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( Image credit: Octavio Esparza; INAH)
By figuring out hieroglyphic engravings on centuries-old rocks, scientists have actually recognized the name of a formerly unidentified Maya queen. Referred To As Ix Ch’ak Ch’een, she ruled Cobá, or the “city of choppy water,” in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula in the 6th century, according to an equated declaration from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Cobá was a significant metropolitan center in the Maya world and was inhabited from around 350 B.C. to the 14th century. It had a core of elite homes constructed around 4 lakesin addition to countless domestic structures, various white stone roadways and a number of pyramids.
In 2024, archaeologists with INAH found a comprehensive hieroglyphic text sculpted into a stone staircase at Cobá, which they called the Foundation Rock, according to The Yucatan TimesDisintegration had actually terribly harmed the Foundation Rock, making it hard to equate the 123 hieroglyph panels. Extra discoveries, consisting of 23 stelae– freestanding inscribed stone pillars– have actually supplied ideas to assist professionals analyze the texts.Ancient Mayan text professionals David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin and Octavio Esparza Olguín of the National Autonomous University of Mexico just recently matched one panel from the Cobá Foundation Rock with 2 stelae from the website and understood they described the exact same individual: Ix Ch’ak Ch’een.
The Foundation Rock discusses the crowning of Ix Ch’ak Ch’een, the particular dates for her reign are uncertain. The Maya queen’s name is discussed in association with structure tasks that consisted of a ball courtthe building and construction of which is kept in mind to have actually occurred around the date 9.7.0.0.0 in the Maya calendaror Dec. 8, 573.
The Foundation Rock from Cobá (Image credit: Photogrammetric design by Salvador Medina and Francisco Luna; INAH)Ix Ch ‘ak Ch ‘een might have been an especially effective queen, as the scientists have actually connected her to Testigo Cieloa ruler of the politically and militarily prominent Kaan kingdom that belonged to the Maya civilization and understood for its snake kings.
Female rulers amongst the Maya were uncommon — with just a couple lots understood compared to numerous kings– however throughout the Late Classic duration (550 to 830), popular females such as the “Red Queen” pertained to power. The Red Queen ruled the Maya city of Palenque in the mid-seventh century.
According to Esparza, research study on the Foundation Rock has actually currently supplied vital info on dynastic rulers and historic occasions that occurred at Cobá, however their examination is continuous.
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Kristina Killgrove is a personnel author at Live Science with a concentrate on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her short articles have actually likewise appeared in places such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological sociology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, along with a B.A. in Latin from the University of Virginia, and she was previously a university teacher and scientist. She has actually gotten awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science composing.
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