He sponsored accession of Yajaw Te' K'inich II, ruler of Caracol in 553. The monument associated with Wak Chan K'awiil is Stelae 17.
B'alaj Chan K'awiil was a Maya ruler of Dos Pilas. He is also known as Ruler 1, Flint Sky God K and Malah Chan K'awil.
Dos Pilas is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization located in what is now the department of Petén, Guatemala. It dates to the Late Classic Period, being founded by an offshoot of the dynasty of the great city of Tikal in AD 629 in order to control trade routes in the Petexbatún region, particularly the Pasión River. In AD 648 Dos Pilas broke away from Tikal and became a vassal state of Calakmul, although the first two kings of Dos Pilas continued to use the same emblem glyph that Tikal did. It was a predator state from the beginning, conquering Itzan, Arroyo de Piedra and Tamarindito. Dos Pilas and a nearby city, Aguateca, eventually became the twin capitals of a single ruling dynasty. The kingdom as a whole has been named as the Petexbatun Kingdom, after Lake Petexbatún, a body of water draining into the Pasión River.
In 657 Yuknoom Ch'een turned his attention to Tikal and vanquished it in a "star war" encounter, as a consequence of which Nuun Ujol Chaak must have pledged some form of fealty, because both he and Bajlaj Chan K'awiil subsequently attended a ritual performed by Calakmul prince Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk'. But then in 672 the Tikal king asserted his independence by ousting Bajlaj Chan K'awiil from Dos Pilas and pursuing him as he sought refuge at other sites. Calakmul then intervened in 677 and dealt Nuun Ujol Chaak a second defeat, which was followed in 679 by a decisive vanquishment at the hands of Dos Pilas, almost certainly with Calakmul aid.
A star war was a decisive conflict between rival polities of the Maya civilization during the first millennium AD. The term comes from a specific type of glyph used in the Maya script, which depicts a star showering the earth with liquid droplets, or a star over a shell. It represents a verb but its phonemic value and specific meaning have not yet been deciphered. The name "star war" was coined by the epigrapher Linda Schele to refer to the glyph, and by extension to the type of conflict that it indicates.
Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' ) or Yuknoom Ixquiac was a Maya king of the Kaan kingdom, which had its capital at Calakmul during the Classic Period of Mesoamerican chronology.
The following year brought turmoil to another region of Kaan's hegemony; Naranjo, which had defected from its vassal status after the death of Aj Wosal Chan K'inich and had been punished by the defeat of its thirty-sixth ruler, had recovered sufficiently for the thirty-seventh to attack Kaan's client Caracol. Retribution seems to have followed swiftly, however, as the royal lineage of Naranjo was terminated within two years, ultimately to be replaced by the grandson of Bajlaj Chan K'awiil.
Naranjo is a Pre-Columbian Maya city in the Petén Basin region of Guatemala. It was occupied from about 500 B.C. to 950 A.D, with its height in the Late Classic Period. The site is part of Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo National Park. The city lies along the Mopan and Holmul rivers, and is about 50 km east of the site of Tikal. Naranjo has been the victim of severe looting. The site is known for its polychrome ceramic style
Caracol is the name given to a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located in what is now the Cayo District of Belize. It is situated approximately 40 kilometres south of Xunantunich and the town of San Ignacio Cayo, and 15 kilometers away from the Macal River. It rests on the Vaca Plateau at an elevation of 500 meters above sea-level, in the foothills of the Maya Mountains. Long thought to be a tertiary center, it is now known that the site was one of the most important regional political centers of the Maya Lowlands during the Classic Period. Caracol covered approximately 200 square kilometers, covering an area much larger than present-day Belize City and supported more than twice the modern city's population.
Yuknoom Ch'een's superordinate status was recognized in inscriptions at a number of sites, while it is probable that a great many other such mentions are lost to us. He sponsored three generations of Cancuen rulers and oversaw the accessions of two of them in 656 and 677. And far to the west of Calakmul, the accession of a king at Moral-Reforma in 662 took place under the auspices of Kaan, an event apparently coordinated with an attack by Piedras Negras on Moral-Reforma's neighbor Santa Elena that same year — an inscription at Piedras Negras mentions Calakmul six days before this event. An emissary of Yuknoom Ch'een also supervised a ritual at Piedras Negras in 685.
Yuknoom the Great was well into his eighties when he died, and it is likely that many of the successes of his later years were actually the achievements of his successor, Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk'.[2]
Relations with La Corona were enhanced when a daughter of Yuknoom Ch'een married a lord of that site in 679.
Year 657 (DCLVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 657 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Yax Nuun Ahiin I, also known as Curl Snout and Curl Nose, was a 4th-century ruler of the Maya city of Tikal. His name when transcribed is YAX-?-AH:N, translated "First? Crocodile". He took the throne on September 12, 379, and reigned until his death. He is referred to by the Mayan title ajaw, meaning lord.
La Corona is the name given by archaeologists to an ancient Maya court residence in Guatemala's Petén department that was discovered in 1996, and later identified as the long-sought "Site Q", the source of a long series of unprovenanced limestone reliefs of exceptional artistic quality. The site's Classical name appears to have been Sak-Nikte' ('White-Flower').
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.
Yich'aak B'alam was a Maya king of Seibal.
K'an II was a Maya ruler of Caracol. He reigned AD 618–658.
Tajoom Ukʻab Kʻahk' was a Maya ruler of the Kaan kingdom. He became a king on March 28, 622.
Yuknoom Head was a king of the Maya Kaan Kingdom. He ruled AD 630-636.
Yuknoom Took' Kʻawiil was a Maya ruler of the Kaan kingdom (Calakmul).
Wamaw K'awiil was an 8th century Maya ruler of Kaan (Calakmul).
The Tikal–Calakmul wars were a series of wars between Tikal and Calakmul. The First Tikal–Calakmul War was the first of these wars. During this and following conflicts in Petén vassal states like Naranjo and Dos Pilas were often used. Though Yaxchilan was in the war it only had a minor presence at the beginning.
The Second Tikal–Calakmul War was the second in a series of wars between Tikal and Calakmul known as The Tikal–Calakmul wars. Tikal and Calakmul were some of the most prosperous cities in Peten during the classic period of Mesoamerican chronology. After the classic came the post classic which was characterized by a decline in Maya Civilization. During that time both Tikal and Calakmul were abandoned.
The Third Tikal–Calakmul War was the third in a series of wars between Tikal and Calakmul, two of the Major superpowers of the Maya Civilization during the classic period.
The Tikal–Calakmul wars were a series of wars, mainly between Tikal and Calakmul on the Yucatán Peninsula, but also with vassal states in the Petén Basin such as Copan, Dos Pilas, Naranjo, Sacul, Quiriguá, and briefly Yaxchilan had a role in initiating the first war.
↑ Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens by Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube (2008:56-57, 74-75, 94-95, 108-9)
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