Link to enlarge Masculine head from Palenque Chiapas from photo by Michel Zabé WHO'S WHO IN THE CLASSIC MAYA WORLD
Peter Mathews
K'uk' B'alam I    The founder(?) of Palenque's royal line (born AD 397, ruled AD. ca. 431-435[?])PAL 001
Portraits

Linda Schele and I (Schele and Mathews 1998:99-100) have argued that the standing figure on Pier B of the Temple of the Inscriptions represents a portrait of K'uk' B'alam I. In addition, a stone incensario recently excavated in Group IV represents the portrait of an individual who wears a quetzal headdress with (probably) jaguar ears. This means that the portrait is of an individual named 'Quetzal Jaguar', or K'uk' B'alam. It is unclear, however, whether this is a portrait of K'uk' B'alam I or of the late ruler K'inich K'uk' B'alam II. Martin and Grube (2000:174) maintained that the sculpture is a portrait of K'inich K'uk' B'alam II, but more recently Miller and Martin (2004:230) have argued that it portrays K'uk' B'alam I, following a suggestion by David Stuart. On balance, I think that this latter view is slightly more likely, i.e. that the incensario head portrays K'uk' B'alam I.



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