On This Day in History: July 29

Pakal becomes king of Palenque

Subscribers can listen to the audio of this post here.

I’ve been there. In 1994 I climbed the steps of the Temple of the Inscriptions where Pakal the Great is buried and one of the world’s leading archeologists on Mayan culture, whose name I can’t remember, read those inscriptions to the class.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: July 29, 615--

On July 29, 615, K’inich Janaab Pakal I, age 12, ascended the throne of the Mayan city-state of Palenque, located in the modern state of Chiapas, Mexico. He would rule for 68 years, making him the fifth longest-reigning monarch in world history. He expanded his nation’s power in the area and launched a massive building program, including the construction of his own fancy tomb, because why the fuck not? The temple is the largest stepped pyramid in Mesoamerica.

The city had been occupied since approximately 500 BCE but was abandoned less than two centuries after Pakal’s death, likely due to prolonged drought, and was absorbed by the jungle. The ruins were uncovered by Spaniards in 1773, and in 1948 archeologist Alberto Ruiz discovered a trap door in the Temple of the Inscriptions. It took four years to clear away all the rubble, and in 1952 they finally saw that the passage that led deep down into the pyramid contained Pakal’s jade-filled tomb, where he was buried alongside several human sacrifices. The discovery was referred to as the American equivalent to finding King Tut’s tomb. Because our class was with the famous archeologist guy, I got to go down inside and see the tomb and sarcophagus up close. It’s claustrophobic as fuck.

Palenque was a medium-sized Mayan city, but only about a tenth of it has been recovered. More than a thousand of the old city’s structures remain covered by the jungle. And because some idiots find it hard to believe that ancient Americans could build such structures, they put forth the pseudoarcheology “ancient astronaut” hypothesis regarding Palenque, saying aliens from outer space visited the region and helped with construction.

Idiots.

Subscribe for access to cool shit:

Get the book ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY SH!T WENT DOWN.