STELA 14
In 758 AD, a young Maya king, K'inich Yo'nal Ahk, was inaugurated at Piedras Negras, capital of a large and powerful kingdom in the lowlands of Guatemala. K'inich Yo'nal Ahk reigned for less than a decade. He is shown at the moment he took power, seated on his throne, which is elevated above his subjects on a scaffold partially covered by a cloth bearing footprints symbolizing the new king’s ascent to rulership. To the left stands his mother, gazing fondly upward at her son. The hieroglyphic text on the left side of the monument records the Maya Long Count date of March 10, 758 AD, followed by a reference to the king’s accession and his new royal name.
Stela 14 provided key evidence for the 1960 breakthrough in understanding Maya history made by Tatiana Proskouriakoff*. Before her work Maya texts were thought to refer to only calendrical cycles, and carved portraits were believed to be gods and priests. Proskouriakoff showed that Stela 14* and similar portraits depicted Maya kings and queens, and the dates in texts referred to their births, accessions, and deaths. From this she identified a dynasty of six kings at Piedras Negras between 603 and 794 AD. This revolutionized studies of Maya politics, and has led to the decipherment of dynastic histories at a dozen or more Maya capitals, including Tikal*, Palenque*, Copan*, Calakmul* and Caracol.
In 758 AD, a young Maya king, K'inich Yo'nal Ahk, was inaugurated at Piedras Negras, capital of a large and powerful kingdom in the lowlands of Guatemala. K'inich Yo'nal Ahk reigned for less than a decade. He is shown at the moment he took power, seated on his throne, which is elevated above his subjects on a scaffold partially covered by a cloth bearing footprints symbolizing the new king’s ascent to rulership. To the left stands his mother, gazing fondly upward at her son. The hieroglyphic text on the left side of the monument records the Maya Long Count date of March 10, 758 AD, followed by a reference to the king’s accession and his new royal name.
Stela 14 provided key evidence for the 1960 breakthrough in understanding Maya history made by Tatiana Proskouriakoff. Before her work Maya texts were thought to refer to only calendrical cycles, and carved portraits were believed to be gods and priests. Proskouriakoff showed that Stela 14 and similar portraits depicted Maya kings and queens, and the dates in texts referred to their births, accessions, and deaths. From this she identified a dynasty of six kings at Piedras Negras between 603 and 794 AD. This revolutionized studies of Maya politics, and has led to the decipherment of dynastic histories at a dozen or more Maya capitals, including Tikal, Palenque, Copan, Calakmul and Caracol.
Stela 14 provided key evidence for the 1960 breakthrough in understanding Maya history made by Tatiana Proskouriakoff. Before her work Maya texts were thought to refer to only calendrical cycles, and carved portraits were believed to be gods and priests. Proskouriakoff showed that Stela 14 and similar portraits depicted Maya kings and queens, and the dates in texts referred to their births, accessions, and deaths. From this she identified a dynasty of six kings at Piedras Negras between 603 and 794 AD. This revolutionized studies of Maya politics, and has led to the decipherment of dynastic histories at a dozen or more Maya capitals, including Tikal, Palenque, Copan, Calakmul and Caracol.
