The Snake Queens of Waka’: Harnessing Sorcery and Divinatory Power in Service to Kaan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Rise and Apogee of the Classic Maya Kaanu’l Hegemonic State at Dzibanche" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Our paper demonstrates the key role played by royal Kaan women in fortifying and consolidating Kaan’s hegemony in the seventh–eighth centuries CE. We draw on archaeological, visual, and textual evidence from Waka’, including a preliminary analysis of recently discovered Stela 51, and elsewhere across the realm. We address how the political actions of royal women served to consolidate the Kaan realm, helping to create the so-called “Golden Age” of their Late Classic supremacy. These women anchored themselves materially and symbolically within the built landscapes they ruled and established enduring bonds through blood and political maneuvering. Part of these political consolidation efforts, we have learned, drew on the healing, restoration, and reincorporation of ruptured Early Classic monuments whose inscriptions had linked Waka’s Early Classic nobility with key entrada figures, including Sihyaj K’ahk’ and Spearthrower Owl. We argue that Lady K’abel endeavored to associate her legacy with the Early Classic Waka’-Teotihuacan connection, which itself was arguably founded on Waka’s role as a place of prophesy. The implications of our findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Late Classic political history and have enduring significance for Indigenous women in the Americas today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Rise and Apogee of the Classic Maya Kaanu’l Hegemonic State at Dzibanche   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38761.0