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Calakmul's coalition defeats Tikal in a 'star war', beginning the Tikal Hiatus

April 562 CE·Military & conflict·Maya Lowlands (Petén, present-day Guatemala and Mexico)·
April 562 CEDate
Military & conflictCategory
11Empires active
Date
April 562 CE
Category
Military & conflict
Region
Maya Lowlands (Petén, present-day Guatemala and Mexico)
Era
Post-Classical / Medieval
Significance

In April 562 CE the Maya city of Tikal suffered a catastrophic defeat in a conflict recorded with the celestial glyph epigraphers call a 'star war', a designation reserved for the era's most decisive military confrontations.

The victory was orchestrated by the Kaan ('Snake') dynasty of Calakmul, whose ruler bore the title 'Sky Witness', acting in concert with Tikal's former vassal Caracol under Yajaw Te' K'inich II; the badly eroded Altar 21 at Caracol commemorates the event. Tikal's king Wak Chan K'awiil ('Double Bird') appears to have been captured and sacrificed, and the city's monuments were defaced. The defeat shattered the regional supremacy Tikal had held since the Early Classic and inaugurated the 'Tikal Hiatus', a span of roughly 130 years during which Tikal erected no new dated stelae and undertook little monumental construction. The hiatus and Calakmul's broader hegemony over the Maya lowlands persisted until Jasaw Chan K'awiil I raised Tikal's first monument in 120 years in 682 and decisively defeated Calakmul in 695.

See the world map in April 562 CE →More military & conflictThe Post-Classical / Medieval era

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Michael D. Coe

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