The Visionary Mayan Queen: Yohl Ik'Nal of Palenque (17 page)

Yohl Ik’nal did not watch her father but kept her eyes closed, building inner concentration. Using the same breath technique she projected her awareness into the realm of the First Sky Lords. The Jeweled Tree captured her attention with its sparkling gems and propelled her along its trunk and branches into the sky realms. But a small part of her awareness resisted, hung back thinking of the sacrificial act. Quivers of fear trembled around her heart. She breathed more deeply, commanding her attention to focus. This inner struggle continued, she knew not how long for she floated in timelessness.

This must be done, echoed the recesses of her mind. This must be done correctly.

From a well of determination she had not known before, there surged a current of incredible strength. Sudden calmness descended and her consciousness exploded into infinity; she was the entire cosmos.

Now! Commanded the inner guide.

She stuck out her tongue, grasped the tip between pieces of bark paper and quickly stabbed the spiny needle upward from the bottom. This needle had a thin thread attached embedded with thorns to sustain blood flow. Through a power beyond her personal self, she did not flinch or alter her calm expression. When the needle penetrated through the tongue, she grasped its tip and slowly pulled it upward until the entire length of thorny thread passed. In some recess of a disconnected brain, pain registered. But the pain seemed small and distant, inconsequential. Her consciousness floated in exquisite realms of starry gems and exalted beings radiating love and peace.

Attendants collected blood as it dripped from her tongue, ruby droplets that trickled onto and slowly saturated the bark papers. They lit the papers and shortly a thin column of smoke curled upward. Kan Bahlam’s papers were already emitting smoke. The two vision-seekers focused upon their smoke columns that undulated and danced in the torchlight, morphing into serpents whose elaborate jaws gaped wide. From within these jaws would emerge messengers bringing predictions for the coming katun.

K’in Ahau, the second born of the B’aakal Triad, the Watery Sun Jaguar who traversed through the underworld at night, appeared in the jaws of Kan Bahlam’s vision serpent. Part of the message dealt with a time of strength and prosperity for Lakam Ha and stability in the B’aakal polity. The other part dealt with death and dynastic succession and was meant for Kan Bahlam alone. In his expanded state he accepted foreknowledge of his own death easily, although later when his human emotions were restored he would feel grief. The exact moment was not revealed, but he was given to understand he must lose no time consolidating his daughter’s position for dynastic inheritance. He realized that the hoof-binding ceremony to formally denote her as successor must be done soon. So would it be.

Unen K’awill, third born of the Triad, appeared in the jaws of Yohl Ik’nal’s vision serpent. The infant deity of royal blood, protector of succession, brought her the personal message of two children to be born of her union with Hun Pakal. The first, a boy, would succeed to rulership but there would be serious problems. The second, a girl, would also become ruler during troubled times but would use extraordinary tactics to handle these difficulties. Her success would lead to a golden age when Lakam Ha reached the apex of power, prestige and creativity. In the coming katun, the polity would prosper although the seeds of strife and disruption were being sown. At the center of this disruptive nucleus she could see the form of a scorpion, scuddering around snapping its claws and thrashing its tail to put stings of poison in the hearts of men.

Thus the katun messages for B’aakal were mixed: peace and prosperity for 20 years while change approached and danger loomed on the distant horizon.

May 16, 1994

Today is the most exciting day of my life! Our archeological team just discovered a royal tomb! Rumors are flying around camp that it’s a woman – a Mayan queen. If it is, this will be the first queen’s burial ever found in the Maya world.

“It’s a woman, it’s a woman.” These words murmured by Fanny Lopez Jimenez after her first look into the sealed chamber hidden inside Temple XIII passed from mouth to mouth among workers, rippled across forests and rivers, soared over mountains, and soon will reach the ears of the world. But much work is necessary before we know what is inside the sarcophagus.

