UNRAVELING THE COPAN DYNASTY:
A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON COPAN’S EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD AS SEEN THROUGH THE LATEST RESEARCH

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Seiichi Nakamura (Kanazawa University)

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Copan is one of the most studied Classic Maya sites. Its dynastic history is considered one of the best known and best understood. According to the inscriptions found on the site, a presumed foreigner named Yax K’uk Mo’ arrived at that place and founded the dynasty between 426 and 427 a. C. Since then, approximately along 400 years of history, 16 governors held the power in succession. This reconstructed dynastic history of Copan is considered one of the most detailed and precise among the entire Maya area, but it is necessary to admit that the certain knowledge we possess of the first part of it (426/427 - 553 a. C.), the part that corresponds to the Early Classic Period, is very limited. 

In the Maya area, many sites reached their peak during the Late Classic Period. Remains of the Early Classic are commonly found already destroyed or hidden underneath the buildings of the Late Classic. The corpus of inscriptions and of archaeological material of this period is, therefore, naturally limited. Copan is no exception to the rule. To shed new light on this historical period, between 1989 and 1996 the Proyecto Arqueológico Acrópolis de Copán (PAAC) excavated more than 3 kilometers of tunnels at the Acropolis and registered many buildings, monuments and characteristic traits of the Early Classic. The new Proyecto Arqueológico Copán (PROARCO), project under the direction of Seiichi Nakamura, has excavated since 1999 various sites along the Copan Valley and is beginning new excavations at the Main Group of Copan, including the west part of the Acropolis. Numerous sites (caches, burials, and tombs among others) and characteristic traits that correspond also to the Early Classic have already been registered. 

More and more, the chronology of this early period is now being proven correct with the results of carbon 14 tests, but gaps still persist: it is still impossible to consolidate the dynastic history of Copan. In this conference, an examination of the results and the interpretations put forth by the PAAC along with the results of recent investigations that call for a reassessment of the accepted archaeological history of Copan to see the Early Classic at this site from a new perspective will be presented. 

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(Talk in Japanese)