Earthly and supernatural snakes, symbols of power of the Kaan ajawtaak

Abstract

From early times, Kaan lords linked their power group to a strongly symbolic prehispanic animal: the snake. Those who wore the Snake’s Head emblem glyph became a dominant dynasty during the Classic Period and this identity sign recurrently appears in hieroglyphic narratives preserved in rock monuments. Likewise, the Kaan ajawtaak used other three ophidiids to reinforce dynastic authority: the first one derives from a previous symbolic tradition related to war, the Teotihuacan serpent; the second one, known as the aquatic serpent, associated with the ruling elite and probably also with aquatic resource control; and the third one, a very powerful animistic entity related with late dynastic rulers but stemming from a previous tradition, Xukub Chij Chan. Using an epigraphic and iconographic study of stone monuments and pottery, I will analyze the reasons regarding the relationship between these ophidiids and Kaan dynasty rulers.