Maya tribute at Bonampak

The murals of Structure 1 at Bonampak in Chiapas, painted about 790–792 for the court of a lord subordinate to Yaxchilan, open in Room 1 with the presentation of a royal child, probably the heir, to the assembled lords. Among the goods painted in the murals are cloth bundles labelled ho' pik kakaw, '5 × 8,000 [40,000] cacao beans', a count the epigrapher David Stuart places among tribute tallies.

The mechanism

THE CLOCK

How it was checked

• EvidenceT5 INDEPENDENT SECULAR; Status: ADDED 2026-09-19
• Letter eraTHE CAPTURE 313 to 1302
• SourcesRECORD — M. E. Miller, 'The Architectural Backdrops of the Murals of Structure 1, Bonampak', Fourth Palenque Round Table 1980, vol. VI (1985), PARI electronic edition; David Stuart, 'The Misunderstanding of Maya Math', Maya Decipherment (2012); Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Living Maya Time, 'Bonampak' (murals dated 790-792 by their calendar inscriptions); INAH, 'Bonampak' (Room 1: presentation of the heir); Wikipedia, 'Bonampak' (cross-check only) · checked 19 September: Mary Ellen Miller, 'The Architectural Backdrops of the Murals of Structure 1, Bonampak' (PARI 1985), full PDF; David Stuart, 'The Misunderstanding of Maya Math', Maya Decipherment 2012; INAH, 'Bonampak'; Smithsonian NMAI, Living Maya Time, 'Bonampak'; Claudia Brittenham, 'The Bonampak Murals', Mexicolore (2015); Wikipedia, 'Bonampak' (the row's cross-check)