I must place this discovery in context, so it can be fully appreciated. Our team of young archeologists has been working in the ancient Maya site called Palenque since 1992, under the direction of Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz. We are part of several Special Archeology Projects to explore and maintain Mexico’s cultural heritage, created through INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropologia y Historia). During the 1993 field season, we concentrated efforts on the Great Plaza, especially the Palace and Temple of the Inscriptions. This season we are focusing on the string of smaller temples extending westward from the Temple of the Inscriptions: Temple XIII, Temple XII-A and the Temple of the Skull. If the Temple of the Inscriptions, burial monument of Palenque’s most famous ruler Janaab Pakal, were not so overwhelming these other three temples would be impressive in their own right.

Our field seasons are 6 months long, during the relatively dry period in the tropical forests of southern Chiapas. In winter months, the rains are so torrential that ground work is impossible, and scaling crumbling limestone stairs is dangerous. This is the last year of our project, so making this momentous discovery is all the more astonishing.

Let me reconstruct how the discovery happened. When the project began, each archeologist selected the temple, structure or pyramid they wanted to work. Fanny Lopez Jimenez, an archeology assistant, was assigned to Temple XIII because no one else was interested; everyone thought it was completely explored by Jorge Acosta in the 1970s and had no more information to offer. Fanny was happy with her assignment, working diligently to clear weeds from the base of the collapsed stairs and achieve structural stability.

On the morning of April 11, 1994, Fanny made a remarkable observation. While looking at the collapsed stairs of Temple XIII from a distance, she detected something more than the usual debris – a partially covered opening. At 2.8 meters above plaza level she saw a crack, its upper part still sealed by masonry but the lower portion was open about four centimeters where the debris had fallen away. It was a tiny crack, giving just enough space to create a fissure into the structure’s interior. Fanny and her workers did not have lamps at hand, but one had a small mirror that they used to direct sunrays into the crack. Peering in, they saw a narrow passage about 6 meters long. It was completely clear and opened onto another passage at right angle, in which they saw a large sealed door.

It was a substructure inside Temple XIII. An unknown substructure buried inside the surface building that we see next to the Temple of the Inscriptions. In a temple that everyone had written off as fully explored. On this momentous day, a process began that will change our understanding of Palenque.

I’ve been working with the archeological team for two seasons. Our comradeship is very close and we share everything. Fanny immediately ran to let others know, and we gathered quickly in front of Temple XIII. Now with a flashlight, we took turns looking through the crack and marveling at the clear space within the passages. Often when substructures were covered with later construction, the Maya filled halls and chambers with rubble. Fanny got permission from Arnoldo, our project director who was then in Mexico City, to enter into the passage the following day.

To assist the archeologists with heavy excavation and restoration, the project hired local stoneworkers and laborers. Several of these men chipped away debris and removed part of the stone covering the opening. Fanny and her assistant climbed through the opening and felt as if they had entered “a tunnel of time” as she later told us. Their footsteps fell upon the silence of centuries and echoed off slumbering walls that had long heard no sound. Slowly they walked, taking videos and careful not to step on any object or offering. Archeologists learn to take extreme care when exploring sites, to avoid destroying any traces left by ancient people.

The narrow 6 meter passageway led to a long gallery 15 meters in length, built with large limestone blocks and oriented east-west. There were three chambers facing into the gallery; the first and last were empty while the central one was blocked by precisely fitted stonework covered with a coat of stucco that still had traces of black pigment. At either end of the gallery were two sealed doorways. The ceilings of the passageway, gallery and empty chambers were constructed using the Maya corbelled arch, a triangular shaped roof finished with capstones.

In front of the central closed chamber were remnants of charcoal on the floor. This is significant, because it indicates that rituals were performed for whatever this chamber contains. The limestone lintel above the chamber showed that it was once functional before it was sealed off.

When Fanny and her assistant emerged, we bombarded them with questions:

“What is there?” “What did you see?” “Can we go inside?”

