Exploring the Early Americas

The Jay I. Kislak Collection

{ object_type: 'Exhibit Item',embed_type: 'image',embed_detail: 'http://www.myloc.gov/_assets/Exhibitions/EarlyAmericas/PreContactWorld/RecordingHistory/Assets/object34-1_t_125.Jpeg',embed_alt: 'Carved Mirror-Back With Hieroglyphs',thumbnail: {url: 'http://www.myloc.gov/_assets/Exhibitions/EarlyAmericas/PreContactWorld/RecordingHistory/Assets/object34-1_t_125.Jpeg',alt: 'Carved Mirror-Back With Hieroglyphs',height: '66',width: '125'} }

Carved Mirror-Back With Hieroglyphs

Carved Mirror-Back With Hieroglyphs (034.01.00)

See Silverlight version of this item » About this item        

This diminutive slate mirror back from the Guatemalan Lowlands is carved with one of only two known texts referring to the king known as Yax Yopaat (First Axewielder), an important but little-known ruler of the Snake Dynasty, a powerful ruling lineage of the Maya. The mirror itself appears to have been the property of Yax Yopaat’s otherwise unknown son, whose name is only partially deciphered, “?-Ch’een.”
This diminutive slate mirror back from the Guatemalan Lowlands is carved with one of only two known texts referring to the king known as Yax Yopaat (First Axewielder), an important but little-known ruler of the Snake Dynasty, a powerful ruling lineage of the Maya. The mirror itself appears to have been the property of Yax Yopaat’s otherwise unknown son, whose name is only partially deciphered, “?-Ch’een.”