Student

The ancient city of Palenque, now located in present day Chiapas, Mexico is one of the best examples of the Maya culture. As it became a major player western Maya civilization it grew and saw its high point in the 7th and 8th century. The Mayans and their culture can be best approximated to the Gregorian calendar because of its numerical system and accurate data provided in the hieroglyphics. The Maya had the most complex writing system containing a series of complex hieroglyphics. These glyphs were deciphered almost completely around the 1950’s and 60’s. The Maya glyphs on various temples and tombs and palaces were found to be a historical record instead of being dedicated to myths and the beliefs unlike other ancient civilizations, like the Egyptian who also used hieroglyphics as their form of writing although they did depict their religious beliefs. Various time periods and the history of previously unexplainable structures now had a purpose. The ruins of Palenque could now be analyzed in more detail and with better accuracy than ever before thanks to the efforts of archeologist, linguists and experts on symbols who worked together to decipher the giant amount of complex glyphs.

The Temple Of The Inscriptions is located just northwest of the Palace. It is primarily made of pillars, base stones, engraved stones. It was the first Maya Pyramid with a tomb inside. It contains a crypt that is decorated with stucco figures all around. The sarcophagus within the crypt is decorated with a monumental carved stone that measures 12 feet by 17 feet and weighs around 7 or 8 tons, this stone served as the lid of the sarcophagus. This lid would not have been able to fit through the narrow hallway so we know that the pyramid was basically built around the tomb. The sides of the sarcophagus are also decorated in stone. There are various items that are made of Jade stone including a mask which was the burial mask of the famous ruler, Pacal, who had the tomb built for himself and had his son finish it after he died. The temple has 9 levels of steps and on the top of this base the entrance to the temple is situated there. A road comes from the aqueduct directly to the few small steps of the temple that lead to the main steps. The Temple has rectangular proportions and is rectangular in shape. It used several carved limestone reliefs and stood at 75ft tall.

Structures like the Temple of Inscriptions were used by the theocracy for religious uses, festivals and as a function of the government for civil uses. The rooms in the temple were very few due to the temple’s crowned shape and the base of the pyramid. According to Thompson the architecture of the pyramid served to impress the masses and to accentuate the importance of the decrees made from there (4-12). According to Westheim the intricateness of the outside was a trade off to the limited space caused by the corbel arches resulting in limited corridor space of less than two meters wide and never more then 3 meters.(9)

The Mayans that inhabited Palenque were influenced by the inhabitants of southern Mйxico in De La Fuentes observation (32). According to Stokstad Rulers were more celebrated then the deities (414). So their wishes would be highly respected, often they had to establish their kinship to other rulers (De La Fuente. 34). Characteristically they used their facial features to link them to other rulers. Those at the top of the social ladder were the subjects of most of the Maya sculptures. It was created to hold the ruler Pacal to be his tomb. The number of steps that make up the tomb represent the number of years that he ruled which was 68, from 613 to 683, he ascended the throne at age 12 and died at age 80. The temple was build around 683 CE according to carbon dating and the similarity of artifacts to other known artifacts with known approximate dates (De La Fuente. 59). The inhabitants of Palenque respected the dead allowing them to choose where they wanted to make their way into the afterlife. They created various different tombs and some temples also hold the dead. In various buildings the basements are also used as tombs (De La Fuente. 64). The most elaborate tomb was the temple of Inscriptions. They believed that the two worlds of life and death were interconnected (De La Fuente 39). Pacal’s tomb reflects this in the fact that his sarcophagus lid portrays him at his exact time of death but rising with his knee’s bent as if he is lifting himself from the ground. The Tomb served as a historical record according to Thomas Cyrus. The majority of the glyphs refer to historical and astral positions to give it a date. So a ruler as accomplished as Pacal would want to have his reign recorded in some sort of permanent form to celebrate his role in establishing Palenque as a major player in the Mayan culture.

The iconography within the pyramid shows Pacal’s relatives and kin on the wall overlooking his grave. This