HEAVEN BORN MERIDA AND ITS DESTINY - Histomesoamericana

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INTRODUCTION 39
priest as well (the "father of the rain priests"). Apparently at the instigation
of Hunac Ceel and Can Ul, the delegation was seized at Izamal and
sacrificed. This appears to have been more or less simultaneous with the
seizure of the walls of Mayapan and the expulsion of the Itza from there.
The Chumayel lists the Ba Cabs of Mayapan as Co Uoh, Ah Ek, Zulim
Chan, and Nahuat (reading from east to south). Presumably they were
all Xiu.
The decision on the Izamal succession then went to Hapay Can, apparently
a compromise candidate, but there was a considerable amount of
confusion and local opposition. Finally, in 1458, Hapay Can was deposed
by Can Ul, whose claim to the lordship of Izamal was almost certainly
based on an incestuous union (see the Tizimin) but who was an ally of
Hunac Ceel. Hapay Can was sent to Chem Chan, a village dependent on
Uxmal, where he was sacrificed. Kukul Can became governor of Chichen
Itza, Can Ul became governor of Izamal, and apparently both claimed the
Jaguar priesthood. Cau Ich continued as governor of Mayapan, Uxmal
Chac (another name for Hunac Ceel?) of Uxmal, Kak Mo of Champoton,
and Tzim Thul of Merida, and apparently all of them claimed to seat the
katun.
The fall of Mayapan definitively ended the religious and political unity
of Yucatan. Subsequent prophets from the fifteenth to the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries pled for unity, but the basis for it—agreement on the
calendar—had been destroyed. Underlying personalities and the calculation
of personal advantage was the argument between the Xiu and the Itza
about the dating of the may. Mayapan fell on Xiu time (8 Ahau rather
than 13 Ahau), and the Itza could neither forgive nor forget that fact. The
interlude between the two dates, 1461 and 1539, was marked by increasing
turmoil and disunion.
The victors of the conspiracy of Mayapan (Can Ul, Hunac Ceel, Cau
Ich, and Kak Mo) were not victorious for long: they all disappeared from
history in the following katun. Hunac Ceel claimed the right to seat 6
Ahau at Uxmal, but the katun was also claimed by Hunac Thi and Teabo
and just about everybody else. Champoton was put out of business by
Izamal. The Chumayel notes that the last (major?) pyramid was built in
1467. It does not say where.
The nobles were having plenty of trouble with each other. There were
no less than seven claimants to the seating of 4 Ahau. But by that time
they were having trouble with the peasants as well. A resurgent Kukul
Can seated the katun at Chichen Itza and attacked the Xiu. There were
plagues. And the peasantry took to the woods and formed guerrilla bands
to defend themselves from the tribute and captive raids of the marauding
nobles. Modeled after the military orders of the nobility, these companies
were a prominent feature of the disturbances of the sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries. They are first mentioned in the prophecy of Ahau
Pech in 4 Ahau: Ants, Many Skunks, Hanging Rabbits, Cowbirds, Magpies,
Blackbirds, and Mice.
As sun priest and Spokesman, apparently at Teabo, Ahau Pech predicted
the demise of these orders in 4 Ahau, but he must have got his glyphs