Mayan Rulers Family Tree | City of Palenque

[@ThisisBarris]

Yes! More meso-america history! (Although Jack acting so normal and calm is just so weird.)

[@kfraser3783]

I agree, Supreme Being.

[@UsefulCharts]

ikr?

[@JackRackam]

Weird for me too!

[@MajoraZ]

Great video, Mesoamerican and Andean history doesn't get nearly the amount of attention it deserves! I'd like to give some corrections and clarifications, though. Firstly, to talk more about Palenque specifically, it's a really good example of how larger Mesoamerican cities often had very complex interconnected water management systems. This is especially true for Maya and other lowland civilizations since they were located in swamps and jungles which often flooded during wet seasons but had scarce rain in dry seasons; and the Yucatan Peninsula was also a large limestone plain without many accessible sources of groundwater. In Palenque's (which is actually a retroactive name: It's Maya name was either Baak/Baakal or Lakamha) case, however, it was located in an area with a LOT of groundwater: Per surveys done in 2000, there are 56 springs around the city, forming 9 seperate streams which run through it, causing flooding issues. As a result, Palenque had around a dozen underground pipes which ran underneath plazas, palaces, and other structures to facilitate water flow through areas they would otherwise flood, around half as many unsealed channels/aqueducts with bridges running over them to serve the same purpose, and these also connected to around a half dozen basins and reservoirs which water pooled into for aesthetical display; or were stopped by dams. The city also had drainage systems if flooding did occur; and there's even evidence of some of these leading into pressurized fountains and toilets. Palenque's also somewhat unusual in that it doesn't follow the typical Mesoamerican urban layout trend: Most Mesoamerican cities tended to have a urban core with religious, administrative, and communal structures like temples, palaces, marketplaces, ball courts, etc; and then a much wider, less dense series of suburbs interspersed with agricultural land, sometimes water management systems, and miniature civic/religious cores, radiating outwards which gradually decreased in density (Maya sprawls in particular got huge, dozens to hundreds of kilometers). This makes defining where Mesoamerican cities begin and end usually sort of iffy. Palenque, however, was located in on a pocket of flatter land alongside mountains, with the surrounding land being too steep to expand into generally, so nearly all of it's residential housing & population was packed tight in terraced acropoli among it's monumental architecture. Palenque was also, at various points, either an ally or subject of Tikal, which ties into my next point: The distinction being made between the Maya having independent city-states vs the seemingly centralized Aztec Empire isn't as large or significant as it might seem: The Aztec Empire itself was not a directly governed, imperialistic entity: It was essentially an alliance between 3 city-states, which collectively ruled over hundreds of other subject city-states and towns indirectly as either vassal or tributary states: It didn't directly govern or administrate almost any of them, with them largely keeping their own kings, laws, customs, etc and effective independence, only having to pay annual tribute/taxes of economic goods or provide basic services such as aid on military campaigns and the like. This isn't that different from the larger Maya states, where the royal dynasty from a particularly powerful city-state would use political marriages (which the Aztec also did) and install rulers from their own royal line on conquered cities to form indirect dynastic kingdoms they had loose control over. In general, almost all larger Mesoamerican states utilized, indirect, "soft", hegemonic methods of political control over their subjects rather then direct imperialistic systems, aside from subject towns and hamlets directly adjacent to their capital, likely due to the lack of beasts of burden. Depending on the specific hegemonic kingdom or empire, they might use different methods, but it was near universal (the Purepecha Empire being a notably exception following a coup in the mid 15th century), and was a major reason for why Mesoamerican cities and towns allied with Conquistadors, because under a geopolitical system where the norm was being a subject which retained your own independence largely; pledging yourself to a different state and helping them conquer stuff to get yourself a higher standing in the new hedge-money you helped prop up was a classic method of political advancement. The only REAL difference between the Aztec Empire , or, say, the larger Maya dyanstic kingdoms of Tikal or Cakakmul (more on them latter) is that the Aztec Empire was a significantly larger political network, which encompassed most (but not all!) of the cities and towns belonging to the "Aztec Culture" (the Nahuas, though this is... sort of complicated, I get into this in my comment on the Aztec video), whereas no single Maya dynastic network had the same level of unification of Maya cities and towns. Anyways, speaking of those larger Maya dynastic networks; Tikal, as mentioned earlier, was the seat of power of the Mutal (hairknot) Royal Dynasty, one of the two largest and most powerful Classical Maya dynastic kingdoms alongside the Kan (Snake) dynasty centered around the city of Calakmul (which as the video notes, invaded Palenque a few times) In fact, the warring between Tikal and Calakmul and their subjects is one of the likely major factors for the Classical Maya collapse mentioned in the video: After various proxy wars and direct conflicts between them in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, Tikal and it's allies were able to put down Calakmul in the 690's. Over the next few centuries, you see increasing militarization and political fragmentation, perhaps instability caused by the massive Tikal-Calakmul wars, with many people being displaced. You also see droughts during this period (as mentioned, water was a particularly important resource, in some cases Maya kings resting their divine rule on their ability to provide water akin to China's divine mandate, with civil uprisings when they could not provide it) and there's evidence of a switch to less sustainable farming methods. These all would have exacerbated and enabled each other, with the population of cities swelling from refugees entering them, causing them to be overpopulated; the droughts leading to uprisings and further political instability and warring; as well as said droughts causing less food and water to sustain cities and their increasingly bloated populations, which caused them to collapse, resulting in THEIR populations also immigrating to other centers and in turn causing them to overpopulate, and so on, further leading to increasing warfare and instability as a result, all the while less sustainable farming methods adopted to try to compensate just furthered issues providing food and water. However, as the video notes, this was not a total collapse of Maya civilization: This mostly impacted Maya cities and towns in the Central and Southern Yucatan peninsula: The Maya city-states and kingdoms to the north such as Uxmal, Tulum, Chichen Itza, Mayapan, etc actually grew in power and influence as a result. Mayapan was actually probably the closest thing to a "Maya EMpire", unifying like 1/3+ of the Yucatan Peninsula into a allied network/league (I'm admittedly unclear on the exact political structure, but my understanding it was somewhat different from the typical dynastic kingdoms) of around a dozen or so notable Maya states/kingdoms. Lastly, I'm SUPER glad you mentioned details on how the Maya scripts work: A lot of people see it as simple pictographic or logogrammic writing, but as you note they actually had a full syllabic script which is a true, complete written language which can represent every spoken sound in the language in writing, with characters reprsenting sounds forming words, though (again, as you note) this can be mixed with an actual logogrammic script, too. Actually, the Maya didn't make a distinction between those and painting, either: the Maya (and Aztec, and presumably other Mesoamerican civilizations) word for painting/writing is the same term. In general Mesoamerican scripts tend to blend both pictographic and syllabic/phonetic elements, with Maya just being on the extreme syllabic end, but even then you see them creatively mix Maya characters into what we'd call paintings or artwork, such as instances where the shapes of the glyph characters, even the syllabic ones, are drawn as intricate depictions of humans posing with their outlines forming the characters.