In small groups we entered, treading into a forgotten world. The coolness of stone walls, the smooth stucco and damp air, the high corbelled arches drew us into mystery and wonder. This was no ordinary find, but one of the best-preserved galleries in all Palenque. It had never been entered before. Somehow it escaped the digs of prior explorers, archeologists or artifact thieves. What is even stranger is that Jorge Acosta barely missed it during his restoration of the northeast corner of the Temple of the Inscriptions. Alberto Ruz Lhuillier who discovered Pakal’s tomb made test holes in Temple XIII that would have broken into the gallery if he had drilled one meter deeper.

The questions in everyone’s mind were:

“What lies inside the sealed chamber?” “Could the gallery and its passageways be connections between Temple XIII and the Temple of the Inscriptions?”

When Arnoldo returned and entered the passageway, he was astonished. Here was a temple, he declared, buried as a substructure and totally unknown. A week later, after intense work to consolidate and free the entrance, he decided to make a probe into the sealed chamber to see if it was empty or not. Although no one spoke it, we all suspected there was a tomb inside. He called for a minute of silence to ask “permission” of who or whatever was inside, that they would know we were only doing our work with the greatest respect for Mayan culture.

An experienced excavator made a 15 x 15 cm cut above the sealed door with his chisel. As it penetrated through the wall, he exclaimed as a burst of cold air hit his face.

“The space is hollow! Bring a lamp.”

Arnoldo extended the long-neck lamp through the hole and gradually details of the interior were illuminated. Fanny was standing at his shoulder.

“What do you see? Tell me, what do you see?” Fanny could not contain her eagerness.

“I see . . I see. . “

“Tell me, what do you see?”

“I see . . better you should look, because we hit it! We hit it!” Arnoldo stepped aside, shouting “A tomb!”

When Fanny looked inside, she began crying:

“It’s a sarcophagus! A sarcophagus! Arnoldo, it’s a sarcophagus!”

Shivers ran up my spine and all the team hovering around the opening stood in stunned silence. As the shouts continued from inside the structure, workers nearby dropped their picks and shovels and ran toward the opening. Arnoldo emerged and told them:

“Enter and see what is also yours. Pass and see because it is yours!”

In small groups archeologists and workers entered to marvel at the sight inside the sealed chamber: A sarcophagus carved in one single piece and painted red with cinnabar, a mercuric mineral used in burials. On top was a monolithic limestone slab. Standing in the center of the slab was a lidded censer, and at its foot lay a small bone spindle whorl. Ceramic vases and bones surrounded the sarcophagus. The chamber was perfectly vaulted and beyond the sarcophagus was the main entry door with five steps leading up to it.

A crowd gathered at the base of the temple. Curious tourists began applauding. Even though they did not know what was happening, they felt that something important had been discovered. Arnoldo looked at his watch and imprinted the time in his mind:

12:30 pm on the 16
^th
of May, 1994.

He took out his radio phone and called for the presence of all members of the archeological team, including laborers and stoneworkers, at Temple XIII.

“Come because we have something to show you! Come immediately!”

Inside the gallery, I heard Fanny murmuring to herself:

“It’s a woman, it’s a woman.”

May 30 – June 1, 1994

I’m thrilled to be part of the team working on Temple XIII. Due to the importance of the royal tomb, I was re-assigned to assist cataloging its contents, cleaning and restoring artifacts. I am fortunate, few doctoral students in restoration are considered skilled enough to work on such fragile treasures. All the hard work learning these exacting techniques was worth it!

It took over two weeks to carry out strategies for entering the funerary chamber in the Temple XIII substructure. The small perforation made on the north wall showed that the main entrance into the tomb was from the south. We thought that the sealed doorways at the ends of the gallery might lead to an access gallery, and possibly open onto connections with the Temple of the Inscriptions. After 15 days of exploration, the excavators found that the doorways led to inner, ascending stairways that originally gave access to a structure above, corresponding to the last stage of construction that we see now as Temple XIII. From the exterior they next made test pits 8 meters deep to see if these stairways gave access to the tomb, with negative results. Danger of collapse from working these areas led to the decision to enter the tomb through its north wall.

