Nobles and Residences

The urban core was densely populated, but settlements thinned as they radiated away from the center into the mountains. The residential areas east and west of the urban core were connected to the ceremonial center by two sacbe, or raised causeways. Archaeologists believe that an elite residential area just south of the Acropolis was the royal residential compound, and other noble families lived in urban wards throughout the valley. Archaeological evidence supports the idea that noble families in the valley were craft and ritual specialists, and their members often held political positions. During the eighth century, the time of the last dynastic rulers, the valley's population was swelling. Many more people could afford to build stone houses and ancestor shrines decorated with sculptured façades and carved benches. This suggests that competition for agricultural land and other resources also increased. Rival claims and power struggles no doubt ensued, undermining the control of the once unopposed dynastic rulers.

Study of the valley's urban residential areas is one of the most interesting windows into what life was like for the ancient Maya of Copan. Researchers doing "household archaeology" now use techniques such as analyzing the soil of ancient households in minute detail, looking for clues to people's activities there. One can picture the whole of Copan as a thriving metropolis with people streaming into and away from the center on market and festival days. The smoke and smells of cooking fires hung over the residential zones as people filled their days with food preparation, weaving, and making pottery, tools, and jewelry. The sounds of masons and sculptors toiling on the new buildings going up or being redecorated could be heard everywhere. As more is learned about the ancient lifeways, one marvels at the Maya's accomplishments and reflects on the way customs have changed or stayed the same.

The last exhibits in the Copan Sculpture Museum highlight sculptured façades and other carvings from residential areas in the Copan Valley. The first of these, situated directly south of the Acropolis and designated Group 10L-2, was the residential compound of Copan's royal family during the Late Classic period. The second lay some 16 miles (25 kilometers) east of the Principal Group in an area called Río Amarillo, where apparently wealthy residents copied many of the sculpture motifs of their urban neighbors. Next is an area called Rastrojón, which lies a mile and a half (2 kilometers) northeast of the Principal Group. It is the site of a relatively new archaeological project that has made a promising start at reassembling fallen mosaics with central Mexican symbols. Finally, complementing Group 9N-8, home to the scribal specialists in Las Sepulturas, is a neighboring complex called Group 8N-11, at the end of the Las Sepulturas sacbe leading out of the urban core. This group housed an elite family able to employ some of the most highly skilled sculptors in all of Copan. In the museum, three building façades from Group 10L-2 are reconstructed, those of Structures 29, 32, and 33. Each has a very different sculptural program that offers insights into the building's function and meaning. Group 8N-11 is presented in exhibits 56, 57, and 58.

Exhibit 49: Group 10L-2, Structure 32

Structure 32, a residence with three vaulted rooms and sleeping benches in its final phase of construction, was adorned with some of the finest high-relief carving in Copan. Built by the royal family in the late eighth century, during the reign of Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat, the building featured an iconographic theme of water and fecundity, illustrated predominantly by three repeating motifs: human personages with water-lily headdresses, rain god masks, and vertical waterlily roof ornaments. In exhibit 49, the front façade of the central room of the three is reconstructed. On the lower register, framing the doorway, are two snub-nose deities with jaguar characteristics such as snarling mouths and wild eyes. They wear heavy earspools that sprout plants. Although we reconstructed only two masks in the museum, four decorated the building altogether. The other two were probably set into the substructure framing the stairway, immediately below the masks exhibited here. Perhaps all four were iconic name glyphs for the ancestor buried in an earlier phase of the building.

On the upper façade, six male figures, three each on the front and back, sat above Chahk, or rain god, masks. In a pattern reminiscent of that on Structure 9N-82, the Scribe's Palace, two smaller sun god heads and torsos adorned the east and west façades. The long snouts on the masks and the water-lily vegetation sprouting from their earflares identify them as Chahk, the Maya god of rain, thunder, and lightning. A similar creature portrayed in the stucco decoration at Palenque is sometimes referred to as the Water-lily Monster. Karl Taube has noted this creature's association with the number 13, perhaps corresponding to the watery paradise between the 13 levels of heaven and the 9 of the underworld. A related Yucatecan term is xikin chahk, translated as flor aquatica, or water plant, and described in dictionaries as "the ear of Chahk," which brings to mind the water-lily vegetation scrolls attached to the earspools. On an altar that Peabody Museum excavators in 1892 found fallen from the interior of Structure 32 (Altar F'), epigraphers have identified the hieroglyphic name Chahk, perhaps one of the noble family's principal patron deities.

