Maya Civilization

What Were the Petexbatún Wars?

The Petexbatún Wars (c. 648 – 761 CE) were a series of military campaigns in the Río Pasión region of the southern Petén, in what is now the department of Petén, Guatemala. The wars are the best-documented military conflict in the entire pre-Columbian American record, with detailed inscriptions at several of the major sites (notably Dos Pilas and Aguateca) and a vivid visual record in the famous Bonampak murals. The wars involved the founding of a new dynasty at Dos Pilas by an exiled branch of the Tikal royal line, the rise of the Piedras Negras-aligned Pomoná dynasty, the conflict with the great Palenque-aligned K’awiil dynasty of Yaxchilán, the famous capture of Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilán by Ruler 4 of Dos Pilas in 743 CE, and the eventual collapse of the Petexbatún dynasty after the fall of the Aguateca fortress in the early 8th century.

This page summarizes the Petexbatún wars. For the high-level overview, see the History of the Maya Civilization pages. For the era, see the Classic Period apex of Maya civilization page. For the broader context, see the causes of the Classic Maya collapse page.

Geography of the Petexbatún

The Petexbatún region is the watershed of the Río Pasión (sometimes called the Río de la Pasión), a major tributary of the Usumacinta River in the southern Petén of Guatemala. The region is heavily faulted, with a series of north-south escarpments and deep ravines created by the same faulting that produced the Río Pasión canyon. The rugged terrain produced a series of defensive sites — Dos Pilas, Aguateca, Tamarindito, Punta de Chimino, Itzán, Arroyo de Piedra — most of them on defensible escarpment sites overlooking the canyon. The dense settlement of the Late Classic in this region is well-documented by the Piedras Negras project and the Petexbatún Archaeological Project, both of which have produced the most thoroughly studied regional settlement in the Maya lowlands.

The founding of Dos Pilas (c. 648 CE)

In 648 CE (the Long Count date 9.13.13.4.17), an exiled prince of the Tikal royal line, Balaj Chan K’awiil (also called Ruler 1 of Dos Pilas), was installed as king of a new polity at Dos Pilas. The inscription that records the event, on Dos Pilas Stela 2, includes a Long Count date and a clear statement that the new king was installed “by” the great Calakmul kingdom, which had defeated Tikal earlier in the 7th century. Dos Pilas is therefore best understood as a Calakmul-aligned polity, founded to harass the Tikal heartland and to control the trade routes of the Río Pasión.

The early Petexbatún wars were a regional conflict between the Tikal, Calakmul, Palenque, Piedras Negras, Yaxchilán, and Seibal polities, with the new kingdom of Dos Pilas serving as a Calakmul ally in the southern Petén. The first major war recorded in the Dos Pilas inscriptions is the defeat of an army of Seibal at Dos Pilas in 679 CE, under Ruler 2 of Dos Pilas. Ruler 2 then went on to defeat a Tikal army in 682 CE, in one of the most carefully documented military events in the entire Maya record.

Ruler 3 of Dos Pilas and the war with Yaxchilán

By the early 8th century, the principal external enemy of the Dos Pilas kingdom was the great Yaxchilán kingdom to the northwest, on the Usumacinta. The Yaxchilán kings, beginning with Yat-Balam and continuing under Itzamnaaj B’alam II (“the Shield Skull”) and his successors, were aggressive expansionists, and they were a threat to Dos Pilas’s control of the Río Pasión corridor.

Ruler 3 of Dos Pilas (who ruled c. 695 – 723 CE) is the first of the great Petexbatún warrior-kings. He is depicted on the famous Dos Pilas Stela 1, a large carved monument that portrays him in a Teotihuacano-style Tlaloc mask and a headdress with the head of the Principal Bird Deity (a sky-bird associated with the Jester God and with Teotihuacano influence at Maya sites). The text on Stela 1 records several military victories, including a 695 CE victory over an unspecified enemy. Ruler 3 was eventually captured and sacrificed, possibly by a Yaxchilán-allied enemy, in 723 CE.

Ruler 4 of Dos Pilas and the capture of Bird Jaguar IV

The most famous event of the entire Petexbatún war sequence is the capture of Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilán by Ruler 4 of Dos Pilas in 743 CE. The event is recorded in the inscriptions of several sites in the region, and is one of the most discussed events in the entire history of Maya epigraphy. Itzamnaaj K’awiil, “Shield Skull,” was a Yaxchilán king, and his son Itzamnaaj K’awiil II (“Ruler 4 of Dos Pilas”) was the grandson of an earlier Yaxchilán king, Yat-Balam. Ruler 4 was installed as a puppet at Dos Pilas by his own grandfather, and the politics of the capture of Bird Jaguar IV are correspondingly complex.

