Looking towards a Mayan town of Copán 300 km away we have a possibility to identify this individual who was the unknown protagonist of Tikal Stela 39.
Copán king Yax K'uk' Mo was an outsider who invaded the city in 427 and established a new ruling dynasty. His excavated remains indicate he was over 55 years old when he died some 10 years later. His remains also indicate he spent his childhood in the Peten valley.
Only short fragments about him survive in local inscriptions.
For reasons unknown, Yax K'uk' Mo had both the motivation and resources to take over the city as well as the authority to secure the kingship for him and his descendants. This as such is extraordinary. A middle aged man, he must have earlier held a strong position somewhere else before arriving to Copán with his loyal and committed entourage.
To estimate how willingly he was on the move, we need to take a look at Copán's location. It was at the south-easternmost edge of Maya area, far from the central Peten valley. For an apparently powerful high ranking Peten resident to relocate there and bring over enough men and resources to turn it into his own domain, the motivation must have been high and alternatives few. We are probably close to truth if we assume that he and his followers formed a powerful group that had become unwelcome at their original home and forced to restart their lives someplace else, even in a remote area far from the heart of their civilization.
What little information remains of Yax K'uk' Mo's life before Copán, we can see more evidence that he held a high position earlier. According to Copán Stela 15, he oversaw a Katun ending of 8.19.0.0.0 (March 22, 416) in an unknown location, ten years before his arrival to Copán, a task reserved for the highest ranking royals. According to Copán Altar Q, on 8.19.10.10.17 (September 3, 426), half a year before his arrival to Copán, he was engaged in an event that coincided with the 66th Tzolkin anniversary of Tikal king Nun Yax Ahiin's ascension. Altar Q goes on to say that three days later he had an ascension event in a location known as Root Tree House which is the same location where Nun Yax Ahiin was declared king of Tikal decades before in 379.
Overall, it looks probable that he was an important member in Tikal administration and its royal household. That being said, it is reasonable to assume that he was the same individual as the Lord of the Tree K'uk' Mo mentioned in the The Man of Tikal monument. K'uk' Mo oversaw Tikal king Nun Yax Ahiin's funerary stone binding in 403 and another ceremony in 406. It is good to keep in mind that the stone binding of 403 was inexplicably left without mention in Tikal Stela 31, just as the Katun ending of 416.
If we continue assuming that K'uk' Mo of Man of Tikal and Yax K'uk' Mo of Copán were the same person, then it is quite fitting that the unknown protagonist of Stela 39 who oversaw the Katun ending 8.19.0.0.0 in Tikal was him as well. From Copán we had later information on Yax K'uk' Mo that he oversaw that same Katun ending in an unknown location. Man of Tikal monument already has K'uk' Mo directly engaged in the highest royal duties so overseeing a Katun ending would be right there in the same mix.
Thus, we have an answer where his power and authority came from, and quite probably also what later caused his departure from Tikal. Like we concluded, Stela 39 states its unnamed protagonist to be the son of king Chak Tok Ich'aak. We have already assumed that the throne was secured to Nun Yax Ahiin through a marriage to Chak Tok Ich'aak's daughter, making Yax K'uk' Mo his brother-in-law and an uncle of the future king Siyaj Chan K'awiil. That would reasonably explain Yax K'uk' Mo's role as a sort of de facto regent during the years following Nun Yax Ahiin's early death, when his son was still too young to reign.
We can assume that this setup was not an entirely happy one. To start with, K'uk' Mo was not made the king when his father died. Instead, in a local game of thrones, the succession apparently went to his sister and her husband Nun Yax Ahiin. Back in 378 K'uk' Mo must have been very young and without merit, unable to get support when powerful Siyaj K'ak' arranged his son on the throne through a marriage to the royal family. It is also possible that K'uk' Mo's mother was a lesser wife, while his half-sister was from a higher ranking marriage, appearing a more lucrative option to continue the royal bloodline.
To understand how things eventually came to head in Tikal, we need to look closer what actually happened in 8.19.10.11.0 (September 6, 426), when Yax K'uk' Mo was said to have entered the Root Tree House. The Lord of the Night on that day was G4, as was usual for royal ascensions in Tikal. The Root Tree House had been the scene of Nun Yax Ahiin's ascension decades earlier. Three days earlier Yax K'uk' Mo is said to have "taken K'awiil", meaning he assumed royal responsibilities, on the day of Nun Yax Ahiin's ascension 66th Tzolkin anniversary.
Then, half a year later in 8.19.11.0.13 (February 6, 427), Yax K'uk' Mo resurfaces in Copán and has another ascension ceremony there, also on G4. What does all this mean?
Now, if someone ascended as the king in a location where Tikal kings ascended, that would most likely mean that also he was ascending as the king of Tikal. This is further supported by the fact that the three-day ascension ceremony started on the anniversary of Nun Yax Ahiin's ascension, possibly in a defiant statement of how things should have gone years before.
Overall, it looks as though Yax K'uk' Mo had decided to take over Tikal from his nephew and declared himself as the king of Tikal.
Not yet a teenager, Nun Yax Ahiin's young son Siyaj Chan K'awiil entered public life by overseeing a half-Katun ending in 406. After a wait of eight years and under his uncle's de facto rule, he was made the nominal king in 411. It was however K'uk' Mo who oversaw the Katun ending in 416, which makes us suspect that by then situation had gradually become more tense and the king himself was not residing in Tikal any more, or was otherwise prevented to perform his duties.
Things came to head in January 426 with Siyaj Chan K'awiil "wrapping the headband" (H8) during a half-Katun ending ceremony and thus trying to reassert his kingship. This probably took place outside Tikal, since Stela 31 does not mention the location of the event, something meticulously recorded for every other period ending in the stela.
Whichever way things went from there, we eventually have K'uk' Mo and his followers leaving Tikal and appearing at the remote edge of Maya area in Copán in February 427, taking over the city and enabling K'uk' Mo to continue his rule there, far diminished from his stature in Tikal but nevertheless able to start a long-lasting local dynasty. For him and his entourage, defeated but still standing, his kingship was legitimate and only continued in Copán what had started in Tikal.
Following his defeat, his memory was erased from Tikal and nearby cities under its influence. His monuments were destroyed and his name was removed from the archives. Siyaj Chan K'awiil and his descendants continued to rule in Tikal until the 9th century.
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