Costume et insignes d'un gouvernant maya

Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 34

The city of Palenque achieved its greatest splendour in the Late Classic when it became one of the foremost centres in the Maya world. During the reign of K'inich Janaab' Pakal (A.D. 615-683) the Temple of the Inscriptions, which later served as his sepulchre and commemorative monument, was built. In 1952, Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered the funerary chamber in the Temple of the Inscriptions. Based on the reports from the 1950s, photographs taken at the time of the discovery, work published over the past half century, and the analysis of objects that composed the funerary furnishings, this research proposes a holistic revision of the funerary complex. The funerary furnishings, the manufacturing technique and technical sequence employed to create such pieces were studied; the geographic location of the sources of the raw materials was proposed. Finally, the function of each object and its probable significance were discussed.