Two earlier versions of Structure 32 lie beneath the final construction phase. The earliest structure on this spot seems to have consisted of one room atop a long platform, also facing north, like the later buildings. No tombs, offerings, or sculptures were found associated with this phase.

Belonging to the second, or middle, phase of construction was a tomb that Peabody workers uncovered below the building's central staircase in the 1890s. Although it had been looted in antiquity, it must once have contained the remains of a prominent person. Andrews believes the second-phase building was a funerary temple, not a residence like the final version. Nevertheless, its sculptural decorations expressed a theme strikingly similar to that of the later building. They include a human head with a water-lily headdress, vertical water-lily roof ornaments, and a fish left as a dedicatory offering in a stone-lined chamber when the floor of the final building was sealed. As mentioned in chapter 10, the fish strongly resembles one carved above the western doorway of Structure 22A on the Acropolis, which is thought to have been a Late Classic council house, or popolna, for the Copan polity. Sections of other stone fish were found in excavations of other nearby structures on the plaza. It is believed that the fish hieroglyph was a place name for this community, which was likely represented at the council house, convening with the ruler.

The fish, water-lily, and Chahk motifs suggest to me that Group 10L-2 had a strong association with Copan's water management system. Ancient Maya sculptors often carved symbols reflecting people's names and professions on headdresses and in place names. A large water reservoir lay due south of Group 10L-2, and I believe water management was an important part of everyday and ritual life for the people living south of the Acropolis. Engineering the drainage of potable water from the Acropolis temples and plazas into the reservoirs took careful planning and considerable expertise. As Elliot Abrams has mentioned in his studies of the way the ancient villagers built Copan, it seems that these architects and engineers were held in high esteem and regulated important decision-making in Copan's government. The water from the Acropolis was metaphorically produced by the mountains and valleys the ancient Maya artificially created in the form of their temples and courtyards. Runoff from these constructed features was likened to freshwater from mountain springs and caves and therefore purer than water from streams or ponds.

As of this writing, no agreed-upon reading of the fish glyph exists among epigraphers. Some researchers think it is related strictly to fertility and cosmology and is not a place name at all. Andrews and I have suggested, however, that it could be read as "canal" (or "cai nal"), "place of the fish." This could certainly refer to a pond such as the reservoir, and it is also conceivable that ancient Maya residents raised fish there. Perhaps the people of Group 10L-2 were keepers of cai nal, the fish place, among other duties. I believe the water-lily headdress was a sign of a water-management profession throughout the Maya region. It is interesting that at Copan, the water-lily headdress became increasingly popular in sculptural depictions during the reign of Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat, who lived, and perhaps grew up, as a resident of Group 10L-2.

Exhibit 51: Group 10L-2, Structure 33

The next building from Group 10L-2 to be exhibited in the museum is a relatively early one (179). Architectural stratigraphy and stylistic clues such as sparse, low-relief sculpture suggest that it was contemporaneous with the second phase of construction of Structure 32. This modest building is called Structure 33 South, and it was the only decorated building of three in the Structure 33 complex, which sat on the west side of the main plaza in Group 10L-2. Although the entire platform supporting the structures was quite long, this southernmost building was very small.

Structure 33 south was clearly a sleeping room, for most of it was filled with a large, C-shaped bench. Its dominant motif, carved on the upper molding, is the "crossed bundles" (probably representing bundles of reeds or thatch), which is paired either with a circular mirror bundle topped by a year sign or with Tlaloc eyes surrounded by scrolls and surmounted by a na (house) sign (180). Above the doorway and on the rear of the building, a large year sign over a star sign rests on the lower molding (181). The molding on this building may have been part of its sculptural message, for it appears to be a headband to which motifs are affixed as if they are medallions. This image recalls the Maya idea of buildings as personified beings, with personalities and spirits. When houses were roofed with thatch, the binding of the thatch was referred to as the binding of the structure, in essence, the tying of its headband. This is what seems to be implied on Structure 33. This unusual motif seems closely related to butterfly and year signs found in the colorful pages of much later central Mexican codices, and it might have had calendrical significance in A.D. 800 as well (182). Short, vertical ornaments representing feathers topped the roof of this tiny structure.

