Archaeologists working at the ancient Mayan city of Coba deep in the jungles of the Riviera Maya, Mexico, teamed up with experts in Mayan epigraphy to decipher the hieroglyphic inscriptions on standing stones or stelae and carved panels on temple walls at the site. Through their analysis, they have been able to identify a dynasty of 14 rulers who reigned over the city from the end of the 5th century A.D. until A.D. 780.<\/p>\n
The 10-year study has also revealed the names of the supreme leaders of the city: Ju\u2019npik Took\u2019; \u00bfK\u2019ahk Chitam?; Ux Man; …K\u2019awiil; Yopat Taj… Nah; Ixik… Yopaat; K\u2019ahk\u2019… Yopaat; Kalo\u2019mte\u2019…; Lord A, Xaman K\u2019awiil, and Lords B, C, D and E. Glyph inscriptions have linked five of the earliest rulers to the construction of buildings in the Cob\u00e1 group, the oldest at the site.<\/p>\n
The longest inscription was found on Panel 7 at the ball court and by cracking the code the project team was able to trace the founding of the dynasty to around A.D. 500.<\/p>\n
The inscriptions also reveal the links that other rulers had with cities in the Yucatan such as Ek Balam and to city states further afield in the Pet\u00e9n region of northern Guatemala, such as Motul de San Jos\u00e9, Naranjo and La Corona, and to Uxul and Calakmul in southern Campeche. Although its name does not appear in the glyph inscriptions unearthed to date, experts know that Cob\u00e1 also had ties to its powerful northern neighbor Chichen Itza. A sacbe<\/em> or ceremonial Mayan road connected the city to Yaxuna near Chichen Itza, a distance of 101 kilometers, the longest such highway found to date in the Maya World.<\/p>\n