Yaxchilan

Rewriting History at Yaxchilán: Inaugural Art of
Bird Jaguar IV
SANDRA NOBLE BARDSLEY
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies

The sculptural legacy of the Maya is political
art, commissioned by elite patrons as a means of
documenting dynastic history and securing continued prestige. However, Mayan art was not merely
commemorative; in some sculptural programs the
art wasdesigned to rewrite history and to redirect
public opinion. The inaugural monuments of Bird
Jaguar IV, late eighth-century ruler of Yaxchilán,
illustrate this particular form of propaganda. The
ways in which iconographic images and hieroglyphic texts were manipulated to validate Bird
Jaguar's tenuous claims of legitimate status is the
subject of this paper. The discussion focuses on
Stela11, central of the three monuments commemorating Bird Jaguar's accession at 9.16.1.0.0
(A.D. 752).
Studies of Yaxchilán's sculpture by Cohodas
(1976b), Graham (1979, 1982), Mathews (1988),
Proskouriakoff (1963b, 1964), Schele (1982),
Schele and Miller (1986), and Tate (1986) contributed greatly to our knowledge of the calendrics and the dynastic history of the site, although
theinterrelationship of the text and the images of
individual sculptures is an ongoing puzzle still
requiring much attention. Compositions must be
continually reevaluated so that iconography is
reviewed in terms of new decipherments for the
accompanying hieroglyphic texts. It is the purpose
of this paper to determine how artists meshed the
two parallel systems of communication, text and

image, to createan extraordinary declaration of
rightful privilege for Bird Jaguar IV.
It is known that Bird Jaguar IV succeeded
Shield Jaguar I, who acceded in A.D. 681, died
in 742 at around age ninety-five, and who ruled
Yaxchilán for sixty-one years. However, there are
several peculiarities in the documentation of Bird
Jaguar's parentage and accession.
The first indication of a problem in dynasticsuccession is the ten-year interregnum between
the death of Shield Jaguar I and the inauguration
of Bird Jaguar IV. At the death of his predecessor,
Bird Jaguar was already thirty-three years old,
mature enough to rule, yet he did not take the
throne until ten years later. The unprecedented
decade of interregnum suggests that Bird Jaguar
did not have an undisputed claim to the throne.
Thereis also a genealogical problem. Bird
Jaguar's inaugural monument, Stela 11, claims
that he is the child of the previous ruler, Shield
Jaguar I, and the high-ranking Lady Ik Skull of
Site Q. However, the only royal lady represented
in art commissioned by Shield Jaguar was Lady
Xoc, and though Bird Jaguar was then about seventeen years old, none of Shield Jaguar's known
monuments mentionseither Bird Jaguar or Lady
Ik Skull. Thus, even if Bird Jaguar was the
child of Shield Jaguar and Lady Ik Skull, Shield
Jaguar's lack of acknowledgment for this woman

2004(1994) Rewriting History at Yaxchilán: Inaugural Art of Bird Jaguar IV. Originally published in Seventh
Palenque Round Table, 1989, edited by Merle Greene Robertson and Virginia M. Fields. Electronic version. PreColumbian ArtResearch Institute, San Francisco.

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Fig. 1. Stella 11, flapstaff rite, river side.

Fig. 2. Stella 11, barbel god rite, temple side.

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Fig. 3. Pre-inaugural rites, Yachilán and Palenque: a) Stela 11, flapstaff rite; b) Temple of the Sun, heir designation; c) Stela 11,
period-ending rite; d) Stela 11, barbel god rite.

still suggests that Bird Jaguar was not the dynastic
heir,as he was not the son of the official consort,
Lady Xoc.1
These irregularities imply dynastic instability
and strongly suggest that Bird Jaguar did not hold
clear title to the throne. In conventional rules of
patrilineal descent, status as the royal heir would
later lead to the power of rulership. In contrast, it
is apparent that Bird Jaguar's status derived primarily from his power as...