Various interpretations have been offered for the motifs on this building, including the view that the na signs signified it as the house of a female, and the crossed bundles perhaps identified it as the queen mother's house. This is stretching the interpretation farther than can presently be confirmed. Probably, before Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat took power as the sixteenth ruler, this residential structure was added onto the plaza in Group 10L-2. Its occupant most likely had strong ties to the dynastic lineage, because he or she was allowed to display iconography associated with the founder. The crossed bundles, mirrors, and Tlaloc motifs are related to central Mexican motifs pertaining to the New Fire ceremony, as found on the final versions of Structures 26 (Ruler 15) and Structure 16 and on Altar Q (Ruler 16) on the Acropolis. The earlier Structure 33 seems to have been a forerunner in the dynastic lineage's sculptural proclamations reaffirming its affiliation with central Mexico and with this ceremony, previously celebrated at Teotihuacan.

In the museum, we decided that Structure 33 was the best candidate on which to re-create the plastered and painted exterior of a stone-carved building, to approximate for visitors the way the structures likely appeared in ancient times. Today, on most buildings one sees the individual stone blocks exposed, but in ancient times the texture of the stone and mortar was concealed under a smooth coat of plaster. The intricate carvings viewers now appreciate often became obscured after many replasterings. Although stucco and color remains have been found on many other sculptures, we found no traces of color preserved on Structure 33. Our color scheme for the year-sign motif above the doorway is purely hypothetical, derived from a similar representation in the Codex Nuttall.

Exhibit 52 Group 10L-2, Structure 29

Structure 29 is a large, L-shaped structure on the elevated northern terrace of Group 10L-2. Both the structure's dominant position above the group and its heavily decorated façade hint at its magnificence and importance. Embedded in the architecture and sculpture are many symbols with celestial references. It appears that the building was an ancestral temple, associated with death symbolism and the realm of the ancestors.The long, vaulted rooms had stepped interior niches in the walls rather than sleeping benches, suggesting a ritual rather than a residential function. Importantly, there were nine of these interior niches, signifying the nine levels of the underworld. Carved decoration also appeared inside the rooms, which is unusual. It consisted of circular jaguar spots appearing near the medial molding and continuing upward toward the ceiling. In Maya art the night sky was represented as a jaguar pelt, so the motif was probably meant to transform the interior into the starry night sky.

During the excavation of Structure 29, the PAAC team devoted great care to recording the precise locations of the fallen pieces of sculpture (183).The building offered an ideal situation, because its fallen façade had gone relatively untouched since its collapse. Almost all the sculpture lay where it had fallen, face down and covered with wall debris and centuries of accumulated soil. This kind of preservation enabled us to reconstruct the façade with considerable accuracy. It was also our good fortune that when sculpture fell from the western façade in ancient times, it was dislodged from the wall en masse, perhaps by a one-time event such as an earthquake. Before a single piece was lifted from the ground, excavators removed the overburden horizontally to reveal all the sculpture fallen together. Maps and photographs were made, with the fallen positions carefully plotted in each excavation unit. When the lifting commenced, each semi-articulated piece was placed on the ground next to the others with which it had fallen. It took many days of painstaking work to remove and reconstruct all the sculpture. In the end, we put the upper portion of the west façade back together on the ground, complete even with the plain wall stones in the spaces between the sculptures. This reconstruction is still in place at the site, next to Structure 29. Because the motifs were repeated identically around the building, this effort allowed us to reconstruct the sculpture on the other sides, which had fallen in a less orderly fashion.

On the east side of the platform supporting Structure 29, a staircase led up to the building. Decorating the northeast and southeast corners of the platform were two skeletal dragon heads, or death masks (see chapter 6, exhibit 25). These heads perhaps served to personify the platform as part of the underworld.

The south façade of Structure 29 was the only side that had sculpture on its lower register, and this is the façade we reconstructed for display in the museum. Its heavily decorated upper register shows evidence of an ancestor solar cartouche that was repeated 10 times around the building. Between the cartouches, resting along the lower molding, were 13 stepped niches (two are shown on the corners in exhibit 52) that may signify the cave entrances to the 13 levels of heaven. I interpret the stepped niche as representing half of a quatrefoil, or four-lobed, symbol that Linda Schele called ol, which was seen as a portal to the supernatural world. In my interpretation, the unseen half is understood as hidden below the architectural molding, which on this building served as a horizon line. I believe this illustrates an ancient Maya belief recorded by Karen Bassie-Sweet, namely, that the 13 levels of heaven and the 9 levels of the underworld were reached via caves on the horizon.

