Maya Civilization

What Happened at the Ancient City of Copán?

The history of Copán is one of the most thoroughly documented in the ancient Americas, and the political arc of the city is one of the great stories of the Maya world. The dynasty of Copán, founded in the early 5th century CE by Yax Kuk Mo’, lasted for more than 400 years. Its apogee came in the late 7th and early 8th centuries under Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil (popularly 18 Rabbit), whose reign is recorded on more than 20 monuments in the central precinct. The dynasty was destroyed, in 738 CE, by the catastrophic capture of 18 Rabbit by the nearby city of Quiriguá, and the city slowly declined over the following century before being abandoned around 822 CE. The narrative of the dynasty — its rise, its apogee, and its long decline — is the political history of the southeastern Maya frontier.

For the wider context, see the overview on major Maya cities and archaeological sites, the deeper account of the Copán monuments in Copán: dynasty of the 18 Rabbit, and the wider treatment of the causes of the Classic Maya collapse.

The founding of the dynasty

The earliest securely dated monument at Copán is Stela 2, dedicated on 2nd January 420 CE, but the dynastic history of the site begins a few years later, with the arrival of Yax Kuk Mo’ in the valley. The arrival is recorded in the inscriptions of the city as having taken place on 8 September 426 CE, a date that has been a foundational element of the Copán chronology since the late Classic. Yax Kuk Mo’ is depicted on the Hunal (a Late Classic tomb) and on the oval Bench 1 of the Acropolis, in the regalia of a Maya ruler and with the iconography of a foreign arrival — a tradition that has suggested to some scholars that the founder was himself an outsider, possibly a warrior from the central Petén or from the highland zone of the Motagua.

Yax Kuk Mo’ is associated with the Margarita sub-structure, a large platform in the eastern wing of the Acropolis that is the earliest of the major royal buildings at the site. His dynasty ruled Copán for more than 400 years, and the 18 Rabbit and the Hieroglyphic Stairway of the West Court list the names and titles of 16 successive kings.

The early dynasty and the Tikal connection

The early Copán dynasty was politically subordinate to Tikal for most of the 5th and 6th centuries, and the relationship is recorded on several early monuments, including Stela 11, which describes the dedication of the Hunal in 437 CE in the presence of a Tikal overlord. The political and military background of the Petén-Copán region is in why Calakmul was such a powerful rival to Tikal.

The dynasty grew in wealth and power through the 6th century, and the central precinct of the city was substantially remodeled. The first great radial pyramid, the Temple 22 sub-structure, was built during the reign of Butz’ Chan (popularly Smoke Shell, r. c. 540–c. 555 CE), and the Mundo Perdido (“Lost World”) platform — a Preclassic E-Group that had been substantially rebuilt — was enlarged in the same period.

The 18 Rabbit and the apogee

The greatest ruler of Copán was Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil, popularly 18 Rabbit, who came to the throne in 695 CE at the age of about 32 and ruled for 43 years. His reign is documented on more than 20 monuments in the central precinct, including the great Stela C and Stela H of the Great Plaza, the magnificent Altar Q of the eastern court of the Acropolis, and the Temple 22 sub-structure. The art of the 18 Rabbit’s reign is among the most accomplished of the ancient Maya, with stelae and altars in a deeply conservative style that drew on the iconography of the early dynasty.

The apogee of 18 Rabbit’s reign was a period of enormous building and political expansion. The Great Plaza of Copán was substantially remodeled in the early 8th century, the Ball Court of the southeastern precinct was expanded into the second-largest ballcourt in the Maya world, and the city’s political reach — measured by the distribution of the Copán emblem glyph in vassal cities — extended across the southeastern Maya lowlands. The cultural background is in Maya society, politics, and daily life and the broader treatment of Maya art, architecture, and monuments.

