Abstract
The article analyzes the political history of the ancient Mayan city Oxwitzá (the archaeological site Caracol) at the turn of the 8th – 9th centuries. The beginning of the 7th century AD shows the vanishing of royal inscriptions, but the archaeological evidence gives an account of the prosperity in the city at all levels of life. At the end of the 8th century AD the tradition of placing monuments was renewed and there was an expansion of monumental building. Kʹinich Joy Kʹawil ascended the throne in 799 and underlined the continuity of the royal line from the kings of the past in his political program. The prestige of Caracol was restored due to the successful military campaigns launched by Kʹinich Joy Kʹawil and his successor Kʹinich Yobil Yopat. He defeated the main adversaries in the region, including the realm of Kʹanwitznal considered to be the most powerful in the region in the middle of the 8th century AD. Despite the obvious heyday in the history of the kingdom, there were signs of incipient crisis that engulfed the Maya lowlands from the beginning of the 8th century AD. They are primarily recorded in the change of the style of monumental sculpture. There are new features (monuments with paired scenes, no genealogical rhetoric in the texts, as well as the expansion of the king’s house), which become characteristic and are fi xed in the inscriptions that were created after 810, and continue until the last quarter of the 9th century AD.
Keywords
Maya, Caracol, political history, terminal classic, foreign policy
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