October 11, 2002
Palenque Temple XXI details

Below you can find a detailed description of the find at Temple XXI in Palenque. Some details not confirmed in this report may be clearer by now. I've received some photos, with instructions not to publish them yet. But soon...

On Aug 27th, our excavators stumbled on a bench or throne with inscriptions in the south east gallery. The bench spans the 3 meter gallery joining a medial pier with the south wall and the glyphs grace the front edge of the slab. This slab which measures aprox 3 meters by 1.70 m. shows signs of breakage and stacking of the fragments on the south side ( possibly precolumbian looting). The rubble from the roof that collapsed onto it caused further damage.

Directly in front of it we found a beautiful tablet measuring almost 3 meters by 55 cm. This tablet was damaged the most on the left hand side by an immense vault stone that landed on it shattering and hurling pieces of it as far as three meters. Despite the damage we have been able to recover so far at least 90%. Framing the tablet is a text similar to the XIX tablet on the south side of the throne. We are still piecing together the first part of the text, but the right hand side is intact except for a couple of glyphs. The part that we are able to read now has a lot of similar info as the south side of XIX and mentions the same katun ending ceremonies. Also a mention of Akal Mo Nab.

The Image begins on both the right hand and lefthand with two rodent like looking were-jaguars in the capes of a jaguar skin whose head drags down behind like a tail. Their hands and feet are those of jaguars and they extend a bouquet or bunch of feathers and tassles toward three other more human looking fellows in royal dress and headress that kneel before him.

Facing the Jaguar figures are two figures in feather capes (possibly the same capes are the feather bunches that the jaguars hold out ). These hane been identified as Akal Mo Nab on the left and U Pakal Kinich (the son) on the right. We have not been able to verify the right hand figure but the cartouch on the left hand does coincide with Akal Mo Nab name glyphs they are both identified as ahau of Bac.

The third figure is the central one, and without a doubt the most important. He holds in his right hand the personified bloodletter and seems to hand it toward an unreceptive Akal Mo Nab ( it is strange that both the other figures turn away from him , Perhaps the answer is in the depth of field as these two figures´ knees hide behind the throne backing they are clearly behind the central figure. He may be handing the object to someone else outside of the picture).

The lid cartouch is a little more confusing here as it begins with a glyph that seems to represent the impersonation of someone. Some people here call it a number tree glyph and there is an example of it also in the XIX throne tablet where it talks of Akal Mo Nab impersonating Itzam Na. In this case the person being impersonated is combination of a new head variant glyph with a crest like a quetzal that has "Casper" glyph or something that looks a lot like it in its mouth, followed by the familiar U Kix Chan ( the Mythological Founder of Palenque) and then the phrase 5 Katun Ahau with a Vulture glyph variant that has a curiously penis-like shape to his head, complete with a laceration. The cartouch according to Bernal continues on the right hand side to finally clarify that this mystery figure is none other that Kinich Ha´nab Pakal or Pakal the great.

Posted by Dave at October 11, 2002 01:54 PM