Panel carved in limestone with a hieroglyphic text of 160 glyphs. Originally part of a wall, it was carved by the same sculptor who made the Panel 3 of Cancuén. The inscription recounts a dynastic tale spanning from the year 652 to 799 AD, when the panel was commissioned by the ruler Taj Chan Ahk, "Torch-Sky-Turtle". The text describes a ruler's accession to the throne and his pilgrimage to the sea, among other rituals.
This panel thus provides tantalizing clues that Maya kings visited the sea and that such pilgrimages strengthened what might have been weak or questionable claims to royal thrones. The final passages on the panel record another accession at Cancuén under the patronage of Yuknoom Ch'e'n and culminate in the commissioning of the panel itself, in 799, to mark the tomb of the second lord to accede at Cancuén under the influential lord of Calakmul.
This is one of the longest hieroglyphic inscriptions known from the Maya lowlands, and will be included in the exhibition together with a full translation. Cancuén, Guatemala.
