Ruler 15: K’ahk’ Yipyaj Chan K’awiil

AKA: Smoke Shell, Smoking Squirrel, Smoke Squirrel

Reign: 749 - 761

Preceded by: K’ahk’ Joplaj Chan K’awiil

Succeeded by: Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat

Structures:

The fifteenth king in Yax K’uk’ Mo’s lineage had a very different approach to monument building than his father K’ahk’ Yipyaj Chan K’awiil. Whereas his father performed his only renovation for the statesmen below him, granting them power through recognition, K’ahk Yipyaj Chan K’awiil would resurrect Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil’s more ostentatious and ambitious monumental stylings to attempt to reinvigorate the city and reassert the king’s authority.

His first project was to add an extension onto Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil’s Hieroglyphic Stairway. Completed 9.16.4.1.0 / May 5, 755, the fifteenth king doubled the length of the previous stairway only six years after his accession (Fash 2011, 104; Martin and Grube 2008, 207). This version of the stairway attempts to reclaim the city’s lost honor and assert its strength through its invocation of the ancestors (Fash 1991, 149). Five life sized figures of previous kings - one believed to have been Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil - stand guard in the garb of Teotihuacan warriors (Fash 1991, 145). K’ahk’ Yipyaj Chan K’awiil even went so far as to erect a new temple atop Structure 10L-26 that contained pseudo-glyphs evoking Teotihuacan’s style (Martin and Grube 2008, 208). In this way, the fifteenth king harkens back to their connection to the now legendary city and also rewrites the incident of the thirteenth king’s death by celebrating him as a warrior who fell honorably.

At the base of the stairway, K’ahk’ Yipyaj Chan K’awiil placed his first stela and the first since before Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil’s death, Stela M. Interestingly, this stela was conducted in the wraparound style and had little to no text, yet evoked the intricacy of his predecessor. His next stela, Stela N, would be even more intricate, reviving the double figured approach last seen in the thirteenth king’s Stela C. Some have speculated that this stela served as a legitimization for the fifteenth king’s successor, Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat (Baudez 1994, 86-87).

At the beginning of his reign, no monuments had been erected for the 9.16.0.0.0 k’atun ending (Martin and Grube 2008, 207). While the second Hieroglyphic Stairway was under construction at this point, the fact that such an important period ending was missed was pretty informative of the state of the city at that point. Though the stairway itself was completed and earned Copan the title of having the longest hieroglyphic stairway of any Maya city, the production quality is also telling. The stairway had been constructed with cheap dirt that was considered the weakest out of any Principal Group architecture, and the glyphs themselves were more uniform but less nuanced, considered to have been the work of a journeyman rather than master carver (Fash 1991, 146-149). The city may not have been in a state to produce the same quality of work as in previous years, yet the still fifteenth king created impressive and creative structures and monuments. This philosophy would continue with the next and last ruler of Yax K’uk’ Mo’s lineage, Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat. He is believed to be buried somewhere in 10L-11, in front of which he had erected his final stela, Stela N (Martin and Grube 2008, 208).


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