Motmot Marker

Location: In Front of Motmot Structure, 10L-26

Dates: 9.0.0.0.0 8 Ajaw 14 K’ej / December 9, 435 CE

Rulers: 1 and 2

Facsimile of the Motmot Marker
Photograph (Edited) Courtesy of Dr. Clark Erickson.

The Motmot Marker is a particularly unique Copan monument. It serves as a gravestone sealing the circular crypt in front of the Motmot Structure, a renovation of Structure 10L-26 built by Popol Hol. The marker is both the only Copan monument found to be carved from limestone instead of volcanic tuff and the oldest monument found in place and intact (Fash 2011 79). The carving also has some of the lowest-relief carving found in Copan, which along with its rectangular glyphs fits the Early Classic style (Fash 2004, 257). Uncommon for the Early Classic style however was the figural element of the carving. Figure carvings would not reappear on stelae for roughly a century (Fash 2004, 255).

The marker depicts Yax K’uk Mo’ and Popol Hol facing each other with each holding serpent bars. The kings are separated by two columns of glyphs meant to be read left column then right column (Fash, Fash, Davis-Salazer 2004, 73). The kings’ names can be found in their headdress, which Altar Q would later incorporate along with the mirrored profile layout (Fash 2011, 81). The two kings sit on glyphs referencing mythical locations 7 K’an and 9 Imix, which, along with the quatrefoil border, invokes the supernatural and their connection to it as royalty (Fash 2011, 78; Martin and Grube 2008, 194). The text itself celebrates the ending of the bak’tun (9.0.0.0.0) on December 9, 435, a truly auspicious occasion witnessed by both kings. David Stuart suggested that the two men were ruling as co-regents at the time (2004, 72). This reference to their supernatural connection would certainly celebrate their authority.

Fascinatingly, this carving is one of the few depictions of Yax K’uk Mo’ in Lowland Maya garb without the Tlaloc goggles evocative of Teotihuacan (Fash 2011, 81). The crypt itself would be found in the Yax portion of 10L-26, with the marker being added seven years after the bak’tun ending (Fash, Fash, Davis-Salazar 2004, 68 - 69). The circular crypt was a common tradition in Teotihuacan (Fash 2011, 81). See the early ballcourts for more examples of the circular marker. The two kings facing each other in profile was a popular Preclassic style in both the Maya Highlands and Lowlands (Fash 2004 259). The Motmot Structure itself evoked the Peten apron-molding style of stonework (Fash, Fash, Davis-Salazar 2004, 74). The Marker and the Motmot structure itself seems to signal a balance between Teotihuacan to Lowland Maya tradition befitting Yax K’uk’ Mo’s origins.

The chamber itself contains the remains of a woman in her mid twenties who is believed to have been a day keeper, or shaman. She was buried with a puma serving as her way or spirit companion. As long as seven years after her death, her remains were ritually burned. Funerary offerings then laid in the tomb include a sacrificed deer, three human heads, ceramics, jade, shell, seeds, deer antlers, mercury, feathers, and a representation of a crocodile pelt (Fash, Fash, and Davis-Salazar 2004, 68-70; Fash 2011, 80). The jade pieces were placed in the cardinal directions, and three stones in the center for the hearthstones (Fash 2011, 80). The crypt was then sealed off with the Marker, which would detail the deer offering and the “smoke entering” from the ritual burning (Fash, Fash, Davis-Salazar 2004, 74). The text also mentions “4 Macaw” and “4 Chan [Sky]”, which may refer to the Ballcourt with its four stone macaws and the Motmot Structure with its four sky bands respectively (Fash 2011, 78). With this information, the marker was assumedly created to consecrate the Motmot Structure, the Ballcourt, and neighboring Structures 10L-7 and 10L-11 on the bak’tun ending (Fash, Fash, and Davis-Salazar 2004, 74).

The bak’tun ending would be a defining moment for this lineage in Copan and Structure 10L-26 in particular. After Popol Hol built the Papagayo Structure over the Motmot Structure, he erected Stela 63 to commemorate his and his father’s presence during this occasion. The seventh king Bahlam Nehn would later reference the bak’tun ending in Stela 15’s text. This stela would remain visible until the thirteenth ruler Waxaklajuun Ubaah K’awiil’s reign, when he would build over the Motmot Structure. Even then, he erected Stela J at the base of the new structure to commemorate the bak’tun ending (Fash, Fash, and Davis-Salazar 2004, 78). At the end of the dynasty, Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat the sixteenth king would reference the event on top of Altar Q (Fash 1991, 83). Only Yax K’uk’ Mo’ would be referenced in the later depictions of the bak’tun ending, solidifying Popol Hol’s efforts to begin his father’s ancestor cult.

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