Rescuing the Origins of Dos Pilas Dynasty:
A Salvage of Hieroglyphic Stairway #2, Structure L5-49

Introduction

During the month of August 2001 a new hieroglyphic stairway in the site of Dos Pilas, Petén, Guatemala was discovered by the caretakers and then later excavated by a team from the Cancuén Archaeological Project of Vanderbilt University and Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. This new monument located in the central axis of Structure L5-49, the largest in the site, presents new information and confirms events previously known.

A month later two new steps from Stairway 2, East, from the same structure also came to light in an excavation done by archaeologists from the Instituto de Antropología e Historia (IDAEH) of Guatemala. These two new monuments add information previously unknown and coupled with the new stairway hereafter labeled 2, Central Section span some thirty-five years of historical events in the site. (Vinson, 1960; Graham, 1967). In addition and coupled with the information from Stairway 2, West and that of Stairway 4 the information spans some sixty years from the birth of Ruler 1, ba-la-ja CHAN K’AWIIL, to the third Katun anniversary of this birth date. Other scholars (Houston and Mathews, 1985; Houston, 1993) have indicated that Ruler 1 must have died around 684 A.D. Therefore the Stairways cover practically his whole life and the origins of the Dos Pilas polity. In this article the dates are given in the Julian Calendar following the GMT correlation.

Because the Central Stairway has six steps ranging from the earliest date at the top (Step 6) to the latest (Step 1) and similarly because the information from Stairway 2, East, is also now read in descending order of dates from the top (Step 6) to the first one on ground level it is obvious that Stairway 2, West, should also have six steps and that the two missing ones had to be excavated. This was done between the second and the fourth of January 2002. Further proof came from the fact that while almost all dates from the steps progress with intervals of no more than five years between events, the interval between the last date on Stairway 2, East and the earliest in Stairway 2, West is 13 years. If the normal pattern were to be followed it would allow for at least two to four additional dates. These were in the steps that were missing and excavated in January 2002. (ANNEX 1)

As a result of these new discoveries there is a need to label the steps in descending order of dates from the topmost (Step 6) to the one in ground level (Step 1) on all of three Stairways. This article then will present the information in such a way.

For the new steps a generous donation by The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI) allowed for this excavation. The Dos Pilas - FAMSI project produced a set of drawings done by Luis Fernando Luin. For the existing eight steps on the East and West sections the project used the very accurate drawings done by Ian Graham of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscription.

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