A SINGULAR EVENT took place at the beginning of the ninth century A.D. that must have stunned the residents of the Maya city of Ucanal, capital of the K’anwitznal Kingdom, in northern Guatemala’s Petén region. Their new ruler, Papmalil, presided over a sensational public ceremony during which the bones of four of his predecessors, which had been removed from their tombs inside one of the city’s pyramids, were placed on a pyre. As Ucanal’s citizens looked on, the fames reached nearly 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, scorching and warping bone and shattering some of the precious objects that had also been taken from the tombs. The roar of the fames must have been thunderous, especially when punctuated by the sharp pops of exploding stone. Families that had been loyal to Ucanal’s earlier dynasties were doubtless concerned for their future. Those who supported Papmalil likely rejoiced. Perhaps a musician accompanied the ceremony by playing the fute.
While the precise details of how the ceremony unfolded are unknown—the event is not described in any text or recorded on any monument—the recent discovery of the burned bones and broken objects has provided evidence of what archaeologist Christina Halperin of the University of Montreal identifies as a tipping point in the K’anwitznal Kingdom’s history. “This event marked the symbolic and literal destruction of an earlier K’anwitznal dynastic line,” Halperin says. “It’s so rare in the
