Altar Q is the designation given to one of the most notable of the rectangular sculpted stone blocks (dubbed "

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

s") recovered at the

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

Copán Copán is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization in the Copán Department of western Honduras, not far from the border with Guatemala. This ancient Maya city mirrors the beauty of the physical landscape in which it flourished—a fert ...

, present-day

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. Copán was a major

Maya civilization The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, archit ...

center during the Classic period of

Mesoamerican chronology Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian, prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation until 3500 BCE); the Archaic (before 2600 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BC ...

, and Altar Q records a dynastic lineage for the Copán-based

polity A polity is an identifiable Politics, political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relation, social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize ...

in the

Maya script Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, is historically the native writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which ...

. It was created during the rule of King Yax Pac (also known as Yax Pasaj Chan Yoaat) in 776. Each of the sixteen leaders of Copan are shown with a full body portrait, four on each side of the monument. It starts with Yax K'uk' Mo', who ruled starting in 426 AD, and extends through 763 AD, ending with Yax Pasaj Chan Yoaat. Therefore, the monument's depictions span three hundred and fifty years of time. Each ruler is seated on a

glyph A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...

that represents his name, except for the dynastic founder Yax K'uk' Mo', who is seated on the glyph for "lord", and whose name is given in his headdress. Yax Kuk Mo is shown handing down the insignia of reign to Yax Pac. This was a form of propaganda, intended to show that Yax Pac was just as worthy of rule as the first leader. The name Altar Q was given by

Alfred P. Maudslay Alfred Percival Maudslay Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, FRAI (18 March 1850 – 22 January 1931) was a British diplomat, explorer, and archaeologist. He was one of the first Europeans to study Maya civilization ...

who conducted the first archeological exploration of the site in 1886. At that time the altar was located at the bottom of the staircase in Structure 16, the central pyramid in Copán's acropolis. It has subsequently been moved to the Copán Sculpture Museum.

Inscription

According to David Stuart: According to Linda Manzanilla:

Literature

* Gerd Sdouz: ''Altar Q – Copan, Honduras''. Verlag Berger, Horn/Vienna 2015. . (bilingual erman/English summarizes the latest research about Altar Q, including a review of the as yet lost records from

Juan Galindo Juan Galindo (1802 – 30 January 1840) was an Anglo-Irish political activist and military and administrative officer under the Liberal government of the Federal Republic of Central America. He represented the government in a diplomatic mission t ...

, the first researcher who extensively documented the Maya site in 1834.

References

External links

Altar Q facts

3D model of Altar Q
8th-century establishments in North America 8th-century inscriptions 1886 archaeological discoveries Religious buildings and structures completed in 776 Mesoamerican stone sculpture Maya inscriptions Copán King lists Altars {{mesoamerica-stub

Inscription

See also

Literature

References

External links