K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'

The order of operations in the inscriptions is worth noticing: Quiriguá first, then Copán. Three hundred years later Quiriguá beheaded Copán's king, which gives the founding arrangement a certain retrospective weight. Altar Q, carved in 763 by the sixteenth ruler, is the dynasty's own list of itself — sixteen kings on four sides, the founder handing over at the centre — and is the reason the Copán sequence is the best-documented in the Maya world.

Domains

• dynastic founder
• kingship

Relations

• foundational precursor to: Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat

Sources

• Reference treatments of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' and of Copán Altar Q.