Man walks around he site of Cerro Quemado.

Decoded Maya hieroglyphs reveal the name of powerful woman ruler: 'Lady Yopaat'

After a decade of work, archaeologists have begun to piece together the lost history of the Mayan city of Cobá in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. 

 

Despite Cobá’s impressive archaeological remains, spread over a large area, including pyramid-temples and raised roads that connect it to other settlements, scholars previously knew little about the city’s history. 

The Art Newspaper

July 23, 2020

© Mauricio Marat/INAH

Now, a re-examination of Cobá’s monuments by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has allowed archaeologists to reconstruct a dynasty of 14 rulers that governed the city from around 500 AD to 780 AD, including many of their names. Among them was Ju’npik Tok, the dynasty’s founder, and a female ruler named Lady Yopaat.

 

“[These] rulers finally have a name, an identity of their own,” says María José Con Uribe, an archaeologist at INAH and the director of the Cobá Project. “This allows us to take the first steps towards a reconstruction of the historical events of this city, who governed it, at what time, and most importantly, allows us to find relations between Cobá and other sites or regions.”

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