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Pakal's Sarcophagus Lid

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Description

Palenque, Temple of the Inscriptions

The carved lid of K'inich Janaab Pakal's sarcophagus (the king died in 683 CE) was found inside the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque (Lakamha'). It shows the ruler at the world-tree and sky-serpent axis, Classic Maya royal art of death and rebirth, not an astronaut and not a portable magic item. Mythic overlay — maize, the sun, the road of the dead — is how Maya courts pictured royal afterlife. The object is a tomb lid in a dated pyramid. Read it with the temple's inscriptions. It is historical Maya sculpture, not a weapon and not a grail.

Primary Sources

“Pakal is shown on the sarcophagus lid of the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, at the world tree between the underworld and the sky, a royal death image of the seventh century.”
Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque (sarcophagus of K'inich Janaab Pakal)(c. 683 CE)

Powers & Abilities

World Tree VisionRoyal AfterlifeCosmic Axis