Why It Sucked to Be a Maya King

Why did it suck to be a Maya king? You were born in a white palace and called a holy lord, but the job came with head-shaping boards, filed teeth, royal bloodletting, and enemies who wanted your head, literally. In this animated history explainer, you live the life of an ancient Maya king around the year 700, from the cradle to the throne to a very bad day in 738. It's all based on what archaeologists have found in carvings, murals, tombs and bones from Tikal, Calakmul, Palenque, Copán, Yaxchilán, Bonampak and Toniná. You'll find out: ▸ Why Maya babies had their heads shaped between boards ▸ Why Maya kings filed their teeth and inlaid them with jade ▸ What royal bloodletting was, and why a king who didn't bleed wasn't doing his job ▸ Why the best prize in a Maya war was an enemy king ▸ How Pakal became king of Palenque at 12 ▸ How 18 Rabbit, king of Copán, was captured and beheaded by a smaller city ▸ What droughts did to the Classic Maya kings, and who outlasted them ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Born Royal: You Won the Birth Lottery 0:42 A Head Shaped Like the Maize God 1:16 Tikal vs. the Snake Kingdom 1:58 Filed Teeth and Jade Inlays 2:44 Dance Lessons and Taking Prisoners 3:30 The King Is the Prize (and Lady Six Sky) 4:14 Crowned at 12: Pakal of Palenque 4:59 Royal Blood: The Yaxchilán Carving 5:39 Stingray Spines and Palace Parties 6:25 The Heaviest Costume in the Jungle 7:14 Venus Wars and a Captured King 7:56 The Ballgame and the Captives 8:36 A Prince of Your Own, and a Betrayal 9:19 18 Rabbit Loses His Head 10:13 Pakal's Tomb and the Great Droughts 10:53 The Last Carved Date: 909 11:33 Would You Take the Crown? ———————————————————— 📚 RESEARCH & SOURCES: ▸ Simon Martin & Nikolai Grube, "Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens" (2nd ed., 2008, Thames & Hudson). Tikal vs. Calakmul, Dos Pilas, Lady Six Sky, Pakal, 18 Rabbit and Quiriguá, Toniná's captives. ▸ Vera Tiesler, "The Bioarchaeology of Artificial Cranial Modifications" (2014, Springer). Maya head shaping. ▸ Yaxchilán Lintel 24, British Museum (Am1923,Maud.4). Lady K'abal Xook's bloodletting rite, October 709. ▸ Mary Miller & Claudia Brittenham, "The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak" (2013, University of Texas Press). ▸ Peter A. G. M. De Smet & Nicholas M. Hellmuth, "A Multidisciplinary Approach to Ritual Enema Scenes on Ancient Maya Pottery" (1986, Journal of Ethnopharmacology). ▸ Douglas J. Kennett et al., "Development and Disintegration of Maya Political Systems in Response to Climate Change" (2012, Science) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1226299 ▸ Martín Medina-Elizalde & Eelco J. Rohling, "Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization Related to Modest Reduction in Precipitation" (2012, Science) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1216629 ▸ Diego de Landa, "Relación de las cosas de Yucatán" (c. 1566). The cross-eyed bead report, written centuries after the Classic kings. ———————————————————— PLACES IN THIS VIDEO: ▸ Tikal, Guatemala, and Calakmul, Mexico: the two great rival kingdoms ▸ Palenque, Mexico: Pakal's city and his jade-masked tomb ▸ Yaxchilán, Mexico: the bloodletting lintels and the captive stairway ▸ Bonampak, Mexico: the painted rooms of dancers and prisoners ▸ Toniná, Mexico: "He of Many Captives" and the last carved date, 909 ▸ Copán, Honduras, and Quiriguá, Guatemala: where a king lost his head in 738 ———————————————————— 🎨 Animation by Yesteryear Explained Previous video: What Did Ancient Mayans Actually Do All Day? #maya #ancientmaya #history #mayankings #mayancivilization #ancienthistory #archaeology #mesoamerica #palenque #copan #tikal #animation #explainer #education #whyitsucked