Early Copán Acropolis Program 1995-1997 Field Seasons
Latest Findings at Copán, Honduras

Conclusions

Building on the initial work done between 1989 and 1994, over the final three seasons of tunnel excavations, due largely to the crucial support of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Research Inc., the Early Copán Acropolis Program has been able to reach a series of fundamental and significant findings about the origins and early history of the Copán Acropolis. These findings are based on dirt archaeology, in this case evidence gained through difficult and tedious tunneling deep into the heart of the Copán Acropolis. In addition to documenting the early buildings of Copán’s Acropolis, over the years this tunneling effort has discovered seven new Early Classic texts directly associated with architecture. These texts have provided crucial new information about the individuals and events of Copán’s Early Classic era, and have demonstrated once and for all the actual existence of the kings and events associated with Copán’s Early Classic beginnings.

The final results of ECAP’s research must await the completion of the next stage in the research process—the analyses of all the archaeological excavation data. But for the time being, it is apparent from ECAP’s research that the architectural development of the Acropolis began at the time of the founding of Copán’s royal dynasty, and ended at the time of the fall of that dynasty, a span of time between ca. A.D. 426 and 820 (as defined from Maya inscriptions that refer to the reigns of 16 Copán kings). The tunnels excavated by ECAP have documented several hundred buildings, platforms, and plaza floors, that were constructed during the Early Classic portion of this time span. In fact, ECAP research has shown that most of the underlying bulk of the Acropolis was built during the reigns of the first ten Copán kings between ca. A.D. 426 and 578.

As already stated, this sequence of construction activity began at the time of the founding of the royal dynasty of kings at A.D. 426.  Our deepest probes have found traces of mundane domestic platforms that predate the founding era. But the absence of monumental buildings beneath the Acropolis before ca. A.D. 400 indicates that Copán’s earlier political and ceremonial center must have been located elsewhere, and that the first monumental buildings beneath the Acropolis, what we have termed the Southern Temple Complex, represent the founding of a new political and religious center shortly after A.D. 400.  Thereafter, this Southern Temple Complex was continuously rebuilt and rapidly expanded until it evolved into the Acropolis visible to this day. Throughout its history, this complex was the setting for the kings of Copán to conduct their ritual and administrative affairs. We conclude that for at least part of their careers, each of Copán’s rulers lived on the Acropolis, although during the Early Classic period each probably had their royal lineage residences immediately adjacent to the Acropolis in what we term the Northeast Court Group.

The core of the Acropolis grew from a single building, Hunal, constructed in the Central Mexican Talud-Tablero style without any known local precedent. From various clues gleaned from its orientation (north), lack of exterior decorations (although the interior of it summit building appears to have been decorated with painted murals), and a single medial wall with one surviving curtain holder, we conclude that Hunal’s function was primarily residential. Given its place in time, and its central place in the newly-founded royal complex, we venture to conclude that Hunal was the royal residence of the dynastic Founder, the house of Yax K’uk’ Mo’.

After Hunal was terminated, a vaulted tomb was intruded into its substructure. The tomb’s position in time and space indicates that it probably holds the remains of the dynastic Founder. Thereafter Hunal was succeeded by a series of buildings with characteristics that contrast to those of Hunal. These successors were built in the prevailing Maya style, their exteriors were elaborated decorated, and their orientations were all to the west. All of these buildings were supported by relatively low substructures. There were at least six successors built during the Early Classic era, culminating in the best preserved example, known as Rosalila (excavated by our Honduran colleague, Ricardo Agurcia), dedicated during the reign of the 10th Copán king in A.D. 571.  The attributes of all of these successors to Hunal, beginning with the structure we have named Yehnal, indicate that they were shrines dedicated to the veneration of the dynastic founder.

The second successor to Hunal, Margarita, represented the third structure built in the center of the new royal complex. Margarita also contains a tomb, certainly the most elaborate and long-venerated of any found at Copán. The occupant of the Margarita tomb is a woman. Unlike the many inscriptions that record the name of Yax K’uk’ Mo’, there are no known texts that mention a woman from this era at Copán. So we have no historical clues as to her identity. But based on the archaeological information, and plain common sense, it seems likely that she would have been the wife of the Founder, and the mother of Ruler 2, who was the Founder’s son and successor. What is especially significant about the Margarita Tomb is that it offers dramatic new evidence of the great importance of this woman to the origins and sanctification of Copán’s dynasty. Together the Hunal and Margarita tombs hold key evidence of the origins of the Classic Maya political order at Copán, and its underpinnings in ritual aimed at the long-term veneration of royal ancestors, specifically the first father and first mother of the dynasty.

The reign of Ruler 2 is estimated at ca. A.D. 437-465.  After the death of Ruler 2, a dynasty of 14 kings reigned at Copán, and continued to reinforce their authority by claiming to be successors of Yax K’uk’ Mo’.  The most explicit evidence for this is explicitly carved on Copán Altar Q, dedicated in A.D. 776 by the 16th and final successor of Yax K’uk’ Mo’, Yax Pasah, to commemorate the continuity of royal rule. And the location of both Altar Q and the great temple of Yax Pasah, Str. 10L-16, are especially significant, for they are in the sacred center of the Acropolis, directly above Hunal and its tomb that were the focus of the initial royal complex built by the Founder 350 years earlier.

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