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

The History of the Pasión/Usumacinta River System

The patterns of correlation in Pasión/Usumacinta kingdom histories have now been made clear by the combined epigraphic evidence from Dos Pilas especially, and the unexpected discovery this year of the central dynastic text of the Petexbatún kingdom on temple L5-49 at Dos Pilas (Fahsen et al. 2002). Combined with the previous evidence from the Petexbatún project and other recent excavations, these new findings show that the histories of the western kingdoms can no longer be explained in terms of local or even regional histories. This critical trade artery was, from the beginning of the Classic period, if not earlier, a target of control by the major interregional powers of the Maya world. Earlier culture-historical interpretations (e.g., Mathews 1985; Houston 1987; Houston and Stuart 1990) have not fully recognized the central role of these constant international interventions in the histories of this region.

In the past, accepted knowledge and conventional wisdom stated that around 650 A.D., a dynastic conflict ensued in Mutul (Tikal) resulting in the flight of some of Tikal’s elite and a member of the royal family to the Petexbatún city of Dos Pilas where they founded a kingdom that lasted for about 160 years and which for better or worse was a powerful militaristic state of the likes that not been seen, even for a war and strife civilization like the Maya.

In the course of that century and a half, Dos Pilas fought, captured or forced an alliance with several sites up and down the Pasión drainage and as far east as Machaquilá and south to Cancuén. The reasons for this expansion were thought to be simply the result of the triumph of the new kings in a "civil war" between the two brothers who claimed Tikal’s crown (Houston 1993; Martin and Grube 2000).

While part of this scenario can be proven correct, the reasons and implications of the rivalry between Dos Pilas and Tikal certainly arise from far deeper causes. According to the above description, the trade route that used the Pasión–Usumacinta rivers was key to the history of the central and western Petén. The river route begins in Cancuén to the south, where it becomes navigable, and connects the highlands of Guatemala to the great capitals of kingdoms like Ceibal, Tres Islas, Altar de Sacrificios, Yaxchilán, Piedras Negras, and the Palenque region as it flows into the Gulf of México. This route was used from the late Preclassic on, and served to connect with the central Petén by trails, and to the Caribbean through the San Juan–Salsipuedes–Mopán river systems or through the Machaquilá–Mopán rivers (Laporte and Mejía 2002).

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