In royal burials, the head is pointed toward the north. Thus the north wall of a tomb might be decorated with murals, such as those found in Pakal’s tomb. This discovery in 1952 by Alberto Ruz Lhuillier exploded onto the Maya scene: a royal tomb deep inside an impressive pyramid. Construction was initiated by Pakal and finished by his oldest son, with a huge sarcophagus decorated on all sides by carvings of his ancestors and a fantastic lid carved with the young Pakal ascending from the mouth of the Underworld Monster. Pakal is attired as the Young Maize God rising up the trunk of the World Tree – Wakah Chan Te; it is a depiction of his resurrection as the life-giving sustainer of his people and their world. The burial chamber walls were painted with exquisite murals and Pakal’s body was adorned with jade and jewelry beyond imagining, including a jade mask. Ceramics, flints, shells, amber, and obsidian offerings in abundance as well as several sacrificial bodies were in place to accompany their ruler through his Underworld journey.

The riches in the tomb of Pakal have been compared with those of King Tutankhamun of Egypt. It is the richest, most luxurious burial yet found among the Mayas of Mesoamerica. Before Ruz made this discovery, archeologists doubted that Mayas buried their royalty in a sarcophagus within a dedicated temple, as did the Egyptians. Pakal’s tomb proved that, at least on occasion, such extravagant burials did take place. Now we have the second sarcophagus found in the Maya world – and both at Palenque.

If Fanny’s intuition holds true, this second royal burial might be a woman. Finding the spindle whorl on the lid adds strength to her belief, because these were used by noble women who excelled in the art of weaving.

After determining that there were no murals on the north wall of the chamber, the workers enlarged the small perforation to allow entrance. From the characteristics and location of the tomb, it was obvious that we were dealing with a person of highest rank in Maya society during the Classic Period. Located in the Great Plaza next to the Temple of the Inscriptions, the burial was without doubt a member of the ruling class. Perhaps the burial was of Yohl Ik’nal, grandmother of Pakal, Sak K’uk, mother of Pakal, or Tz’aakb’u Ahau, his wife – if it was a woman.

After entering the tomb, we began the work of describing, classifying, restoring and preparing the contents of the chamber for storage. The sarcophagus measured 3.8 by 2.5 meters, the lid was 10 cm thick and 2.8 meters wide by 1.18 meters long. In contrast to Pakal’s sarcophagus, there were no carvings. Two sacrificial persons were present, their skeletons badly deteriorated. One was a female about 30-35 years old, the other an adolescent boy about 11 years old. His head showed the typical elite cranial deformation. Her teeth were encrusted with jade, indicating she was a noble. The chamber measured 3.8 by 2.5 meters, with smooth undecorated stucco walls.

From the ceramics, we dated the burial between 600 – 700 CE. But without glyphs, we still wondered who was inside the sarcophagus. In a niche in one of the chamber walls were three figurines in the form of whistles. One had a woman’s shape, the others were fractured to show that they had no further utility in earthly life. Another clue?

Each artifact was located spatially within the chamber, catalogued, cleaned and placed in plastic bags to carry them to the laboratory installed in a nearby cabin. Initial analysis was done on site, then the artifacts were sent to Mexico City for further study. The sarcophagus walls and lid were encrusted with dirt, snail fossils, mineralized stalactites, stone dust, and carbon deposits and needed careful cleaning. Using brushes and scalpels, we removed these testimonies of the past and bagged them for analysis. All this work was done inside a buried chamber whose temperature reached 40 C, causing our hearts to beat forcefully and rapidly. Everyone was drenched in sweat.

Arnoldo noticed something in the center of the lid, pointing with his scalpel. He found a small orifice that he thought could be a psychoduct. The ancient Mayas created these small openings or tubes so the entombed person could communicate with the external world. In Pakal’s tomb, a square tube psychoduct ascended from the sarcophagus like a snake up a long stairway to the floor atop the temple.

