Tikal is defeated in the ‘star war’ of 562

In the mid-6th century the lowland Maya world was divided between Tikal, the old ally of Teotihuacan, and the Kaanul (Snake) kingdom, then based at Dzibanche in southern Quintana Roo, which was building a network of allies around its rival. Caracol, in the west of modern Belize, was at first in Tikal’s orbit: Altar 21 records that its king Yajaw Te’ K’inich II acceded in April 553 under the supervision of the Tikal king Wak Chan K’awiil (‘Double Bird’). In April 556 Tikal struck in an ‘axe’ (ch’ak) attack; the victim’s name is damaged, although it is usually taken to have been Caracol.

Then, on 9.6.8.4.2 7 Ik’ 0 Sip — 27 or 29 April 562 in the Julian calendar, depending on the correlation constant — the ‘Holy Lord of Tikal’ was defeated in a war marked by the so-called star-war glyph, a star pouring liquid onto the earth; such wars are associated with the fall of dynasties and long gaps in the record. Because Altar 21, dedicated in 633 by K’an II, stood at Caracol, the victory was long credited to Yajaw Te’ K’inich. Re-examining the damaged monument, Simon Martin (2005) found that the surviving signs of the victor’s name do not match his, while the emblem of the Snake kingdom appears in the text on the same day. The English articles on the Kaanul kingdom and on the Tikal–Calakmul wars name K’ahk’ Ti’ Ch’ich’, the Kaanul king of Dzibanche, allied with Caracol, as the victor, while the articles on Caracol and on Tikal still credit Caracol, alone or as an ally of Calakmul; the Russian article on the Kaanul kingdom names its ruler Ut Chanal, known as Sky Witness, whom Martin had named as a possible candidate. The fate of Wak Chan K’awiil is unknown: he disappears from the record, and some scholars assume that he was killed or sacrificed.

The defeat opened the ‘Tikal hiatus’: for 120–130 years no dated monuments were raised at Tikal, public sculpture was deliberately mutilated, and archaeologists use its beginning to divide the Early from the Late Classic. Caracol, by contrast, grew rapidly in population and monumental building, and the Snake kingdom became the dominant power of the lowlands. Tikal recovered only under Jasaw Chan K’awiil I, who in 695 defeated the forces of the Snake kingdom.