Filling the spaces between the niches and cartouches are numerous lazy-S-shaped scrolls that symbolize clouds, swirling much the way fog hugs the hillsides and the horizon at sunrise. They set the background and create an atmosphere in which this scene of ancestor transformation unfolds. When the residents of Group 10L-2 called forth their ancestors in rituals and ceremonies, the smoke from their incense imitated the clouds and fog and carried their message to the ancestors. Small house effigies associated with Structure 29 show smoke curling from the heads of fire deities (184). According to David Stuart, each model in exhibit 53 is labeled a "holy-house-shrine," a sleeping place (wayabil) for a spirit companion.

On the lower register of the south façade is a cluster of three identical motifs that had fallen together on the terrace immediately in front of the south wall. The motif is the crossed bundles, the so-called founder sign known from Copan's hieroglyphic texts (185). This is the only example of a hieroglyph directly associated with Structure 29. I believe this motif, bound by year signs above and below, is the "bundle of years," or xuihmopilli, symbol so well documented for the New Fire ritual celebrated in highland Mesoamerica at the conclusion of every Calendar Round cycle of 52 years. The crossed-bundles sign topped by the round "face" is a glyph (possibly representing a mirror) found in the text on Altar Q; the combined motif is commonly associated with the ruling dynasty at Copan and the founding event carried out by K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'. The appearance of these motifs on Structure 29 may indicate a celebration of three 52-year cycles.

The unusual placement of these motifs on the lower register, along with their deep relief, sets them apart from the imagery on the upper façade. They appear to designate this building as an ancestral temple commemorating the ruling dynasty and affiliating the occupants of Group 10L-2 with K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'.

Atop the roof of Structure 29 were upright ornaments in the form of stylized flowers. Each has an inverted, cutout ik sign on its face, which signifies an absence of breath, a metaphor for death. Water from the roof spilled out of two stone drain canals on the north and west sides of the structure. In essence, the roof, where water collected and from which stone flowers sprouted, emulated a watery paradise, the ultimate resting place of the ancestors' souls.

Exhibit 54: Río Amarillo Motifs

A tributary river called Río Amarillo lends its name to the archaeological site on its banks, about 16 miles (25 kilometers) east of Copan's main center. The same river becomes the Copan River as it enters the Copan Valley, and it no doubt served as a communication and transportation link between the two areas. Sylvanus Morley first mentioned the site in his Inscriptions at Copan. In his time it was also known to local people as La Cantellada, "the stone source."

The site's first major construction phase came in the Early Classic period (A.D.Between the years 250 and 600, the earliest known sculptures of Ruler 12 appeared in Copan. Two rectangular altars were discovered by Morley in 1913 and are now on display in the Copan Regional Museum of Archaeology. They are inscribed with the name of Ruler 12 and bear the Copan emblem glyph. One altar mentions the founder of the dynasty, K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'. Researchers believe that the site was a tributary of Rio Amarillo, just like the river. Copan remained under the influence of the ruling dynasty throughout the Late Classic, but no inscriptions have been found that give the name of the local governor or ruling lineage. Sculpture from the building facades indicates that the ruling family had direct ties to Copan's royal dynasty.

In the mid-1970s, an archaeological team directed by Gary Pahl conducted excavations at Rio Amarillo to determine how long people had lived there and to find new inscriptions. They found none, but the work did reveal the presence of sophisticated mosaic facade sculptures on several buildings. One of them, Structure 5, was being threatened by the river, and some of its carvings had already fallen into the riverbed.

By the 1990s, the fate of Structure 5 looked ominous. More sculpture was tumbling into the river with each rainy season. At IHAH's request, Bill Fash had archaeologist William Saturno, then his graduate student, expand on Pahl's earlier excavation strategy, excavating new plaza pits, house mound areas, and the west side of Structure 5. These investigations secured ample new data with which to reconstruct several motifs from this structure. With the construction of a wall, efforts were made to stop the river cut from further eroding the building.

Structure 5 was heavily decorated with a variety of motifs, most of which appeared on other buildings at Copan. However, they were not all mixed together as they were on this building. The Rio Amarillo architects and masons borrowed a little from each of several buildings and created a composite message. On the upper register, at least six witz masks encircled the building, and above the masks sat images of human figures dressed in the Teotihuacan warrior costume. Each wore an elaborate feather headdress, not unlike those on Structure 9N-82 in Las Sepulturas. The upper portions of these figures, including the heads, were pillaged from the site sometime in the past; only legs and loincloths remained to be found during the excavations.

Isolated motifs such as ajaw faces, war serpent shields, skulls, and crossed bundles adorned other portions of Structure 5 or possibly a nearby structure. The Rio Amarillo war serpent shield is reminiscent of the shields of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo seen on Altar Q and Structure 16, his ancestral temple. The skulls might have come from a small skull rack similar to that on the stairway panel at Structure 16. Such a feature might have adorned the steps of the largest structure at Rio Amarillo, but no excavation has been carried out to confirm this.

