a dynastic struggle over her role in the city's government. One interpretation of the confusing grammar of the shells is that, toward the end of his life, he attempted to marry a new woman--possibly a woman from Palenque based on her name, Ix Matawiil Sotz'--to produce a male heir, but died before producing a child. On the other hand, the grammar aligns with descriptions of his own wedding; in his wedding, his father served as an observer before dying shortly afterward. This leads some scholars to suggest that the marriage describes the marriage of Yo'nal Ahk's daughter (going under an adult name) to someone else, possibly Itzam K'an Ahk II, the ruler to serve immediately after Yo'nal Ahk. Such a marriage would explain why there is a gap of less than a year between the death of Yo'nal Ahk and the accession of Itzam K'an Ahk II, whereas at Yaxchilan, one dynastic interruption took nearly ten years to resolve. References Proskouriakoff, Tatiana. 1960. Historical Implications of a Pattern of Dates at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. American Antiquity 25(4):454-475. Zachary Nelson. 2016. In Nancy Gonlin, Kirk D. French (eds.) Human Adaptation in Ancient Mesoamerica: Empirical Approaches to Mesoamerican Archaeology Pitts, Mark. 2011. A Brief History of Piedras Negras as Told by the Ancient Maya. Online document, http://www.famsi.org/research/pitts/piedras_negras_history_part1.pdf and http://www.famsi.org/research/pitts/piedras_negras_history_part2.pdf. Accessed 4 November 2018. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens by Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube Kʼinich Yoʼnal Ahk II at Mesoweb Kings of Piedras Negras 7th century in the Maya civilization 7th-century monarchs in North America