Pakal

Pakal the Great, political ruler and living god for the ancient Maya Mayan Emperor Pakal the Great was born on March 603, he was ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque in the Late Classic period of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chronology. His full name was K’inich Janaab’ Pakal. During a long reign of approximately 68 years, Pakal was responsible for the construction or extension of some of Palenque’s most notable surviving inscriptions and monumental architecture. Pakal ascended the throne at age 12 in July 615, and lived to the age of 80, dying in August 683. The stairway leading down to Pakal’s tomb, within the main building in the Palenque archeological site (known as The Temple of Inscriptions), was discovered by Mexican archeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier in 1948, but was finally uncovered in 1952. His skeletal remains were still lying in his coffin, wearing a jade mask and bead necklaces. The tomb contained spectacular works of art, some of the most spectacular art yet found in the Maya world. Pakal expanded Palenque’s power in the western part of the Maya states and initiated a building program at his capital that produced some of Maya civilization’s finest art and architecture. When Pakal’s tomb was opened, a huge sculpture of his head made of stucco was found underneath his sarcophagus, resembling the man’s face at age 30. The focus of Maya courtly art was the person of the king, seen as both political ruler and living god. Noble images like this one served to promote his absolute power.