Conclusion

The Classic period Maya at Piedras Negras shaped memory through narrations, materials, and performances on Structure O-13. On this building, they both commemorated ancestors and transformed historical narratives. This was the burial place of Itzam K’an Ahk II, and it was also a place for the installation of several rulers’ monuments, some of which bear explicit narrations about the past and commemorate earlier events and people. The actions performed on the building and the people who used the building became an inherent part of the place, and the building became a place of memory.

The life histories of this building and its stone monuments reveal changes in use and meaning of the structure and its monuments over time, but the monuments maintained links to those who created them, those portrayed on them, and those who used them. The surviving evidence of how the sculptures were treated allows inferences about how the Classic period Maya may have perceived them. For instance, some monuments were handled in particular ways because of connections to specific ancestors or their expression of certain historical narratives. Others appear to have been valued not for associations with ancestors but because of their increased potency after use in ceremonial rites. These examples point to the potential for the accrual and inherence of memory in materials for the Late Classic Maya at Piedras Negras.

Close examination of Structure O-13 also sheds light on the use of Piedras Negras sculptures and buildings in performance and ceremony. Following the arguments of chapters 2 and 3, models for movement around the sculptures and up the building have been proposed. In addition, there is ample archaeological evidence for the realization of ceremonial rites such as caching and burning on Structure O-13, some of which correlates with and strengthens the proposed models of people engaging with the sculptures.

Finally, the targeted smashing of monuments on Structure O-13 and other buildings at Piedras Negras indicates that these images and objects were considered powerful not only by the people who revered the rulers and ancestors but also by enemies who were intent on destroying the ruler, the polity, and their symbols and embodiments. Indeed, both the preservation and destruction of these monuments make clear the significance of these carved stones to the Classic period Maya at Piedras Negras and elsewhere.