Stela P

Location: In front of Structure 10L-16

Dates: 9.9.10.0.0 2 Ajaw 13 Pop / March 21, 623 CE

Rulers: 11, 1

Measurements: 10.5 feet x 2.13 x 1.73 feet feet at base, 10.5 feet x 2.85 feet x 1.73 feet at top, cribbing 0.98 feet tall

Photo Courtesy of Dr. Clark Erickson

Butz’ Chan erected his second stela ten years after Stela 7 to celebrate tha lahuntun or ten year period (Fash 2011, 55). Like its predecessor, Stela P is a Type IV stela with text on three sides and a figure on the fourth and featured the Paddler Gods emerging from the serpent bar (Fash 2004, 259; Fash 2011, 55). Unlike its predecessor, which was constructed in high relief and in the village, Stela P was constructed in low relief and was found in front of Structure 10L-16 (Fash 2011, 55; Baudez 1994, 92). While some debate exists as to whether the stela was originally erected here, it would have been positioned in front of the Rosalila Temple and even featured a similar style (Fasquelle 2004, 102).

The stela itself was erected on a prismatic chamber containing various works of dishes and pottery including incensarios with cacao (kakaw) pod embellishments said to be in better condition than the caches beneath Stelae M and N during the fifteenth king K’ahk’ Yipyaj Chan K’awiil’s reign (Baudez 1994, 94). The cacao embellishments particularly evoke sacrality given cacao’s involvement in the Maize God’s resurrection as well as the defeat of Underworld God L by the Hero Twins (Stone and Zender 2011, 219).

Butz’ Chan appears once again on the west side of the stela and against a jaguar pelt background. He wears a helmet with serpent and/or crocodilian elements as well as a bird headdress (Baudez 1994, 94; Fash 2011, 56). He also wears a jaguar skirt and loincloth, jade pendants, a skeletal chin mask, youth masks, wristlets with snake heads and quincunxes, and circular shields. Serpents - possibly feathered serpents - surround his legs, and a water-lily shaped skull appears at the top of the stela (Baudez 1994, 94). Serpents and braids and tassels are fairly common on this stela, and the braided or entwined serpent does also appear.

This stela deliberately evokes the archaic Early Classic style (Fash 2004, 256). Its low relief certainly harkens back to the earlier style as well as the serpent meeting the quincunx on the wristlet (Baudez 1994, 247).

Furthermore, the stela, being placed in front of the Rosalila Temple dedicated to Yax K’uk’ Mo’ would naturally provide associations with the Founder. The feathered serpents, though common in Maya depictions, was derived from Teotihuacan imagery and may have been a reference to Yax K’uk’ Mo’s association with the city (Stone and Zender 2011, 201). The serpents also represent Cosmic Monsters and therefore Butz’ Chan’s connection with the supernatural (Baudez 1994, 95).

The bird headdress is also stylistically similar to the Sun God imagery in the Rosalila Temple (Fash 2011, 56). Given that much of the Sun God imagery in the Temple evoked Yax K’uk’ Mo’ as well, Butz’ Chan is literally putting on the image of the Founder with both the headdress and the Early Classic imagery. As was common in Copan monuments, the eleventh ruler does list himself as a successor to Yax K’uk’ Mo’ in the text (Schele and Stuart 1986, 49).

Baudez interprets this stela as Butz’ Chan claiming the Earth Monster as his patron (1994, 95). Whereas the jaguar in Stela 7 focused on the sacrifice and warfare aspect of the Paddler God duality, this stela focuses more on the fertility and abundance aspects, although the jaguar elements are still present in this stela. The crocodile aspects of the helmet would confirm the Earth Monster theory, as the Maya like the Aztecs believed that the earth was a crocodile. The incorporation of the crocodile in association with the ruler, particularly on the vertical axis as the helmet implies, would assert the ruler’s importance and control in the cosmic order. In the vertical alignment, the crocodile becomes an axis of the world (Stone and Zender 2011, 183).

The Paddler Gods like in Stela 7 evoke the dualities of day and night and life and death as well as Butz’ Chan’s connection to the divine. The connection to the divine is particularly heightened with his wearing the Sun God headdress evocative of the apotheosized Founder and his association with the axis of the world through the crocodilian imagery. By placing Stela P in the Acropolis and in front of the Rosalila Temple, the eleventh ruler celebrates the Founder as well as his own divinity and justification to rule. Whereas in the village he displayed his physical strength, in the Acropolis he demonstrates his place in his lineage as well as his divine duties.

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