K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' is named in Maya inscriptions

Maya script

The Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs or Maya hieroglyphs, is the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered...

 as the founder and first ruler of the pre-Columbian

Pre-Columbian

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...

 Maya civilization

Maya civilization

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...

 polity centered at Copán

Copán

Copán is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the Copán Department of western Honduras, not far from the border with Guatemala. It was the capital city of a major Classic period kingdom from the 5th to 9th centuries AD...

, a major Maya site located in the southeastern Maya lowlands region in present-day Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

. The motifs associated with his depiction on Copan monuments have a distinct resemblance to imagery associated with the height of the Classic-era

Mesoamerican chronology

Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian , the Archaic , the Preclassic , the Classic , and the Postclassic...

 center of Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan – also written Teotihuacán, with a Spanish orthographic accent on the last syllable – is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, just 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas...

 in the distant northern central Mexican region, and have been interpreted as intending to suggest his origins and association with that prestigious civilization. One of the most commonly cited motifs for this interpretation is Yax K'uk' Mo's 'goggle-eyed' headdress he is commonly depicted with, seemingly an invocation of the northern central Mexican rain deity known as Tlaloc

Tlaloc

Tlaloc was an important deity in Aztec religion, a god of rain, fertility, and water. He was a beneficent god who gave life and sustenance, but he was also feared for his ability to send hail, thunder and lightning, and for being the lord of the powerful element of water. In Aztec iconography he...

 to later peoples such as the Aztecs. However, modern strontium

Strontium

Strontium is a chemical element with the symbol Sr and the atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white or yellowish metallic element that is highly reactive chemically. The metal turns yellow when exposed to air. It occurs naturally in the minerals celestine and...

 isotope analysis

Isotope analysis

Isotope analysis is the identification of isotopic signature, the distribution of certain stable isotopes and chemical elements within chemical compounds. This can be applied to a food web to make it possible to draw direct inferences regarding diet, trophic level, and subsistence...

 of the human remains recovered from the tomb attributed to him indicate that K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' spent his formative years much closer to Copan, at Tikal

Tikal

Tikal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centres of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala...

, and had not himself lived at Teotihuacan.

His tomb in the center of the Copán acropolis buried with jade and shell jewelry, including his 'goggle-eyed' headress. His image occupies the first position in the carving on Altar Q

Copán Altar Q

Altar Q is the designation given to one of the most notable of the rectangular sculpted stone blocks recovered at the Mesoamerican archaeological site of Copán, present-day Honduras....

 showing the dynasty's king list and his image is found in significant positions in other monuments of later rulers.

Archaeological work done at Copan in 2000 excavated the tomb considered to be that of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo under the Acropolis. The skeleton exhibited a number of traumas including healed fractures of the arm, sternum and shoulder which have been argued to have resulted from ball court matches. Analysis of strontium in the teeth of the skeleton indicates that the individual spent his early years near Tikal in the Petén Basin

Petén Basin

The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica, located in the northern portion of the modern-day nation of Guatemala, and essentially contained within the department of El Petén...

 region and then at some point between Tikal and Copan, and the isotopic signature

Isotopic signature

An isotopic signature is a ratio of stable or unstable isotopes of particular elements found in an investigated material...

 did not match with a Teotihuacan origin. Chronologically and epigraphically, however, much evidence points to the general ascension of rulers who were sent into the lowland Maya region either as invaders or envoys from Teotihuacan during the late 4th century; particularly the widely-known and powerful Nun Yax Ayin

Nun Yax Ayin

Yax Nuun Ayiin I was a ruler of the Maya civilization polity of Tikal in the Petén Basin, during the Early Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology in the late 4th century....

 of Tikal, son of Teotihuacan lord Spearthrower Owl

Spearthrower Owl

"Spearthrower Owl" is the name commonly given to a Mesoamerican personage from the Early Classic period, who is identified in Maya inscriptions and iconography...

. The implication of this, regardless of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo's physical point of geographic origin, is that later Copan rulers, in particular K'ak' Yipyaj Chan K'awiil and Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat

Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat

Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat, also known as Yax Pasaj Chan Yoaat, Yax Pac and Yax Pasah, was ruler of the Maya kingdom of Xupki from 763 to 810 or later. This is on the site of the city of Copán in western Honduras. He is the king who made Altar Q.He was the sixteenth and last king in line, whose name...

retrospectively sought to attribute Teotihuacano heritage to the 'founding' ruler of their dynasty as a means of legitimising the dynastic claim.