Processions involving diverse forms and including stops at ceremonial circuits appear to have taken place in the South Group Court in the seventh century. Yet the experience and performance of sculptures subsequently changed. The visual dialogue between the stelae of Yo’nal Ahk I and Itzam K’an Ahk I is direct, for they face each other or are within each other’s field of view. But this pattern of proximity between sculptures of different generations changed dramatically as rulers began to dedicate stelae in other parts of the site, the first being Itzam K’an Ahk I’s Stelae 38 and 39 in the West Group, which widened the distribution of stelae across the landscape (fig. 3.15).
Itzam K’an Ahk I dedicated Stelae 39 and 38 at Structure K-5, a pyramid on the northeastern edge of the West Group Plaza. An earlier version of this building (K-5-3) may have come from K’inich Yo’nal Ahk I’s reign, for its ceramics date to the Balche phase (550-620 ce) (Houston, Escobedo, and Nelson 2008:50, 56-57). But Itzam K’an Ahk I constructed a new phase of the building and erected stelae there for his last two hotun endings—Stela 39 on 9.12.5.0.0 (2 June 677 ce) and Stela 38 on 9.12.10.0.0 (7 May 682 ce). They faced southwest, toward the South Group and the kingdom’s earlier stelae. The erection of these stelae initiated a new ceremonial focal point, and the next two rulers would erect monuments nearby on terraces edging the Acropolis and overlooking the West Group Plaza. There were no more sculptural dedications in the South Group.
This change was part of a larger program of transformation of the site, particularly during K’inich Yo’nal Ahk II’s reign; Houston and Escobedo call it the “Great Shift” (Houston 2004:274-76; Houston and Escobedo 2001:613-14). Excavations by the
Figure 3.15. Location of Stelae 38 and 39 of Itzam K’an Ahk I (Ruler 2) in the West Group Plaza, in relation to stelae of K’inich Yo’nal Ahk I and Itzam K’an Ahk I in the South Group Court. Detail, Map of Piedras Negras. Drawing by David Stuart and Ian Graham, after Parris and Proskouriakoff, Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, vol. 9, pt. 1, Piedras Negras, reproduced courtesy of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. With modifications by Kevin Cain, INSIGHT.
BYU-del Valle project discovered Early Classic wattle-and-daub buildings that had been burned and buried beneath the West Group Plaza. Lilian Garrido and Houston and Escobedo hypothesize that these comprised an Early Classic palace that was burned during a mid-sixth century conflict with Pomona. The older buildings were interred in massive amounts of construction fill, beneath what would become the new, larger West Group Plaza. The same authors conjecture that this happened at the end of Itzam K’an Ahk I’s reign and during K’inich Yo’nal Ahk Il’s reign (Garrido 1998, 1999; Houston and Escobedo 2001:613-16).
Thus began the transformation of the Acropolis into an exponentially larger, more complicated architectural complex with rising pyramids, range structures, and interior courts; over time, these structures would contain funerary monuments, the royal palace, and the throne room. Although begun in the late seventh century, the transformation of the Acropolis—and the site as a whole—continued over the next century (Escobedo and Houston 1998:413; 1999:428; Garrido 1998, 1999; Houston 2004:274-76; Houston et al. 1999:14, 2001:76-77; Houston, Escobedo, Terry, et al. 2000:10-11; Houston, Escobedo, Child, et al. 2000:100-103; Houston and Escobedo 2001:613-14). Houston, Escobedo, and their collaborators contend that the Great Shift’s physical changes gave rise to social transformation, particularly due to the mobilization of labor and resources and the display of power (Houston, Escobedo, Child, et al. 2000:100).
This massive reconfiguration of the site altered the way it was used and traversed. Barrientos (1997) has proposed that at this time processional causeways were created that connected the South Group to the newly elevated West and East Group Plazas; they were created both for processions and to enhance visibility among the architectural groups. In addition, Houston, Escobedo, and others assert the Maya constructed a sixty-meter-wide stairway as a grand entrance from the East Group Plaza to the West Group Plaza, doubled the size of the Acropolis stairway, and covered the Acropolis facade with large rectangular slabs of cut, dressed stones (Houston 2004:274; Houston, Escobedo, Child, et al. 2000:100; Houston, Escobedo, Terry, et al. 2000:10-11; Satterthwaite [1933] 2005a:25). This array of processional pathways, wide stairways, and the dressed Acropolis platform would have been visually impressive for processions and ceremonial displays. These new spaces and the physical connections among them would play a crucial role in the continuing enactment of dialogues among monuments and the personages they embodied, albeit at a vastly greater scale than those in the South Group.