The sculpture of Rio Amarillo is easily distinguished from the sculpture of Copan by a difference in stone. The Rio Amarillo stone is a denser, gray volcanic tuff. The earth at the site, however, contains a large proportion of iron oxide, which stains the gray stone noticeably red when the two come into contact. This led to a mistaken belief that the stones' original color was red. Significantly, not a trace of lime plaster exists on any of the sculpture from Structure 5. The hypothesis is that the builders took advantage of the red earth not only as mortar but also as a clay finishing layer with which to coat the surfaces of the stone sculptures. This might have been an economical way to imitate the red-painted lime treatments at Copan and elsewhere.

Exhibits 56-58 Group 8N-11, Structures 8N-66C and 8N-66S

The exhibits in the Copan Sculpture Museum present the Principal Group and all the investigated residential groups that have well-documented sculpture programs. The last group of exhibits highlights façade sculptures from a large group at one end of the sacbe, or elevated causeway, that connects the Sepulturas residential zone with the Principal Group (189). The sculptures on display were uncovered during two excavation seasons, the first in 1981 under Evelyn Rattray of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the second in the early 1990s under David Webster of Pennsylvania State University. The excavated pieces have been matched to others that IHAH had collected much earlier and placed in storage.

Viewing the sculpture from Group 8N-11, one is immediately struck by the sculptors' superior carving abilities. They lavished attention on every detail, such as strands of hair and delicately incised ear spools. The carved bench from the central building in the group (8N-66C) is a delightful full-figure representation of a Maya sky band, one of the finest examples of artistry from the Copan Valley (190). Four celestial images from the bench, corresponding to the four cardinal directions, were chosen to decorate the drop ceiling in the museum.

Archaeologists describe Group 8N-11 as a "subroyal" elite household group, meaning that it was the residence of a wealthy nobleman and his extended family. David Webster nicknamed it the "Skyband Group," although this is not a translation of a Maya name, and it does not appear as a title or label on any monument or structure. The group of richly decorated structures stood out at the end of the causeway in the densely settled Las Sepulturas zone, just over half a mile (1 kilometer) from the urban core. Whereas many Sepulturas groups have multiple courtyards, Group 8N-11 had only a single courtyard enclosed by its largest structures. Built up next to the dominant courtyard buildings were smaller, secondary living quarters that recent research by archaeologist Lisa Collins suggests might have been slave quarters. Evidence for construction and people living at the group dates primarily to the Late Classic reigns of the last two dynastic rulers.

Of the six main buildings surrounding the 8N-11 courtyard, only three have been excavated on the eastern side: Structures 8N-66N (north), 8N-66C (central), and 8N-66S (south). The others, too, may someday reveal sculptural façades or hieroglyphic inscriptions if they are investigated. The smallest building of the three, Structure 8N-66N had no sculptural façade but rather a thatched roof, as did all the smaller structures in the group. The sculptured façades on Structures 8N-66C and -66S show that the noble from this residence was prestigious enough to employ a labor force of masons and sculptors equivalent to that which erected buildings for the royal family in Group 10L-2. The carving is even slightly more elaborate than that on neighboring Group 9N-8, the Scribe's Palace. During the reign of Ruler 16, many residential groups began erecting decorated façades. This might indicate a sharing of power, perhaps prompted by an increasingly demanding noble class, or it might be evidence of masons' gaining prestige and decorating their own compounds.

A complete frontal reconstruction of Structure 8N-66S is displayed in the sculpture museum as exhibit 56. On the lower register, flanking the doorway, are two masks surrounded by vegetation. Water-lily plants frame rectangular spaces for the wild-eyed masks, and vegetation sprouts from their earspools and heads. Unfortunately, their protruding noses were never found (only the tenons), despite the remarkable cohesion of fallen mosaic pieces on the platform directly beneath their original positions. This suggests that they were broken off before the building collapsed. This mask, with its scroll eyes, cropped hair, wavy beard, and oval-encapsulated brightness symbol on the forehead, is an unusual deity in the Maya pantheon and an iconic name glyph for the patron of this group. Possibly it seems to be related to watery places and may hail from the realm of the primordial sea, the fertile place of creation.

