The tomb of the 'Lady of the Serpent God': the Mayan warrior queen
The remains of an ancient warrior queen were discovered in 2012 in the Mayan archaeological site of El Peru-Wakà: the tomb seems to belong to K'abel, the sovereign who was at the head of the kingdom of Wak between 672 and 692 AD. The discovery occurred during excavations of the pyramid temple.
The body of the queen was buried together with various objects, including ceramic pottery, jade jewellery, stone figurines and a particular alabaster jar modeled in the shape of a conch shell - a large mollusc typical of the Caribbean - from which emerge the head and the arms of an elderly woman.
According to scholars, the hieroglyphs on the back of the jar contain the names "Lady of the Water Lilies" and "Lady of the Serpent God". Both names refer to the queen who ruled the kingdom of Wak, K'abel, belonging to the Kan (“snake”) dynasty originally from the city of Calamkul, the Mayan capital. She married to K'inich Bahlam, she boasted the title of "Kaloomte", that is, supreme warrior, which gave her greater authority than a king.
Queen's ornaments
Although the poor conservation conditions of the skeleton have prevented sex and age from being determined with certainty, the characteristics of the skull seem to coincide with those of an ancient portrait of the severe face of the Maya queen. Even the discovery of an oyster shell on the chest suggests that the tomb belonged to K'abel: according to the archaeologists who studied the remains the queen wore that type of shell as ornaments.
It is difficult to establish the identity of a body in a royal tomb unless there is an engraving on the walls with his name. While it's possible that the alabaster jar was just a gift from K'abel that ended up in another tomb, the presence of both names with which the queen was referred to in other inscriptions, seems to confirm that it is the same person.
A revered queen
A custom of the Kan dynasty was to give their princesses and noblewomen wives to the princes of vassal states, such as the kingdom of Wak. Women like K'abel created a familial connection to large northern cities like Calakmul. They were represented on monuments and became part of the political symbolism in the minor kingdoms.
The site of El Peru-Wakà extends for approximately one square kilometer, with pyramid-temples, squares, palaces and houses. Its ancient monumental remains, now hidden in the tangled tropical forest, have been reduced to a pile of rubble over centuries of abandonment.
