Dos Pilas

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Dos Pilas is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization located in what is now the department of Petén, Guatemala. It was founded as a subservient site to the great city of Tikal in 629. The king of Tikal installed his brother on the throne of the new city, in order to control the important commercial route of La Pasión river. The two were quickly allied, and Dos Pilas even used the same Emblem Glyph that Tikal did. It was a predator state from the beginning, conquering Itzan, Arroyo de Piedra and Tamarindito. Dos Pilas and a nearby city, Aguateca, were the twin capitals of a single ruling dynasty.

Dos Pilas made alliance by marriage with Tikal's worst enemy Kalakmul, becoming a vassal city. It appears that the king then began a protracted war against Tikal, eventually sacking the city.

Following a campaign of conquest, including Seibal, Dos Pilas became a major power. Ongoing conflict in the region soon destabilised the power following the defeat of their Kalakmul allies and in 760 the city was abandoned, becoming the first Classic Maya site to be abandoned, during the Maya Collapse of the terminal classic.

[edit] Known Rulers

All dates A.D.

Balaj Chan K'awiil ("Ruler 1") c.648-698
Itzamnaaj K'awiil ("Ruler 2") 698-726
"Ruler 3" 727-741
K'awiil Chan K'inich ("Ruler 4") 741-761

[edit] References

Demarest, Arthur A. (2006). The Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project: A Multidisciplinary Study of the Maya Collapse, Vanderbilt Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology series, vol. 1. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press. ISBN 978-0-8265-1520-9. OCLC 63178772.

Fahsen, Federico (2002). Rescuing the Origins of Dos Pilas Dynasty: A Salvage of Hieroglyphic Stairway #2, Structure L5-49. The Foundation Granting Department: Reports Submitted to FAMSI. Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI). Retrieved on 2008-03-06.

Houston, Stephen D. (1993). Hieroglyphs and History at Dos Pilas: Dynastic Politics of the Classic Maya. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-73855-2. OCLC 25507968.

Mathews, Peter; and Gordon R. Willey (1991). "Prehistoric polities of the Pasion region: hieroglyphic texts and their archaeological settings", in T. Patrick Culbert (ed.): Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence, School of American Research advanced seminar series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.30–71. ISBN 0-521-39210-1. OCLC 20931118.

Salisbury, David; Mimi Koumenalis, and Barbara Moffett (2002-09-19). "Newly revealed hieroglyphs tell story of superpower conflict in the Maya world" (PDF). Exploration: Vanderbilt's Online Research Magazine. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University.