Higher on the building, the plant and fertility themes continue. Human figures are decorated in the maize god costume, weighted down with a dangling, water-lily pendant. The central maize god figure is different, having a more elaborate headdress, ear ornaments, and a jade bar pendant instead of the water lily. This may be the noble patriarch of the group who commissioned the building, as on the Structure 9N-82 facade. The headdresses of the maize god figures are smaller versions of the larger masks flanking the doorway below. In all, there were eight figures, which-as on the Copan ballcourt-is in keeping with the number personified by the maize god.

Emerging from stepped niches repeated seven times above the medial molding are images of an aged deity. He has been referred to as the "k'atun lord" because in his headdress he wears a k'atun symbol. His eyes appear closed, and only a heavily beaded collar is shown below the head. He might be a representation of the number five, or ho, because the glyphic head variant seen in inscriptions wears the same headdress. Or he might merely be an animated k'atun sign, the name of the 20-year period in the Maya calendar.

The stepped niches resting on the molding of Structure 8N-66S are the upper portions of full quatrefoil signs (194). The lower portions are "hidden" behind the molding. The quatrefoil is a symbol for the open mouth of a cave and often refers to the entrance to the underworld. The ancient Maya believed that celestial bodies entered caves on the horizon at the end of every day and began their underworld journey, only to reemerge from another cave portal at the start of the next day. On this building, as on Structure 29 in El Cementerio, I believe the stepped niche symbolizes the cave, and the molding is the horizon. Beaded water drops cling to the borders of the niches, signifying the purity of water from this source. Because caves and natural springs were often given supernatural names, the aged k'atun refer to the name of such a place, over which the residents lord may of Group 8N-11 held jurisdiction.

Comparative research has led me to interpret buildings with residential complexes stepped niches and water-lily iconography as that were seats of water management groups-non-kinship-based groups that shared and cared for the same water source. Agricultural groups, in contrast, based on kinship ties, might have been symbolized by maize iconography. Water-lily and maize imagery occurs together on this structure in a fertility theme in which the water lily predominates. Coupled with the stepped niche, it may mark this residence as that of the head of a community water source group.

The central building in Group 8N-11, Structure 8N-66C, carries a different theme from that of its smaller neighbor, 8N-66S. Whereas the roof ornaments of 8N-66S are vegetation, those on 8N-66C are bold, stylized, eccentric flint knives, symbols of human sacrifice (195). A repeating rattle motif decorated the upper façade, recalling the rattles held by the monkey gods with ik rattles in Copan's West Court. Each rattle is composed of three blocks—a ball shape for the rattle gourd, a feather tuft, and a wooden handle (196).

After much analysis based on initial work by Daniela Epstein, our team was able to reconstruct six rectangular solar cartouches fallen from 8N-66C. Two of these are displayed in the museum as exhibit 58 (197). The solar ancestor cartouches on Structure 29 and the giant one on the stairway of Structure 16 served as models for piecing these back together. As in all other presently known examples from Copan, the central element is a sun god or a sun-related motif set into a shield that has a carapace-like border with four corner crescents and scalloped gouges along the edges between them. On Structure 8N-66C, the sun god K'inich Ajaw is recognized by his filed teeth and crossed eyes and by a k'in sign in his forehead (198). The characteristic tuft of hair extends out from his forehead, surrounded in this instance by twisted pop, or mat, elements. The figure wears a large knot pectoral made of several lengths of rope. This was traditionally considered a rope for binding war captives. A smoking ajaw element wound with more rope tops the sun god's feathered headdress and completes his name.

The sun god is depicted as an armless bust (as is the k'atun lord) and is surrounded by a border framed with sets of three liquid beads. The eccentric flint knives on the roof of this building, together with the sun god's ropes for captives, may mark it as the warrior aspect of the sun. The month Pax in the Maya calendar is often symbolized by a sun god image with similar characteristics. Victoria Bricker and Harvey Bricker have determined that the structure's doorway was aligned with the sun on the day of its zenith passage. This may be another characteristic component embedded in the warrior sun god imagery. The captive knot is also found on the northeast representative figure on Structure 22A and may mark an affiliation between the head of this residential group and the central council administration.

What really lends fanfare to this sculptured facade are the high-relief rattles slanting outward from the crescents at the corners of the solar cartouches, replacing the more commonly used serpent motif. Like the upright rattles on the facade, each of these rattles is constructed of three blocks, but the slanting motion and the waving feathers add a feeling of movement seldom captured in the stone sculpture on other buildings. Perhaps they signify the music of a procession or a warrior dance that occurred in the month of Pax. A tall Maya drum used in warrior dances was also called pax. Once again, we see the connections linking music, dance, festivals, the community, and the council house.