The apogee of Copán under 18 Rabbit is best understood in the context of the wider political situation of the late 7th and early 8th centuries. The great lowland super-states of Tikal and Calakmul had fought a series of catastrophic wars in the 7th century, and the smaller cities of the southeastern frontier — Copán, Quiriguá, Piedras Negras, Yaxchilán — were jockeying for status and territorial advantage in the resulting power vacuum. The full political background is in why Calakmul was such a powerful rival to Tikal.

The capture of 18 Rabbit

The most dramatic event in Copán’s history is the capture of 18 Rabbit by the nearby city of Quiriguá in 738 CE. Quiriguá had been a dependency of Copán for most of the 7th century, but its ruler K’ahk’ Tiliw Chan Yopaat (popularly Cauac Sky) had been building a network of alliances with the Itzá of the central Petén and with Calakmul. The capture took place in the plaza at Quiriguá, and the event is recorded in the inscriptions of both cities: at Copán, by the absence of any monument for 18 Rabbit after 738 CE; at Quiriguá, by a long inscription on Stela E of 756 CE describing the capture.

The cause of the Quiriguá rebellion is the subject of a long-standing scholarly debate. The traditional reading, associated with Sylvanus Morley of the Carnegie Institution and with Tatiana Proskouriakoff, was that Quiriguá had grown powerful enough to throw off Copán’s control, and that the capture of 18 Rabbit was a calculated political move. More recent readings, associated with Robert Sharer of the University of Pennsylvania and with David Sedat, suggest that the political situation was more complicated: that Quiriguá’s rebellion may have been supported by Calakmul in a continuation of the great lowland political struggles, and that the capture of 18 Rabbit was a deliberate act of political theater designed to assert Quiriguá’s new status.

The later dynasty and the long decline

The death of 18 Rabbit was a catastrophe for the Copán dynasty. His successor, K’ak’ Joplaj Chan K’awiil (r. 738–749 CE), was apparently installed under Quiriguá influence, and the central precinct of the city was sacked in a war that is recorded in the inscriptions. The dynasty recovered under K’ak’ Yipyaj Chan K’awiil (popularly Smoke Shell, r. c. 749–763 CE), who completed the Hieroglyphic Stairway and dedicated the Rosalila temple. Smoke Shell was the last great king of the dynasty, and the 16 rulers listed on Altar Q end with his image.

The final decades of Copán are documented on a series of late monuments in the central precinct, including the Stela 10 of the Great Plaza, the Temple 11 sub-structure, and the Temple 26 tomb. The last securely dated monument at the site is dedicated in 822 CE, but the actual final abandonment is estimated to have taken place over the following 20 to 30 years. By the early 9th century, the central precinct had been sacked and the elite residences abandoned; by the early 10th century, the site was in the hands of a small remnant population living in makeshift houses in the shadow of the empty temples.

The causes of the decline

The decline of Copán has been a major focus of modern scholarship, and the leading explanations include:

  • Inter-city warfare, especially the war with Quiriguá and the Petexbatun region to the west.
  • Multi-decadal drought, documented in the lake-bed sediments of the region, including the Lake Chichoj sediment record in the Polochic Valley of Guatemala.
  • Political fragmentation, as the dynasty lost its vassal network and was no longer able to extract labor and tribute.
  • Environmental degradation, including soil exhaustion and erosion in the surrounding agricultural zone.

The wider evidence is in causes of the Classic Maya collapse and the history of the Maya civilization pillar.

The later history and the modern era

The site of Copán was not entirely abandoned. The Ch’orti’ Maya continued to live in the Copán Valley in the 9th and 10th centuries, and a small Postclassic Maya community occupied the site in the 14th and 15th centuries. The site was visited by Spanish friars in the 16th century, including the Dominican priest Alonso Ponce, who passed through the Copán region in 1586 and recorded the names of several local Maya lineages. The first modern European visitors to the site were the Guatemalan envoy Juan Galindo in 1834 and the American travelers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood in 1839–1840.

The modern archaeological project at the site has been continuous since 1891, with the work of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington (1935–1942), and the Pennsylvania State University / Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia project (1975–present). The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 1980) and is administered by the Copán Ruinas Archaeological Park and the IHAH.

Sources

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