Maya Civilization

Why Is the Temple of the Inscriptions So Important?

The Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque is one of the most important monuments in the pre-Columbian world. It is the funerary pyramid of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, the great king who ruled Palenque for 68 years, and it is the only Mesoamerican pyramid known to have been built as a deliberate tomb for a specific, named ruler. Inside the pyramid, deep in the core, is the tomb of Pakal himself, sealed with a massive carved sarcophagus lid and surrounded by an offering of jade, shell, and stucco masks. Above the tomb runs a long hieroglyphic text of 617 glyphs, the second-longest known Maya inscription, recording the dynastic history of Palenque from the late 4th century to Pakal’s death in 683 CE. The pyramid itself has nine stepped levels, mirroring the nine lords of the underworld of Xibalba, and the stairway from the temple at the summit descends to the tomb at the heart of the building.

This page describes the temple, the tomb, the sarcophagus, and the inscription. For the broader context, see Maya pyramids, temples, and sacred architecture and Maya art, architecture, and monuments. For the dynasty and court of Pakal, see Palenque: art and court of Pakal. For the religious and mythic background, see Maya religion, mythology, and cosmology.

The city of Palenque

Palenque is a mid-sized Maya city set in the foothills of the Chiapas highlands, on the western edge of the Maya lowlands, in the modern Mexican state of Chiapas. The site was occupied from the Early Classic (c. 250 CE) to the Spanish conquest, and it was a major capital in the Late Classic (c. 600–800 CE). The city sits at the foot of steep forested hills, with a series of springs and waterfalls nearby, and a long view across the coastal plain to the Gulf of Mexico.

The most important buildings of Palenque are concentrated in a small core: the Palace, a long range building with a four-story tower; the Temple of the Inscriptions, the Temple of the Cross, the Temple of the Foliated Cross, and the Temple of the Sun, four temples that together form the Cross Group; the North Group of lesser temples; and a series of residential platforms to the south and west. The site is one of the best-preserved Maya cities, with much of its carved relief and stucco decoration still in place, and a tropical setting that makes it one of the most visited Maya sites in Mexico.

K’inich Janaab’ Pakal

K’inich Janaab’ Pakal (often just Pakal) was born in 603 CE, ascended to the throne of Palenque on 29 July 615 CE at the age of 12, and died on 28 August 683 CE at the age of 80. He was the longest-reigning king in the history of Palenque, and one of the longest in the entire Maya world. His reign, lasting 68 years, took Palenque from a small local center to one of the great capitals of the western Maya region.

Pakal was a prolific builder. The cross-group temples, the palace, the great inscribed stairway of the Palace, and the temple that bears his name were all built or expanded under his rule. His sons, K’inich Kan Bahlam II and K’inich K’an Joy Chitam II, completed the cross-group program after his death.

The most important construction of his reign was the Temple of the Inscriptions, which Pakal himself began around 675 CE and which was completed by his sons after his death in 683 CE. The temple was built in eight overlapping construction stages, with each new stage built into the heart of the older one in the razing-and-rebuilding tradition.

The temple and the inscription

The Temple of the Inscriptions is a stepped, nine-level pyramid, approximately 27 meters high, set on a broad platform. The four sides of the pyramid are battered, with a single monumental stairway on the east side rising to a small temple at the summit. The temple is built of dressed limestone set in lime mortar, with a stucco finish, and is crowned by a tall, flat roof comb that is the most distinctive feature of the building.

The temple is named for the three large inscription panels that cover the inner walls of the upper temple. The three panels, each about 2.5 meters wide, carry a total of 617 hieroglyphic glyphs in 18 columns. The panels are the longest single text on any Maya building and the second-longest known Maya inscription, after the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copán (2,200 glyphs). The text begins with the dedication date of 9.12.2.0.0 (11 April 654 CE) and runs through the dynastic history of Palenque from the late 4th century to Pakal’s death in 683 CE.

The inscription records the lineage of Pakal, going back to the dynasty’s founder in 431 CE. The list includes K’uk’ Bahlam I (the founder), K’an Mo’ Hix, K’uk’ Bahlam II, Ahkal Mo’ Naab’ I, K’an Bahlam I, Yohl Ik’nal (a queen who ruled alone from 583 to 604 CE), Aj Ne’ Yoxal, and Sak K’uk’ (Pakal’s mother). The list gives a continuous, dated dynastic record of 252 years, ending with the death of Pakal in 683 CE.

The discovery of the tomb

The tomb of Pakal was discovered in 1952 by the Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, who had been excavating the Temple of the Inscriptions for several years. Ruz had observed that the upper temple was a hollowed-out structure, and he eventually traced a stairway descending from the temple floor into the heart of the pyramid. The stairway had been deliberately blocked with rubble at the time of the temple’s dedication, and it had been re-blocked by Ruz’s own workers as they cleaned out the temple, but Ruz insisted on reopening it.

The stairway descends about 27 meters from the floor of the upper temple to the base of the pyramid, ending in a small, rectangular, corbel-vaulted chamber at the heart of the building. The chamber measures 4.5 by 2.7 meters at the floor and rises to 4.5 meters at the top of the vault. The walls are stuccoed and painted, and the floor is a single carved slab that had been the tomb’s capstone. The capstone was lowered into place through a hole in the ceiling of the chamber and was suspended in place by ropes until the ropes were cut.

The tomb is the only Mesoamerican pyramid tomb known to have been built for a named, historical ruler. Other Maya tombs (at Tikal, Copán, and elsewhere) had been placed in earlier sub-structures or in chambers dug into the floors of temples, but the deliberate construction of a pyramid as a tomb for a specific ruler is unique.

