Tollan clashes with the ancient Serpent Dynasty, 378 - ca. 900 CE

While a powerful Tollan on the highland plateau and its political ideology was expanding from the western plateau into the Maya heartland in the 4th century, Maya kingdoms were also forming hegemonic political relationships with each other.

Two of the most important political and military powers in the Mayab were Yax Mutul and Kanul. Kanul did not just exert power and influence over semi-independent vassal kingdoms but territorial satellites of the Kan or 'Serpent' dynasty.

While Yax Mutul's vassals kept their kingdoms' emblems intact, those under the control of Kanul bore the Serpent emblem of its capital. So unlike other hegemonies in the Maya region, Kanul was a territorial empire. It is possible that many of the realms bearing the Kan emblem had possessed it since the preclassic as we will see.

Kanul was one of the oldest dynasties in the Maya world, probably going back to the first millenium BC to the earliest Maya kingdoms in the Peten/Putun region, specifically to the El Mirador Karst Basin. The political and religious capital of capitals known as Tollan in Mesoamerica began incursions into the Maya realm by at least the 370s CE, when the Snake Kingdom in the Karst Basin had declined to the point of abandonment (Chernobyl style) never to be inhabited again.

Among the most important kingdoms visited by the soldiers and emissaries of Tollan-Teotihuacan was the expansionist Yax Mutul, where a new dynasty was installed beginning with lord Yash Nuun Ayin (379 - 410 CE), whose offspring acted in the strategic interest of a new international order with focus on strategic international trade routes across the plains of Tehuantepec and from the rivers and across the gulf coast. Along with goods came the spread of certain religious ideas and warrior elitism.

In their foreign policy, Kanul and Yax Mutul behaved antagonistically. The latter followed a policy of hegemonic expansion through careful diplomacy, ideology, and alliances. Indeed a great deal if their foreign policy was countering the burgeoning Kanul.

Kanul, on the other hand, relied on the expansion of a territorial kingdom under one supreme lineage whose emblem was the serpent, which vassal or conquered kingdoms adopted.

Kingdoms and lordships under the aegis of Yax Mutulan kuhul ahawob presented Toltec art and forms in their power art and icons mixed with older Maya styles.

Image 1: A closeup; you can see the differences in elite costume between the two figures on the left. The figure with his hand raised can be seen wearing a quatrefoil pendant or badge.

Image 2: A mural from the city of Siaan Ka'an ("Uaxactun") depicting a meeting between a possible foreign emissary (left) and local nobility (right).

His scepter and paraphernalia of office also look somewhat foreign to the Maya style, although it could be a Maya k'awiil scepter. Wooden serpent scepters have been found in Teotihuacan.

The figure on the left is trailed by what look like central highland-style glyphs. He also has his septum pierced, which the Maya dignitary does not have. Having one's septum pierced was a sign of royal annointing, which in later centuries took place in the priestly city of Cholollan under the priesthood of Quetzalcoatl.

Martin, Simon. “In Search of the Serpent Kings: From Dzibanche to Calakmul.” Ancient Mesoamerica 35 (2024): 822–838.

Kováč, Milan, Dmitri Beliaev, Jakub Špoták, and Alexander Safronov. “Uaxactun After the Conquest by Teotihuacanos as Told by the Mural from Palace B-XIII.” Contributions in New World Archaeology 13 (December 2019): 37–66.