Yuknoom Tookʼ Kʼawiil (reigned 3 April 698-731>) was a

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, scale, line gauge, or metre/meter stick, is an instrument used to make length measurements, whereby a length is read from a series of markings called "rules" along an edge of the device. Usually, the instr ...

of the Kaan kingdom (

Calakmul Calakmul (; also Kalakmul and other less frequent variants) is a Maya civilization, Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in the jungles of the greater Petén Basin region. It is from the Guatemalan border. Calakmul w ...

Reign

Yuknoom Tookʼ Kʼawiil erected many

stelae A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

to celebrate the 9.13.10.0.0 period ending of 702. Although activity within the site is not necessarily an indicator of the strength of external relations, in the same year a variant of Tookʼ Kʼawiil's name appears in a text at

Dos Pilas Dos Pilas is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization located in what is now the department of Petén, Guatemala. It dates to the Late Classic Period, and was founded by an offshoot of the dynasty of the great city of Tikal in AD 6 ...

(in external references including this one, he is called "Scroll-head Kʼawiil", one of a confusing series of alternatives and abbreviations for this king in the glyphic record). This suggests that Calakmul's sphere of influence had at least to some extent survived the

Tikal Tikal (; ''Tik'al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Col ...

victory or recovered from it. El Peru, as well, is known to have remained a

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...

, with Tookʼ Kʼawiil supervising the accession of a new

of that site at some unknown date; and the continuing loyalty of

Naranjo Naranjo (Wak Kab'nal in Mayan) is a Pre-Columbian Maya city in the Petén Basin region of Guatemala. It was occupied from about 500 BC to 950 AD, with its height in the Late Classic Period. The site is part of Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo National Park. ...

is suggested by the fact that as late as 711, a king there is still professing his allegiance to the late Yuknoom Yichʼaak Kʼahkʼ. The 9.15.0.0.0 ''

kʼatun A ''kʼatun'' (, ) is a unit of time in the Maya calendar equal to 20 '' tuns'' or 7200 days, equivalent to 19.713 tropical years. It is the second digit on the normal Maya long count date. For example, in the Maya Long Count date 12.19.13.15.12 ...

'' ending in 731 saw an even more impressive spate of monument erection by Yuknoom Tookʼ Kʼawiil; before looters sawed off their faces in the 1960s, the stelae erected at the base of Structure 1 were the finest surviving sculptures from Calakmul. The magnificent Stela 51, a depiction of Yuknoom, survives in the National Museum of

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. The inference that Calakmul had fully recovered its bygone vitality, however, is belied by an

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

showing a bound Calakmul prisoner; this dates to between 733 and 736 and is paired with a stela bearing the latter date. Yuknoom Tookʼ Kʼawiil may be named in the damaged caption, and Wamaw Kʼawiil is known to have replaced him on the throne in 736.Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens by Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube (2008, pp.112-113)

Family

Wife of Yuknoom Tookʼ Kʼawiil was possibly Lady of Stela 54. Lady Tiʼ Kaan, daughter of Yuknoom Tookʼ Kʼawiil married Yajaw Te' K'inich, lord of La Corona in 721.

References

{{Authority control Kings of Calakmul 8th-century Maya people 8th-century monarchs in North America