Ruler 3, K’inich Yo’nal Ahk II (687-729 ce)
K’inich Yo’nal Ahk II (Ruler 3), Itzam K’an Ahk I’s son and successor, reigned from 687 to 729 CE (Martin and Grube 2008:145). Upon his accession, he took the name of his grandfather, K’inich Yo’nal Ahk I, thereby associating himself with him. But he also made links across the generations through the form and placement of his sculptures.
Building on the initiative of his father, K’inich Yo’nal Ahk II further developed the West Group Plaza area as a ceremonial center, particularly with the dedication of eight stelae in front of Structure J-4, the probable location of his father’s tomb (Houston, Escobedo, Child, et al. 2000:103-105). Structure J-4, a terraced pyramid built
On a natural hill, reaches a height of twenty-eight meters—including the height of the 5.4-meter-tall J-1 platform—above the West Group Plaza (Satterthwaite [1933] 2005a:25). This building was no doubt an impressive sight that was made even more spectacular by the stone slabs and megalithic stairway on the Acropolis facade.
As his father’s stelae had done, K’inich Yo’nal Ahk Il’s stelae emulated those of his predecessors in the South Group. He dedicated his first monument—Stela 6—in 9.12.15.0.0 (11 April 687 ce) on the J-1 platform in front of Structure J-4 (fig. 3.16). Notably, Stela 6 closely followed the composition and imagery of Stela 25 (of 608 ce), his grandfather’s inaugural monument, albeit with some additions and innovations, including more of a release of the body from the stone. His close modeling of his grandfather’s stela perpetuates the relationship he established by taking his name.
One of his warrior monuments, Stela 7 (9.14.10.0.0, or 9 October 721 ce), was especially conservative and was similar to his grandfather’s Stela 26 from 628 ce.5 On Stela 7, K’inich Yo’nal Ahk II dons the mosaic war-serpent headdress that his grandfather had worn, and his face, too, is deeply set amid the large headdress (fig. 3.17). In addition, his vertical spear and rectangular shield are comparable to the vertical elements and rectangular shields on Stela 26 as well as on his father’s Stela 35. Although not an exact copy of either, the similarities are striking. This monument constituted a return to tradition that connected his sculptural productions to those of his ancestors.
At the same time, there were differences amid the similarities. Depictions of rulers had individual characteristics, including their names in their headdresses and other distinctive costume elements. Innovations in the design of monuments occurred, including the types of scenes portrayed and their articulation with ambient space. K’inich Yo’nal Ahk Il’s Stela 5, for example, portrays a new kind of scene that positions him in a supernatural location. Other monuments were innovative in the inclusion of queens and subsidiary figures and the articulation of these figures in relation to ambient space, as discussed in chapter 2.
K’inich Yo’nal Ahk II’s stelae faced southeast and thereby looked toward the South Group and his ancestors’ monuments and buildings. Nearly all subsequent stelae, in fact, faced either southwest or southeast and pointed in the direction of the South Group and the polity’s ancestral roots. Yet there was no distinct alignment among them, for they did not directly face the earlier stelae. Instead, they faced the processional causeways connecting the architectural groups. This constituted an important shift in the relationship among stelae of different generations. It was no longer direct dialogue but more expansive processions that connected monuments. The movement of people across the site would have activated these links. These monuments’ interrelations in effect worked as a series; their intersections could produce comparisons across generations and expand temporal narratives. The continued emulation of older stelae signaled the ongoing relevance and importance of the older monuments, which exerted power generations after their creation.
The texts on K’inich Yo’nal Ahk II’s stelae primarily concern the biographies of the ruler and his contemporaries. Structure J-4 also had a retrospective monument, Panel 15, that portrayed Itzam K’an Ahk I.6 The text spans eighty years, from 9.9.13.4.1 to 9.13.15.0.0, and is predominantly retrospective, narrating events in Itzam K’an Ahk I’s life and ending with ceremonies performed by his son. One is a
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