Buscandoalgo

Ancient Mesoamerica, 16 (2005), 89–100
Copyright © 2005 Cambridge University Press. Printed in the U.S.A.
DOI: 10.1017/S0956536105050054

IN SEARCH OF YAX NUUN AYIIN I
Revisiting the Tikal Project’s Burial 10

Lori E. Wright
Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4352, USA

Abstract
Recent epigraphic decipherments suggest that the child of aTeotihuacan ruler was installed as the ruler of Tikal in a.d. 379. This
paper reviews the excavation and osteology of the tomb of this king, Yax Nuun Ayiin I. Estimating the age at death of the
skeletons, I found that the skeletons surrounding the principal occupant include at least one adult, who was distinguished by a rare
style of dental decoration. I report strontium isotope ratios obtained fromthe teeth of four of these skeletons. Comparison with a
larger data set of strontium isotope ratios on Tikal burials indicates that none of the sampled skeletons from Burial PTP-010 were
foreigners to the Maya Lowlands. Although native Tikal children cannot be distinguished from the skeletons of children who lived
at nearby Peten sites using strontium isotopes, these results do not supportepigraphic readings that identify Yax Nuun Ayiin as a
child of Teotihuacan.

may have played a pivotal role in Early Classic Maya history.
Although some degree of elite interaction between the distant cultures is widely accepted, the nature of this relationship is still
unclear (Braswell 2003b). Some argue for a militaristic incursion
of Teotihuacanos to key sites during the Early Classic period,while others propose that the foreign elements can be explained as
appropriation of prestigious foreign symbols by indigenous Maya
kings who aimed to reinforce their own local political authority
(Demarest and Foias 1993).
At Tikal, evidence for contact with Teotihuacan is found in
talud-tablero architecture in several parts of the site, especially in
Group 6C-XVI (Laporte 1989), the MundoPerdido complex
(Laporte and Fialko 1995), and the East Plaza (Jones 1996). Iconographic elements on carved monuments and ceramics also suggest strong links with Teotihuacan (Coggins 1975, 1979). After
studying the Tikal inscriptions in 1970, Tatiana Proskouriakoff
(1993:8) was first to propose that Tikal had been invaded by Teotihuacanos in a.d. 378. Although Proskouriakoff ’s invasionhypothesis was discarded by subsequent epigraphers, recent work by
David Stuart (2000), Simon Martin (2003) and Nikolai Grube
(Martin and Grube 2000) supports the idea of a direct political
and, perhaps, military relationship between the cities.
The Early Classic ruler Yax Nuun Ayiin I (First Crocodile,
Curl Nose) evidently had strong ties with Teotihuacan. He is depicted in central Mexican costumeon Stela 4 and on the sides of
Stela 31. Yax Nuun Ayiin was inaugurated as ruler of Tikal in a.d.
379, and the event was overseen by a powerful lord named Siyah
K’ak’ (Fire-born, Smoking Frog). Siyah K’ak’ is said to have
“arrived” in the Tikal–Uaxactun area on 16 January a.d. 378, the
day after the apparent demise of Tikal’s ruler Chak Tok Ich’aak
(Great Jaguar Paw). Since he is mentionedin the inscriptions at El
Perú (a Maya city 80 km west of Tikal) some 8 days before he first
arrived at Tikal, Siyah K’ak’ seems to have come from the west

In 1959, archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania excavated a partially collapsed tomb beneath Structure 5D-34, a
temple pyramid in the North Acropolis at Tikal, Guatemala (Figure 1). Enumerated Burial 10, hereafter referred toas Burial PTP010,1 the sumptuous tomb has long been thought to contain the
remains of an important Early Classic ruler interred together with
the remains of nine children, who were presumably sacrificed
during the funeral ceremony (Coe 1990). Recent epigraphic decipherments have raised the possibility that the tomb’s principal
occupant—Yax Nuun Ayiin I—was a foreigner, perhaps born at...