Stela H, Great Plaza. For a long time, this monument was taken to be the portrait of a woman ruler, based upon the fact that the sculpted figure wears a jade bead skirt. New insights into the meaning of the iconography now allow us to identify the figure as a male playing a part in a creation myth involving the young Maize God, one of whose attributes is a jade bead skirt. Advances in epigraphy have led to the identification of the individual depicted as Waxaklajuun Ub'aah K'awiil (whose name means Eighteen Images of K'awiil -a Maya deity-), the thirteenth king in the Copan dynastic line. |