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 YopaatAltar Q puts them face to face in the middle of the sequence: the founder handing the sceptre to the sixteenth and last, three hundred and fifty years apart, with the other fourteen around the sides.Reference treatment of Copán Altar Q, on whose west side the 1st Ruler, the founder K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo', and the 16th Ruler, Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat, face each other directly at the centre. (secondary)

Sources

• K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' is the founder of the Copán dynasty, reigning 426-437, who installed a loyal ruler at Quiriguá before coming to Copán, and who faces the sixteenth ruler at the centre of Altar Q.: Reference treatments of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' and of Copán Altar Q. (secondary)