A tablet to the memory

A tablet to the memory 🔥🔥

Palenque was one of the great capitals art of the ancient world.
The works from that city are truly fascinating and continue to asombrándonos until today.

The board you see in this publication comes from a building modest, known as the Temple XXI, located right in the heart of the old Lakamha’.

The scene which it represents is especially interesting, since it allows us to understand how it worked, the historical memory among the ancient inhabitants of Palenque.

In the center appears K’inich Janaab’ Pakal or Pakal the Great, the ruler, the most famous of the city. At his side are two of his grandchildren, who in time would become great lords. Both appear to interact with a figure who acts as a spiritual guide, disguised or transformed into a rodent.

We can see how Pakal delivery spine stripe to its eventual successor, in a symbolic gesture that represents the transmission power, and customs.

Although the scene seems to tell a historical event, it is unlikely to have occurred as shown. Both grandchildren were very young when Pakal died, and between this ritual and its government lasted several years.

In reality, the scene depicts a ceremony in which the grandchildren evoke the presence of his grandfather, even after his death. It is, in essence, a monument to his memory.

This practice of honoring the ancestors is still fundamental in many mayan communities contemporary. Today, the mayan ceremonies to invoke the ancestors and grandparents before making any request, keeping alive the connection between the past and the present.
.
.
.
Image taken from the study “the discovery of The monument of the Temple XXI, Palenque: the kingdom of Baakal during the reign of K’inich Ahkal Mo’ Nahb ‘ of Arnoldo González Cruz and Guillermo Bernal Romero. – The text also is based in part of this study.