Five Leaders of the Classic Maya World
If you're new to Maya history, these five folks are the ones to know
If you’re not familiar with Maya history, diving in can be difficult. Let’s look at five important people in the ancient Maya world to get you acquainted with the folks in the big leagues.
Most of these people were what the ancient Maya called an ajaw. We sometimes translate this as ‘king,’ but that's not accurate. It’s difficult to translate ancient political concepts with any kind of accuracy. I prefer ‘ruler’ because it’s less charged than ‘king.’
An ajaw ruled over a major city and its surrounding areas. Thanks to recent lidar discoveries, we know there were hundreds, if not thousands, of ancient Maya cities, so there were a lot of these guys. But sometimes they managed to gain quite a bit of influence. Throughout the Classic Era of Maya history (250 - 900 CE), a lot of important leaders—and some folks who weren’t important but pretended to be—memorialized themselves in stone, and each has a unique and often dynamic story.
But if you remember these five people, you’ll have a good understanding of the famous faces of the Classic Maya world.
Sihyaj K’ahk’
One of the few folks on this list to not be a ruler, this general may have been an outsider to the Maya world. Wherever he was from, he shook some things up. All the folks on this list came after him, and they were all influenced by the political system he helped build.
Sihyaj K’ahk’ may have been from the massive city of Teotihuacan to the north of the Maya territory. Or Teotihuacan may have sponsored and influenced him. (Inscriptions make him seem like an outsider, but studies of the bones at Tikal where he was buried don’t show anyone from that far north.)
Either way, he waged war against Tikal, one of the most powerful Maya cities at the time. First he brought down their allies; then he brought down the ruler of Tikal himself.
While Maya inscriptions tend to be curt, sometimes history’s mysteries aren’t all that mysterious. For example, we know when Sihyaj K’ahk’ arrived in Tikal: January 14, 378 CE. We also know when the previous ruler at Tikal died: January 14, 378 CE. Inscriptions don't say he was killed by Sihyaj K’ahk’, but it’s not a stretch to guess they weren’t besties.
Pakal the Great
The discovery of Pakal the Great’s tomb was the King Tut moment of the Maya world. Alberto Ruz Lhuillier found the tomb after months of digging straight down into a pyramid with no certainty he'd find anything. But what he found was a lavish burial full of wonders, like with King Tut.
As cool as treasure is, the most important thing to come out of King Tut’s tomb was a new understanding of ancient Egypt. Pakal’s tomb was the same way for the ancient Maya. For example, Pakal’s famous sarcophagus lid is a masterpiece of stone carving. (I’ll do a deep dive on it in August, spoiler: it’s not a spaceship.) Once scholars deciphered the glyphs on it, they found a chain of rulers of Palenque stretching back hundreds of years.
Pakal’s mom played a prominent role in Palenque history. She wasn't a ruler, but she was a young princess turned revolutionary leader who helped overthrow the previous king. Her son entered office at just 12 years old, and she watched him grow into an intelligent, artistic young man. He made Palenque famous for its architecture; even today the majority of the ruin’s most majestic buildings come from his rule.
Lady Six Sky
One of the most dynamic and also frightening figures in the ancient world, Lady Six Sky may have led troops into battle as a teenager. If she didn’t, she certainly presented herself as though she did. She was obsessed with the war against the city of Tikal started by her father, and scribes wrote of her victories years after they happened.
But she was also an important patron of the arts who helped lead a blossoming of ceramic arts in the city. Some of the best vases in the Maya world came out of her administration or the one after her. And she was a competent astronomer.
While women rarely served as full supreme leaders, Lady Six Sky rarely mentions her husband, who was not given the title ‘ajaw.’ She may have been a queen regent for her son, but she sure seems to have been large and in charge, as you’ll see when I publish July’s deep dive on her.
The jury’s still out on how to read Lady Six Sky’s ancient name. It was probably Ix Wak Chanjalam Ajaw Lem, which is quite a mouthful. (By the way, the ‘x’ is an /sh/ sound.) That might mean something like “the lady who weaves the shimmering Six Sky."
Maybe she chose that name because of its connection to astronomy. During her rule at Naranjo, she changed the way the entire Maya world counted moon cycles.
Ix K’abal Xook
Although she lacked the political power of Lady Six Sky, K’abal Xook was pretty tough in her own right. Her husband was the ruler of Yaxchilan, a city on an important trade route. They’d grown quite rich over the last few generations.
Yaxchilan’s claim to fame today are its lintels, fabulous stonework on top of entrances to temples. And of its lintels, the ones with Ix K’abal Xook are the most famous. (I’ll mention these in the June art deep dive, but I’ll be focusing on a different piece from Yaxchilan.)
On the lintels, Ix K’abal Xook performs an intense ritual to conjure the spirit of an ancestor to seek advice. In one, she draws a rope through her tongue to collect blood in a bowl full of strips of paper. On another, she burns the paper as the face of an ancestor emerges from serpent-like curls of smoke.
These lintels teach archaeologists a ton about ancient Maya culture. They’re also artistic masterpieces, right down to the incredible detail on her huipil, or hand-brocaded dress.
There is no record of Ix K’abal Xook’s children at Yaxchilan. But there is evidence that her husband had a child with a different wife, who then became ruler. That said, there’s a good chance she did have a child who briefly served as ruler before his own half-brother killed him. I’ll talk more about him in June’s politics deep dive.
Yukno’m Ch’e’n II
I’ve already mentioned that there were many, many Maya cities, but some were more powerful than others. The two most powerful during most of the Classic Era were Tikal and Calakmul. As ruler of Calakmul, Yukno’m Ch’e’n, aka Yukno’m the Great, was one of the most powerful leaders of one of the most powerful Maya cities. That said, it’s possible many of his accomplishments were the work of his son, since Yukno’m was in his 80s for them.
Actually, Yukno’m’s kids are one of the most interesting things about him. Especially important to understanding the Classic Maya is his habit of arranging marriages between subordinate rulers and his daughters. This might seem like a not-great situation for the daughters. But they held a surprising amount of power, sometimes more than their local husband. They served as direct voices for the rulership in Calakmul.
But I’ll talk more about that in December.
Toward the end of the Classic Era, pretty much everyone in the Maya area had to pick a side in the war between Calakmul and Tikal. The fortunes of a thousand cities rose and fell based on the successes and failures at Tikal and Calakmul.
In fact, one theory about the collapse of Maya civilization was that the war between Tikal and Calakmul became too costly for everyone. Decades after Yukno’m’s death, Tikal finally defeated Calakmul. But instead of consolidating power, they fell apart, leaving a vacuum which no other cities managed to fill.
But of course, the Maya people lived on! And they still do live in southern Mexico and northern Central America. But rulers like these ones never managed to regain the prestige they’d held in the past.