Link to enlarge Masculine head from Palenque Chiapas from photo by Michel Zabé WHO'S WHO IN THE CLASSIC MAYA WORLD
Peter Mathews
K'inich Janab' Pakal I    Palenque's greatest king (born AD 603, ruled AD 615-683)PAL 011
Portraits


PAL:Temple of the Inscriptions
Sarcophagus Lid Top
Drawing by Merle Greene Robertson
(Greene Robertson 1983: Figure 99)
Numerous portraits have survived of K'inich Janab' Pakal I. Most portray him as a young man in the prime of life, but the distinctive profile indicates that these are indeed portraits. From his own commissioned monuments, we have portraits of K'inich Janab' Pakal I in the Oval Palace Tablet, Pier D of the Temple of the Inscriptions, and (probably) some of the piers of House A of the Palace. Portraits of K'inich Janab' Pakal I are also common from the monuments of later rulers: the Palace Tablet, the Dumbarton Oaks tablet, and the Throne Back recently discovered in Temple XXI. It used to be thought that K'inich Janab' Pakal I was portrayed opposite his son K'inich Kan B'alam II in the tablets of the Cross Group (the Tablets of the Sun, Cross, and Foliated Cross), but most scholars now believe that these tablets contain two portraits of K'inich Kan B'alam II.

The most famous portrait of K'inich Janab' Pakal I is from the lid of the Sarcophagus in the tomb below the Temple of the Inscriptions, where he is portrayed as a young man (despite his 80 years) at the moment of death. In addition, there are several stucco heads that are probably portraits of K'inich Janab' Pakal I: the most famous one is the head placed below the Sarcophagus on the floor of the tomb.



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