Decoded Maya hieroglyphs reveal the name of powerful woman ruler: ‘Lady Yopaat’ | The Art Newspaper

Zona Arqueológica de Cobá, Quintana Roo. 

Photo: Mauricio Marat/INAH

After a decade of work, archaeologists have begun to piece together the lost history of the Mayan city of Cobá in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Despite Cobá’s impressive archaeological remains, spread over a large area, including pyramid-temples and raised roads that connect it to other settlements, scholars previously knew little about the city’s history. Now, a re-examination of Cobá’s monuments by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has allowed archaeologists to reconstruct a dynasty of 14 rulers that governed the city from around 500 AD to 780 AD, including many of their names. Among them was Ju’npik Tok, the dynasty’s founder, and a female ruler named Lady Yopaat.

“[These] rulers finally have a name, an identity of their own,” says María José Con Uribe, an archaeologist at INAH and the director of the Cobá Project. “This allows us to take the first steps towards a reconstruction of the historical events of this city, who governed it, at what time, and most importantly, allows us to find relations between Cobá and other sites or regions.”

To read the full article, click here: Decoded Maya hieroglyphs reveal the name of powerful woman ruler: ‘Lady Yopaat’.