Piedras Negras (Maya site)
Piedras Negras is the modern name for an ancient, ruined city of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization located on the north bank of the Usumacinta River in the Petén department of northwestern Guatemala.
[1] Occupation at Piedras Negras is known from the Late Preclassic period onward, based on dates retrieved from epigraphic information found on multiple stelae and altars at the site.
[1] The wealth of sculpture, in conjunction with the precise chronological information associated with the lives of the settlement's elite, has allowed archaeologists to reconstruct the political history of the city's polity and its geopolitical footprint.
[2] The polity is built into a series of hills, offering a natural defensive structure, and is currently heavily forested.
The name Piedras Negras means "black stones" in Spanish; in the language of the Classic Maya, the name has been read (in Maya inscriptions) as Yo'k'ib' ([ˈjoʔkʼib]), meaning "great gateway", or "entrance",[3] considered a possible reference to a large (and now dry) sinkhole nearby.
[5] The second peak happened in the Late Classic period, around the second half of the 8th century, during which the maximum population of the principal settlement is estimated to have been around 2,600 people.
[2] Piedras Negras was an independent city-state for most of the Early and Late Classic periods, although it may have been allied with other adjacent states and may have paid-tribute to others, at times.
Its most impressive period of sculpture and architecture dated from about 608 through 810, although there is some evidence that Piedras Negras was already a city of some importance since 400 AD.
As subservient rulers were often depicted as bound captives, even while continuing to rule their own kingdoms, the panel suggests that Piedras Negras may have established its authority over the middle Usumacinta drainage in about 9.4.0.0.0 (514 AD).
[citation needed] A unique feature of the monuments at Piedras Negras is the frequent occurrence of the so-called "artists' signatures".
[9] Before the site was abandoned, some monuments were deliberately damaged, including images and glyphs of rulers being defaced, while other were left intact, suggesting a revolt or conquest by people literate in Maya writing.
[1] After K’inich Yo’nal Ahk I's accession, he razed the Early Classic monuments and some of the buildings in an effort to discredit the symbols of earlier kings, and, additionally, begin construction and renovation on older architecture in the South Group to establish his dynasty and lineage.
[1] The son of K’inich Yo’nal Ahk I, Ruler 2 continued his father's military conquests, and in 662, was victorious over Santa Elena, which is commemorated in Stela 35.
[1] Dedications:[1] Panels: 2, 4, 7 Stelae: 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 Throne: 2 K’inich Yo’nal Ahk II: 687–729, ascension long count: 9.12.14.13.1.
Stela 12 depicts Ruler 7 with La Mar Ajaw, Parrot Chaak, sitting in judgement over captives from Pomoná, indicating a close military allegiance between the two.
The internal feuding between Piedras Negras and Yaxchilán, beginning in the fifth century AD, played a large role in the instability of the polity.
Using the abundant number of stelae recovered from Piedras Negras, Tatiana Proskouriakoff revolutionized current understanding of Maya hieroglyphs.
Proskouriakoff realized that stelae which depicted a person within a niche and the glyphic texts on them were in fact the long count recounting important events in the life of a ruler, such as their date of birth and accession to the throne.
An archeological project at Piedras Negras was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania from 1931 to 1939 under the direction of J. Alden Mason and Linton Satterthwaite.
