Temple
of the Sun Central Panel
Cross Group Palenque
At right Chan Bahlum acceding to the throne on Jan. 10, 690 A.D., the ancestor spirit of his father King Pacal is at left.
Like
the majority of monuments in Palenque the glyph texts at the
Temple of the Sun chronicle the geneology of the kings of
Palenque. King Pacal’s mother, Lady Zac-Kuk, is listed
in the geneology records at Palenque as a “king”
and in an extremely unorthodox and highly political move she
asserted that even though her husband was not of royal lineage
her son Pacal was, through his relationship to her.
She
wielded enough power to convince the ruling council to name
her son king, but he and his son Chan Balum spent a lifetime
reinforcing this claim of legitimacy so their descendant’s
right to rule would never be challenged. For detailed translations
of the glyph texts please read Linda Schele’s or Michael
Coe’s groundbreaking books.
