Classic Maya Mortuary Anniversaries at Piedras Negras, Guatemala

In her studies of Maya hieroglyphs at the site of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1960) observed that Maya rulers often celebrated the anniversary of their accession. She recognized that a number of repeated dates were not associated with accession, but could offer no explanation for them. Recent study of the inscriptions associated with these dates has revealed a wealth of ritual information: the rulers of Piedras Negras commemorated the anniversaries of births, deaths, and mortuary activities with a number of ceremonies. This report addresses those ceremonies at Piedras Negras and examines the hieroglyphic and archaeological evidence for similar events at other Classic Maya sites.