Putting on a mask, Arnoldo opened the orifice. Immediately cinnabar, the mercurial element giving red color to the sarcophagus, began to escape through the opening as mercury sulfide gas. Everyone quickly put on masks to protect against the toxic gasses. The eyes of some began tearing and others felt nauseated. Arnoldo ordered everyone to go outside immediately. Work for the day was finished.

Nobody talked of anything else in the camp at Palenque. Everyone was preparing for opening the sarcophagus. Many lingered after dinner near Temple XIII as the sun set, knowing their work would resume at nine the next morning. Leading functionaries in government and national culture would arrive the following day, flying from Mexico City and expecting that the archeologists would wait for them to raise the lid. But they did not take into account the charge of adrenalin coursing through our bodies.

Fanny advised us to stay close by.

“Don’t think about moving away from here, surely Arnoldo is not going to wait and will open it as soon as he can.”

The morning of May 31
^st
Arnoldo visited the funerary chamber to re-visualize his strategy for raising the lid of the sarcophagus. He had decided to use the technique that Ruz Lhuillier applied successfully in Pakal’s tomb. A workshop was set up in the plaza for carpentry and other tools necessary for operating the hydraulic lift that would raise the lid. He calculated how many people could work inside the chamber to provide enough assistance to prevent the lid from breaking.

The work inside the tomb began. Hours passed, the temperature rose but there was no movement of the lid. The carpentry workshop functioned at full throttle; metal tubes, wedges and cables entered and left the chamber according to Arnoldo’s instructions. Finally after 16 hours, the frame connected to the hydraulic lift was raised four centimeters – at 3:00 in the morning. By 4:00 am, the intense silence and nerve-wracking anticipation was broken when joking began among the workers. This humor alleviated the fatigue from hours of work and waiting. The system was functioning. They knew the moment of revelation and danger had arrived; the enormous lid was moving and soon they would see what lay inside.

Outside, the night before June 1, 1994 was long and hot. Few could sleep, including the wildlife in jungles and mountains surrounding Palenque. Howler monkeys roared as never before, their eerie chorus echoing from crest to crest. Brilliant fireflies twinkled in dense darkness while millions of insects chirped and clacked. During the night the god Chaak celebrated with a brief but intense downpour of rain. All was in readiness for one of the most important discoveries in the history of Mexican archeology, the revelation of who had waited 1300 years in the tomb of Temple XIII.

As the lid slowly lifted, a strong odor of cinnabar emanated from the sarcophagus. Everyone put on masks. Cries of “Courage! Courage!” came from those in the passageways and lining the stairs of the temple. Most of the camp was present, our young team – average age 25 to 30 years – too eager to sleep. By 6:10 am, the lid had lifted about 20 centimeters and our photographers could insert cameras that sent pictures to a monitor so we could watch the discovery unfold. At 8:00 am the final cylinders were in position and the huge lid slipped off, little by little. Ten minutes later, as profound silence descended, Arnoldo said “Ready!” and the lid slid to the bottom, allowing all in the chamber to see into the sarcophagus.

In shades of red cinnabar and green jade, a skeleton lay on its back with head to the north. On the skull was a diadem of flat, round jade beads and hundreds of bright green fragments framed the cranium. More jade, pearls, shells and bone needles both covered and surrounded the skeleton. These probably formed necklaces, ear spools and wristlets that adorned the entombed body. On the chest were many flat jade beads and four obsidian blades. In the pelvis area were three small limestone axes which most likely were part of a belt.

The bones were completely permeated with cinnabar, and the interior sarcophagus walls coated with the red mercuric preservative. Red, color of the sun, of fire, of the east where all things begin. Green, color of jade, sacred symbol of life, water, immortality.

Arnoldo and Fanny stared in awed silence. As word spread that the sarcophagus contained a complete skeleton richly adorned with jewels and precious offerings, applause broke out. Our intense emotions were expressed in smiles and hugs, as we passed in and out of the chamber taking our turn to view. Fanny had tears in her eyes – and so did I.