THE CHIAPAS TODAY

Moises Morales staged a one-man protest in October outside the gates of Palenque. It was his response to the secrecy surrounding the recent find at Temple XXI.

Palenque Temple XXI details

Below you can find a detailed description of the find at Temple XXI in Palenque. Some details not confirmed in this report may be clearer by now. I've received some photos, with instructions not to publish them yet. But soon...

On Aug 27th, our excavators stumbled on a bench or throne with inscriptions in the south east gallery. The bench spans the 3 meter gallery joining a medial pier with the south wall and the glyphs grace the front edge of the slab. This slab which measures aprox 3 meters by 1.70 m. shows signs of breakage and stacking of the fragments on the south side ( possibly precolumbian looting). The rubble from the roof that collapsed onto it caused further damage.

Directly in front of it we found a beautiful tablet measuring almost 3 meters by 55 cm. This tablet was damaged the most on the left hand side by an immense vault stone that landed on it shattering and hurling pieces of it as far as three meters. Despite the damage we have been able to recover so far at least 90%. Framing the tablet is a text similar to the XIX tablet on the south side of the throne. We are still piecing together the first part of the text, but the right hand side is intact except for a couple of glyphs. The part that we are able to read now has a lot of similar info as the south side of XIX and mentions the same katun ending ceremonies. Also a mention of Akal Mo Nab.

The Image begins on both the right hand and lefthand with two rodent like looking were-jaguars in the capes of a jaguar skin whose head drags down behind like a tail. Their hands and feet are those of jaguars and they extend a bouquet or bunch of feathers and tassles toward three other more human looking fellows in royal dress and headress that kneel before him.

Facing the Jaguar figures are two figures in feather capes (possibly the same capes are the feather bunches that the jaguars hold out ). These hane been identified as Akal Mo Nab on the left and U Pakal Kinich (the son) on the right. We have not been able to verify the right hand figure but the cartouch on the left hand does coincide with Akal Mo Nab name glyphs they are both identified as ahau of Bac.

The third figure is the central one, and without a doubt the most important. He holds in his right hand the personified bloodletter and seems to hand it toward an unreceptive Akal Mo Nab ( it is strange that both the other figures turn away from him , Perhaps the answer is in the depth of field as these two figures´ knees hide behind the throne backing they are clearly behind the central figure. He may be handing the object to someone else outside of the picture).

The lid cartouch is a little more confusing here as it begins with a glyph that seems to represent the impersonation of someone. Some people here call it a number tree glyph and there is an example of it also in the XIX throne tablet where it talks of Akal Mo Nab impersonating Itzam Na. In this case the person being impersonated is combination of a new head variant glyph with a crest like a quetzal that has "Casper" glyph or something that looks a lot like it in its mouth, followed by the familiar U Kix Chan ( the Mythological Founder of Palenque) and then the phrase 5 Katun Ahau with a Vulture glyph variant that has a curiously penis-like shape to his head, complete with a laceration. The cartouch according to Bernal continues on the right hand side to finally clarify that this mystery figure is none other that Kinich Ha´nab Pakal or Pakal the great.

Posted by Dave at October 11, 2002 01:54 PM

"Archaeologists Hide Discovery in Palenque" reads the headline of this morning's newspaper, La Republica en Chiapas. But the discovery is hidden no longer thanks to a protest organized by Moises Morales of Palenque.

A formal announcement will made today by the site director, but here is what is already known. In the process of restoring Temple XXI, archaeologists of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) uncovered a stone monument with numerous hieroglyphs and a scene carved in bas relief. The discovery was made on August 27 of this year.

The monument is quite similar to the stone platform found in nearby Temple XIX by Alfonso Morales C. and the Group of the Cross Project in 1999. The Temple XIX monument has been variously described as an altar, a throne, a bench and a platform. (Mesoweb follows glyphic expert David Stuart of the Group of the Cross Project in referring to it as a platform.) Accordingly, the newspaper report by Janet Schwartz calls the new monument from Temple XXI a throne-altar-platform.

Mesoweb will provide a full description within the next twenty-four hours, but in the meanwhile it can be disclosed that the sculptured portion of the platform depicts three figures in low relief. A glyphic text frames the scene in a manner similar to the stone sculpture of Temple XIX. Both monuments date to the Maya Classic period and the reign of K'inich Ahkal Mo' Nahb' III. A formal announcement will made today by site director Juan Antonio Ferrer.

Temple XXI is located just south of the Cross Group. ( ) An INAH team has been working on its restoration since the beginning of the year, mitigating the effects of a collapsed roof.

The newspaper reported that pressure from the people of Palenque had led to the announcement of the discovery. Moises Morales, renowned Palenque guide, set up a protest at the site entrance last Sunday. He posted his sign directly underneath a PEMEX placcard, because the petroleum company has funded the investigation and restoration of Temple XXI for the benefit of the 400,000 vistors to the site each year. His sign read:

It should be noted in comparison that the Palenque Group of the Cross Group Project promptly reported its great discoveries in Temple XIX and the painted tomb in Temple XX. on the work in Temple XX.)

PALENQUE TEMPLE XXI PROTEST AND DETAILS