The Dos Pilas Stela 8 inscription records the date of the capture and the ritual humiliation of the captured Bird Jaguar IV. The event is also depicted in the Bonampak murals of c. 790 CE, which show a captive parade and the sacrifice of bound prisoners in elaborate royal regalia. The full account of the Bonampak murals is on the Bonampak, Yaxchilán and the Usumacinta page.

The capture and humiliation of Bird Jaguar IV was a major political event. It weakened the Yaxchilán kingdom at exactly the moment when it might have been able to expand into the Petexbatún, and it allowed the Dos Pilas dynasty to consolidate its control over the Río Pasión for several more decades.

The Aguateca fortress and the final Petexbatún war

The Petexbatún wars ended in catastrophe for the Dos Pilas dynasty. The site of Aguateca, the major city of the kingdom and the last strongpoint of the dynasty, was destroyed and abandoned in a single dramatic event in the early 8th century (the exact date is debated, but the destruction layer is usually placed c. 800 CE or slightly earlier). The final event is documented in the Aguateca inscriptions and the destruction layer discovered by the Petexbatún Archaeological Project under Arthur Demarest of Vanderbilt University.

The destruction of Aguateca is one of the most thoroughly documented siege and abandonment events in the ancient Americas. The excavations revealed:

  • A defensive wall around much of the central precinct, with multiple gates, parapets, and lookout positions.
  • A burned and looted central palace, with collapsed roof structures and a destruction layer of broken pottery, ash, and human remains.
  • A rich set of in situ artifacts, including jade, jadeite, obsidian blades, and bone tools left behind by the fleeing inhabitants.
  • A defensive epigraphic and iconographic tradition, including the famous Aguateca Throne (a stone throne with a hieroglyphic inscription recording the last king of the dynasty).

The interpretation of the Aguateca destruction has been the subject of considerable debate. Some scholars have argued that the destruction was the result of an invasion by a foreign power (possibly the kingdom of Cancuén to the east, or possibly an internal coup). Others have argued that it was the result of a gradual abandonment that culminated in a final act of destruction. The current consensus is that Aguateca was the target of a siege by a rival kingdom, and that the dynasty ended with a dramatic destruction in the early 8th century.

The Bonampak murals

The Bonampak murals, discovered in 1946 by the young Mexican-American photographer Giles Healey at the small site of Bonampak in the Lacandon jungle, are the most famous murals of the entire pre-Columbian Americas. The murals, dated to c. 790 CE, depict:

  • A royal procession of the local court, with musicians, dancers, courtiers, and officials.
  • A series of battle scenes showing the Maya court at war with a rival kingdom, with warriors in battle, captives being stripped and humiliated, and a trophy parade of severed heads.
  • A series of ritual scenes showing the king and his court performing elaborate ceremonies, including the auto-sacrifice of a captive and the bloodletting of the king and his family.

The Bonampak murals are the visual companion to the inscriptional record of the Petexbatún wars, and they give us an unparalleled picture of Late Classic Maya court life, ritual, and warfare. The full account is on the Bonampak, Yaxchilán and the Usumacinta page and on the Maya murals, painting, and iconography page.

After the Petexbatún wars

The Petexbatún region was not abandoned after the fall of the Aguateca dynasty. Populations persisted in the area for several more centuries, and small Postclassic sites in the Río Pasión canyon are well-documented. The Itzá of the central Petén, in particular, have been linked to the survivors of the Petexbatún collapse, although the connection is not yet firmly established. The Postclassic period, treated on the Postclassic Period transformation and change page, is the era of the rise of new northern polities (Chichén Itzá, Mayapán) and the survival of Maya political traditions in the lowlands.

Significance of the Petexbatún Wars

The Petexbatún wars are significant for several reasons:

  1. They are the best-documented wars in the pre-Columbian American record. The combination of inscriptional evidence, iconographic evidence, and archaeological evidence at multiple sites is unique.

  2. They illustrate the dynamics of Late Classic inter-city warfare. The wars were the kind of large-scale, multi-generational military conflict that characterized the Late Classic, and they involved the same elements of star war (the ritual capture of the patron god of the defeated king), trophy-taking (the ritual humiliation of captives), and political fragmentation that marked the late 8th century more generally.

  3. They have informed the broader debate about the southern lowland collapse. The Petexbatún wars are a regional example of the same dynamics — militarization, political fragmentation, environmental stress, and population decline — that produced the southern lowland collapse. The full account is on the causes of the Classic Maya collapse page.

  4. They have produced a rich body of archaeological evidence. The Petexbatún Archaeological Project, directed by Arthur Demarest and others, has been one of the most influential regional archaeological projects in the Maya area.

  5. They include the famous Bonampak murals. The Bonampak murals are themselves one of the great works of pre-Columbian American art, and they have transformed our understanding of Late Classic Maya court life.

Sources

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