Historical context may shed light on the nature of this event. K'inich Kan B'alam II, the eldest son of Pacal the Great, is ruler. His younger brother, the future K'inich K'an Joy Chitam II, is royal heir in waiting. (A monument known as the Palace Tablet relates how he was officially designated "head prince".) And a 16-year-old boy, perhaps the son of a third brother now deceased, gets to celebrate an event tied to the 1/8 k'atun.

It is even possible that the participants in this event were depicted on the back wall of Temple XVIII, where the remains of a stucco relief were found by early archaeologists at Palenque. (William Ringle, 1996.) The two glyphs on the left originally captioned a depiction of the young lord who would later become Palenque ruler K'inich Kan B'alam (here identified by his pre-accession name).. The central column is part of the pre-accession name of his younger brother, the future K'inich K'an Joy Chitam II. The third caption identifies the father of K'inich Ahkal Mo' Nahb' III, the youngest of what turn out to be three brothers portrayed in the sculpture. The occasion depicted on the wall of the temple is not necessarily the same as that recorded on the jambs.