The sarcophagus

At the center of the chamber is a massive sarcophagus carved from a single block of limestone, weighing about 5 tons. The lid is carved in low relief with the image of Pakal at the moment of his death, falling into the open jaws of the underworld, and rising again as a young maize god. The iconography has been the subject of intense scholarly debate since Ruz’s discovery, with the controversial writer Erich von Däniken arguing (incorrectly) that the figure is an “ancient astronaut.”

Inside the sarcophagus was the skeleton of Pakal, lying on his back, his face covered with a jadeite mosaic mask, his body covered with jade beads, his fingers tipped with carved shell. The body had been laid on a wooden litter, dressed in cotton robes, and surrounded by an offering of five young men, who appear to have been sacrificed to accompany the king in death. The bones of the five men were found scattered around the sarcophagus, with their skull, jaw, and long bones all present, suggesting that they were decapitated and dismembered before being placed with the king.

The skeleton of Pakal was remarkably well preserved, despite its age. The bones showed signs of arthritis and old injuries, including a fractured hip and a fractured foot, but Pakal was clearly an active ruler to the end of his life.

The nine levels

The pyramid has nine stepped levels, each one mirroring the nine lords of the underworld of Xibalba in the Popol Vuh. The image of the underworld as a nine-tiered realm, ruled by the Lords of Xibalba and populated with trials and tests, is central to Maya religion. To build a pyramid of nine levels for a king’s tomb was to align the king’s death and rebirth with the structure of the underworld, and to place the king’s body at the heart of the cosmic order.

The same nine-level structure appears in the Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal in the Puuc region, where the temple is also built up in nine levels (with an unusual rounded profile), and in the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan (which is not strictly Maya, but which influenced the design of Maya pyramids in central Mexico). The number nine is the standard form of underworld architecture in the Maya world.

The Cross Group

The Temple of the Inscriptions stands at the western end of a small plaza, the Cross Group, which also contains the Temple of the Cross, the Temple of the Foliated Cross, and the Temple of the Sun. The three cross-group temples are contemporary with the Temple of the Inscriptions and were dedicated by K’inich Kan Bahlam II, Pakal’s son, in 692 CE. Each temple has a large inscription panel inside, and the three together form a single program of dynastic and mythic history.

The Temple of the Cross is the largest of the three. Its central panel shows K’inich Kan Bahlam II performing a bloodletting rite in front of a great cross-shaped World Tree, on which a Maize God and a Solar God are seated. The text of the panel is the dedication of the temple and a long dynastic list. The Temple of the Foliated Cross shows the same scene with different iconography, and the Temple of the Sun is dedicated to a different aspect of the same mythic structure.

The cross-group program is one of the great mythic-political statements of the Late Classic. It identifies the rulers of Palenque with the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh and with the cosmic axis of the World Tree, and it places the death and rebirth of the Maize God at the center of the city’s religion.

Pakal’s afterlife

The iconography of the sarcophagus lid has been read in many ways. The most common modern reading is that Pakal is shown at the moment of his death, falling into the open jaws of the underworld, and rising again as a young Maize God. The skeletal jaws of the underworld are at the bottom of the relief, with Pakal’s body in the center, his torso a stylized maize plant, and a celestial bird (the Principal Bird Deity) above his head.

The relief is rich in detail. Below Pakal is a stylized earth monster with crossed bands; above him is a sky band with stars and a celestial bird. Pakal wears a headdress of quetzal feathers and a costume of jade and shell, and he holds a ceremonial bar. The iconography is consistent with the broader program of Palenque, in which the king is identified with the Maize God and with the Hero Twins.

The importance of the Temple of the Inscriptions

The Temple of the Inscriptions is one of the most important monuments of the pre-Columbian world for several reasons.

  1. It is a true pyramid tomb: it is the only known Maya pyramid built as the deliberate tomb of a named ruler. The construction of the building, the descent of the stairway, and the placement of the sarcophagus were all part of a single program of royal burial.
  2. It contains a long inscription: the 617-glyph text of the upper temple is the second-longest known Maya inscription, and it gives a continuous, dated dynastic record of 252 years.
  3. It documents the dynasty: the inscription provides a complete dynasty list of Palenque, and it is the central source for the political history of the city.
  4. It bridges the living and the dead: the tomb connects the king to the world of the ancestors and to the cosmic order of Xibalba.
  5. It is a masterpiece of architecture and art: the carved panels of the upper temple, the carved stucco of the facade, and the painted reliefs of the sarcophagus chamber are among the finest works of Maya art.

The temple is the central monument of Palenque, the central work of art of the Pakal dynasty, and one of the central monuments of the entire pre-Columbian world. It is the most famous funerary temple in the Americas.

Discovery and study

Alberto Ruz Lhuillier’s discovery of the tomb in 1952 was a major event in Maya archaeology. The Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has maintained the tomb and the temple as a major site museum since 1955, and a UNESCO World Heritage designation followed in 1987. Modern conservation work has focused on the painted reliefs of the tomb, the carved sarcophagus, and the painted stucco of the temple. The sarcophagus lid and the jade mask of Pakal are now in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, while a copy of the lid is in place in the tomb at Palenque.

Sources

  • Miller, M. E. (1999). Maya Art and Architecture. Thames & Hudson. — link
  • Miller, M. E. (1986). The Murals of Bonampak. Princeton University Press. — link
  • Schele, L. & Freidel, D. (1990). A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. William Morrow. — link
  • Houston, S. D., Stuart, D. & Taube, K. A. (2006). The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience in Ancient Mexico. University of Texas Press. — link
  • Taube, K. A. (2010). Maya Deities and the Place of Vision: A Workbook on Maya Iconography. Precolumbia Mesoweb Press. — link