Copan: Day 12

Hey guys! You're going to hate me, but I didn't get to take any pictures today of the excavations. I was planning on it, and before I knew it we got the warning sign that rain was coming and had to get out of there. I will take pictures first thing tomorrow to avoid that crisis again. Sorry!

Today was an exciting day, though. We were visited by a snake after lunch. It was trying to slither up a tarp to no avail, poor thing. He finally found his way off of it and raced away. I'm not sure if it was venomous or not (black body with yellow stripes following the length of his body), but we decided not to try and find out.

Some workers at Structure 12 also found the fragments of a human skull today (we are excavating at Structure 4, for reference). The TF and resident human bone expert Molly started cleaning the bones in the lab later today. Apparently, the skull only has baby teeth and unerupted molars, which means this person was likely younger than six years when s/he died.

Have I told you about the water situation here? I haven't?! Well, in a very confusing irony, the town of Copan Ruinas has less water in its reserves during the rainy season (which is now). This year has been unusually rainy, so there is currently a water shortage in the area. I'm not quite sure why this is, but whatever work that is done during the day in order to fix the problem gets washed away with the rainstorms. Anyway, for the past half week we have not had running water at the hotel. No washing your hands, no flushing the toilet, no taking a shower. Don Udo has been kind enough to turn on the water at night for a couple hours when rainwater gathers in the cisterns, but a few nights this week we have not had that luxury. There has been a lot of yellow mellowing, if you know what I mean. We are all smelly archaeologists over here.

I digress. Today: pictures of Altar Q! Altar Q was dedicated by Ruler 16 (Yax Pasaj), the last ruler of Copan. It depicts all 16 rulers in order on its four sides, while telling the story of the Founder (Yax K'uk' Mo) on its top. I may have talked about it a little in previous posts. This is the front of the altar:

It may be hard to see, but there are four figures. The two on the left face right, and the two on the right face left. The second from the left is the Founder, sitting on a glyph that reads ajaw or "lord." He is holding a lighted torch, and seemingly passing it to the figure third from the left, the 16th ruler Yax Pasaj. It represents a dynasty coming full circle, legitimizing the rule of Yax Pasaj. The leftmost figure is Ruler 2, thought to be the Founder's son, and the rightmost figure is Ruler 15.

Below you can see, from right to left, Ruler 3, Ruler 4, Ruler 5, and Ruler 6. Relatively little is known about these rulers, and we are lucky to have visual representations of them on this altar as well as their name glyphs (on which each ruler is sitting).

Below, from right to left, are Ruler 7, Ruler 8, Ruler 9, and Ruler 10. Ruler 7 is the only ruler to number himself in the line of the Founder. On another inscribed monument (which one I can't remember), Ruler 7 says he is 7th in the line of Yax K'uk' Mo. The fact that he is in the 7th position on Altar Q is very reassuring. We also know that Ruler 7 was the father of Ruler 10. The relations of Rulers 8 and 9 are unknown. The interesting thing is that while Ruler 7 had a relatively long reign, Rulers 8 and 9 only last about 10 to 15 years each. My guess is that Rulers 8 and 9 are the younger brothers of Ruler 7, already old when they came to power.

Below, from right to left, are Ruler 11, Ruler 12, Ruler 13, and Ruler 14. As I talked about before, Ruler 12 was the longest reigning Copan king. Instead of sitting on his name glyph, he sits on 5 Katuns, symbolizing his advanced age (between about 80 and 100 years) when he died. Ruler 13, his successor, is the notable "18 Rabbit." His name, we know now, is actually "18 are the Images of K'awiil." K'awiil is the lightning god, I believe, so the name is a cool way of describing a bolt of lightning forked into 18 different paths. 18 Rabbit (I know, not his real name, but it's easier to type) was actually captured by Copan's vassal city Quirigua and beheaded. It was a shocking reversal of power that silenced Copan for 17 years.

I might mention that this isn't the original Altar Q, but a cast that sits where the real Altar Q once stood. The real thing is in the Sculpture Museum nearby.

More tomorrow--with excavation pictures! Much love.