Queens and Statecraft: Royal Women as Agents of Kaanul at El Perú-Waka’

Summary

Recent research has shed tremendous light on the impact of two generations of royal women of Kaanul on the classic Maya city of El Peru-Waka’. Lady Ikoom and Lady K’abel facilitated royal bonds through marriages to Waka’ rulers, and reigned there during the Early Late and Mid-Late Classic periods, respectively. In this paper, we address the wide ranging sources of evidence from Waka’ that speak to these linkages, including monuments with preserved texts, and royal burials from three of the site’s primary ceremonial locales: the Northwest Palace, the city’s main civic-ceremonial Fire Shrine, and the restricted Mirador Complex. We also present fine-grained analyses of materials deriving from these mortuary contexts, which underscore that multi-generational marital ties were critical to Kaanul’s socio-political traction at Waka’, a strategic city along the north-south oriented “royal road” that connected Calakmul to vassals and allies to the south. The legacy of enduring ceremonial reverence shown to these Kaanul Queens illustrates their importance in the creation and maintenance of the Kaanul hegemony.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Understanding Classic Maya Hegemonic Networks Through Textual-Material Synergies: The Case of the "Snake" Kingdom

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