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

The Classic Beginnings: The Tikal Intrusion

Of course, the earliest Preclassic settlements and the first dynastic centers of the Classic period all lie at critical nodes on the river system. The Classic period dynastic history of the Upper Pasión begins at its earlier center at Tres Islas, where the local dynasty erected three splendid monuments. From this earliest period, international involvement was evident in the Teotihuacán-related imagery on these stelae. Their dates from A.D. 395-475 correlate to the period of Mexican involvement in the Tikal dynasty and the expansion of its hegemony throughout the Petén and, only slightly later, with Teotihuacán influence at the highland trade center of Kaminaljuyú (Martin and Grube 2000; Stuart 2000; Schele 1992).

Newly discovered Steps 6 and 5, East Section (Figure 3) and 6 and 5, West Section of Stairway 2 (Figure 4) recount both the takeover of Dos Pilas by Calakmul, albeit temporarily and the ensuing conflict between both brothers.

Economic and ideologic links between these river polities and their hinterlands and the central and northern Petén help to explain their constant interaction, the correlation between their histories, and their simultaneous decline. In this respect, the Petexbatún and the Dos Pilas Hieroglyphic Stairway projects and the Cancuén project have shown that the history of the kingdoms of the western Petén can no longer be explained only by their local or even by their regional histories. Previous interpretations of these areas (Mathews 1979; Houston and Mathews 1985; Houston 1987; 1993; Houston and Stuart 1990) and their histories did not recognize the importance of the river trade route and the role played in the western Maya region.

The new excavation in Structure L5-49 reveals that in the first quarter of the seventh century BALAJ CHAN K’AWIIL, the younger son of K’INICH MUWAANHN JOL, was born and sent to establish a Tikal presence at the newly founded site of Dos Pilas some 70 miles southwest of Tikal and just 2.5 miles from the already existing center of Arroyo de Piedra, an earlier capital in the Petexbatún, and roughly five miles further west from Tamarindito, another older kingdom in the region (Guenter 2002; Houston 1993). The establishment of this new city in the midst of what was already an area occupied by a resident population could only be to establish an outpost of control by Tikal of the area in the Pasión basin. A royal viceroy and enough soldiers could very well play that role (Figure 5).

The military motives are exposed by their placement of their new regional base in a location where soils and drainage preclude productive agriculture and require that large local population must be supported by tribute from dominated neighbors. Dos Pilas supported itself from just such tribute, as demonstrated by the extensive and intensive paleoecological studies of the Petexbatún ecology subproject of Dunning and Beach. Their excavations, paleoecological studies and soil phosphate testing revealed no evidence of agriculture in or around Dos Pilas, and they concluded that it might have been a purely "predatory" tribute state (Dunning, Beach, and Rue 1997; Dunning and Beach in press). Clearly Tikal intended for Dos Pilas to be a base to secure its western frontier and protect the river route from the then-expanding hegemony of their rival, Calakmul.

The wealth derived from control of the trade routes from the highlands and the Usumacinta basin must have sparked the envy of a Snake Kingdom’s rulers since by the mid fourth century the beginnings of a pincer movement encircling Tikal and wresting away its allies was well underway by the Calakmul forces.

The Stairway mentions firstly that the defeat of Dos Pilas and Tikal was preceded by the capture of Itzán close to the Pasión river in 652. Taking advantage of the sacking of Tikal a new ruler, K’IIB AJAW, arrived in Cancuén to the south to found a new capital in 657 under the auspices of Calakmul. The connection between the highlands and central Petén had been wrested away from Tikal (Fahsen 2001a; 2001b; Fahsen and Jackson 2001; Guenter 2002; Demarest and Fahsen 2002).

While BALAJ CHAN K’AWIIL was a loyal younger brother for some thirty years, the pressure exercised by Calakmul on Dos Pilas and the fact that Tikal could no longer be in a position to help Dos Pilas, may have been an important factor in the about-face that took place and which firmly established the Petexbatún region in the Snake Kingdom’s camp.

In the forty years between the defeat of Tikal by Calakmul and later by Dos Pilas, the control of the riverine trade routes was in the hands of the Snake Kingdom using Dos Pilas and others as proxies. However in 695 YUKNO’M YICH’AAK K’AHK’ of Calakmul was defeated by the new ruler of Tikal, JASAW CHAN K’AWIIL, NU’N U JOL CHAAK’s heir. This defeat of Calakmul restores Tikal’s preeminence in the Central Maya region, but never again in the southwest where Dos Pilas maintained its presence until its final downfall in 761 when K’AWIIL CHAN K’INICH was killed or exiled, and which signified the destruction of the site and the splintering of the hegemony into smaller kingdoms such as Aguateca, Ceibal, La Amelia, etc., (Martin and Grube 2002).

Obviously, we see here once again that Pasión valley events were neither locally motivated nor were they an intradynastic civil war between rival tikaleño factions, as previously believed. Instead, the seventh-century founding and seventh-century wars of Dos Pilas and the Petexbatún hegemony were part of an international war with one of its objectives (and motives) the control of the critical Pasión River trade artery.

These smaller polities were not able to dominate the basin. Furthermore Calakmul’s demise resulted in conflicts between Yakchilán and Piedras Negras in the lower Usumacinta blocking the once free flow of goods through the river. By the end of the eighth century many of the riverine capitals and their kingdoms had been abandoned or were about to be and therefore trade between Petén, the upper Pasión and the highlands ceased and a change in production and interchange of ceramics for example, was redirected inland (Foias and Bishop 1997; Foias 1996). At the same time jade, pyrite, quetzal feathers and obsidian and other exotic goods from the highlands became difficult or impossible to obtain.

As detailed elsewhere, the intensity of eighth-century warfare may have been simulated by the previous century of international "proxy wars" between the sprawling Calakmul and Tikal hegemonies (O’Mansky and Demarest 2001; Demarest in press a; Demarest, Rice, and Rice in press). Warfare was also driven by intensified inter-elite rivalry and dynastic struggles, which, in turn, were due to the proliferation of the elite class through polygamy, patronage, and promotion (Demarest 2001; in press a; Demarest, Rice, and Rice in press). The Petexbatún hegemony collapsed into endemic intensive warfare leading to the destruction of Dos Pilas and later Aguateca and the virtual depopulation of the Petexbatún region.

While the Petexbatún collapse was the "first domino to fall" in the long process of the southern lowland decline, its impact on the western trade route was far more immediate. Between A.D. 760 and just after 800, all of the Petexbatún centers collapsed. Refugee population of different types moved up and down the river, having an immediate impact on the river kingdoms. Fortified enclave groups survived past A.D. 830 at Punta de Chimino and Ceibal (Demarest and Escobedo 1998). Some small population settled in perishable structures without major architecture around Laguna de Las Pozas to the south (Johnston et al. 2001). Elite and middle class migrants may have moved south to join their in-laws and cousins at Cancuén. Indeed, there is circumstantial evidence that after A.D. 760, populations with northern and western ceramic markers (including Chablekal Fine Grey), moved to Cancuén, occupying previously open farmlands near the palace (Demarest and Barrientos 2001, 2002). These elite migrants may have helped to stimulate the A.D. 760 to 800 apogee of Cancuén, which flourished while its northern Pasión neighbors downriver declined or collapsed in violent warfare. In contrast, the 760 to 800 periods at Cancuén saw the consolidation of its splendid royal palace and a general site expansion.

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