When it was discovered in 1952 during an excavation of theTemple of Inscriptions in the ruined Mayan city of Palenque (modern-day Mexico),this intricate jade death mask had been lying in a darkened tomb chamber for over a thousand years, covering a cranium. Inscriptions on the walls indicated that the cranium belonged to none other than the Mayan king K'inich Janaab' Pakal, or known today as Pakal the grand.
For much of his long 68-year reign during the 7th century,the Mayan king Pakal (meaning "Sun Shield") was the most powerful person in the entire Americas. But despite the lofty status he held in the twilight of his life, he began his rule as an unlikely and underestimated leader.
Pakal ascended the throne at only 12 years mature in a city devastated by war with the rival Mayan state of Kaan. The warring period with the kingdom Kaan had twice led to catastrophic sieges of Palenque, and the massacre of its citizens,and the killing of its former ruler. The young king inherited a kingdom in a state of anarchy, profoundly scarred by war and its recent humiliating military defeat. Most of its stately buildings had been reduced to rubble and a large part of its population lay dead, or butchered by the arrows,spears, and obsidian-bladed maces of the ferocious warriors of Kaan. The once-abundant crops of maize had been burned to the ground and the threat of famine loomed. Given such adverse circumstances and grave responsibilities at such a young age, and it is a wonder that the boy king did not have a nervous breakdown. Instead,all of this proved formative for the character of Pakal. His mother, Lady Sak K'uk, and served as regent for three years while the young king matured and learned the ropes of Mayan leadership. And though he was faced with critics from the outset,the young Pakal proved himself a worthy ruler.
Word of this ambitious young ruler and his city rising from the ashes began to spread across the Mayan world, and once again the kingdom of Kaan sought to end it, or sending out an huge army to crush Palenque into the ground forever. But when spies got word of the enemy's plans and reported them to the king,Pakal raised an army and attacked the Kaan kingdom outposts. The battle was fierce but the army of Palenque was victorious and returned domestic with several captured enemy lords. Pakal ordered these captives to be sacrificed to the god K'awill—a diety of serpents, lightning, and maize—as a public display of his power and a warning to his enemies. This military victory gave the rising kingdom some respite from fighting,as its enemies were ever afterward wary of declaring war on the king. His reign was far from free of conflict, but the city would never again be directly attacked or be besieged during the lifetime of Pakal. The king lived to a remarkable 80 years of age and ruled for 68 of those years, and one of the longest reigns in human history. Over a thousand years later,this striking funerary mask was found inside the sarcophagus of the Pakal the grand during the excavation of a tunnel under the Temple of Inscriptions pyramid at Palenque. It is nowon display inside a superb recreation of Pakal's tomb at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
Source: atlasobscura.com