OCOSINGO.- In the year 687 of our era, the kingdoms of Lakamha' and Po'p, settled in the current archaeological zones of Palenque and Toniná, began a bloody war that lasted 24 years. However, new studies shed light on the cosmogonic universe and the ritualism that both societies shared despite their political rivalry.

Such is the case of a stone disc, with the iconographic representation of the young God of Corn, which the Secretary of Culture of the Government of Mexico, through specialists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), recovered, in 2021, in the Temple of the Sun in the archaeological zone of Toniná, in Chiapas.

According to the architect in charge of the investigation and conservation of the site Juan Yadeun Angulo, the location of this limestone disc -45 centimeters in diameter and 9 centimeters thick- stemmed from the discovery of a crypt on the northern side of the temple, in which the bodies of the rulers of Po'p were transmuted, so spheres could be made out of their ashes for the ritual of their ball game.

"After exploring the crypt, we began to investigate the southern side looking for some symmetry in the architecture, which resulted in our finding this disc, which had been embedded in the building, decontextualized from its original site, that was probably an altar".

The reading of the piece, further states the archaeologist, refers to the year 505 A.D. and an event that takes place 260 days after the death of a ruler of Po'p -whose title is not legible because of deterioration-, placing this in the underworld, like an incarnation of the God of Corn.

"The character appears seated on a throne, wearing a skirt made of jade beads and a headdress of a snake mask; and behind there is a representation of a three-leveled universe pointing in four directions".

Another detail that associates this character with the God of Corn deity is that he is depicted dead, in the kingdom of the Jaguar God of the Underworld, before his rebirth as the corn plant that accompanies the sun.

In this sense, stresses Yadeun Angulo, the stone disc of Toniná -now sheltered and replaced in situ with a replica- "evidences a shared religious tradition around the God of Corn, the most important in the classical world," in association with the stucco sculpture located in the archaeological zone of Palenque, last May, in which the same deity is represented as a severed head.

The End of an Era

In general terms, explains archaeologist Juan Yadeun, the stories of Toniná and Palenque are parallel, which caused their apogees to take them to an inevitable clash, which began in 687 AD, when Yuhkno’m Wahywal, Lord of Po'p, was kidnapped and sacrificed in Lakamha', by K'inich Kan Bahlam II, firstborn and successor of Pakal the Great.

The reason for the war was not only Khan Bahlam II’s eagerness to obtain resources and slaves that would allow him to erect works as much, or even more lavish than those of his father, but most of all the objective of both kingdoms was to control the basin of the Usumacinta, because dominating the waters meant controlling the agriculture, economy and life of the Mayan lowlands.

A year later, in 688 AD, the monuments of Toniná register the rise of the sovereign of K'inich B'aaknal Chaak, who was not a member of the dynasty, but rather a bold warrior, whose goal was to create a broad army of popular individualities in retaliation against Lakamha' (Palenque) and the nine lesser lordships that had perpetrated the first assault.

“Those 24 years of war were the end point of the classic Mayan world, characterized by the enhancement of the great gods, to give way to an epiclassic era, in which smaller and more numerous levels of power were divided".

Po'p’s revenge in 711 AD, when K'inich B'aaknal Chaak sacrificed nine Lakamha collaborators and took Pakal’s second son, K'inich K'an Joy Chitam II prisoner, the loss of life derived from each attack, both in the elite and lower class, resulted in changes in the daily life of the two cities, for example, in less ornate architectures or with new ways of representing the leaders in the monuments, who went from having celestial or mythical attributes, to only wearing warrior uniforms or depicted as ball players.

Toniná and Palenque, concludes Juan Yadeun, were enemy cities that wore themselves out to the point of collapsing, however, the importance of these archaeological findings, as the two representations of the young God of Corn, corroborate the common base of beliefs and traditions that united them.