[@UsefulCharts]

Great info. Thanks :)

[@cs2d20]

Mesoamerican civilizations deserves way more attention than what they’re currently getting. Recently I’ve been putting more time to learn more about them, but I don’t really know where exactly to look.

[@MajoraZ]

@@cs2d20 You got a twitter? I'd be happy to send you some resources over DM's or something if you do.

[@oliverkroker527]

Could you please give me a few links as to where to find those informations? It's really interesting and I would love to learn more^^

[@fuzzybeatle]

@@MajoraZ I know you commented 6 months ago but if you know any resources about reading up on muisca empire I’d love to know

[@ArturoStojanoff]

His pronunciation is *chef's kiss*

[@thomasdixon4373]

Useful charts should make an African monarchs family tree chart, also great vid as always🥰🥰

[@UsefulCharts]

Planning on it. Hopefully Mesoamerican eventually too.

[@thomasdixon4373]

@@UsefulCharts cool, they would make logical additions to your growing collection of charts, hopefully I can become a patron of useful charts soon🤞

[@thomasvincent8905]

Yes! Super interesting topic! And congrats again to Jack for the pronunciation!

[@AncientAmericas]

Thank you!! We're loving your mesoamerican content!

[@pedromenchik1961]

yay, are we going to get he other Mayan cities as well? I would love to see Chichen-Itza

[@Udoch]

I'd like to see Calakmul and the dynasties of Tikal.

[@leonmyerscough1269]

Can we have a Family tree on the dukes/ kings of German regions during and after the HRE?

[@thomasvincent8905]

I did one, and it's a really long task. I think it's not the first thing Matt has to do.

[@untruelie2640]

@@thomasvincent8905 It would be a gigantic task. Even after 1815, no less than 35 (!) ruling dynasties were part of the the German Confederation.

[@thomasvincent8905]

@@untruelie2640 Yes, but if you only focus on electors, ethnic duchies, and countries who held the title of emperor, there is only ~15/20 families. Which is doable.

[@saturnproductions1827]

Yessss! I’ve been wanting to see another Mesoamerican family tree!

[@abuhado-verbigraciaramirez8682]

Correction on the Aztec empire there where 3 cities but most people and historians focus on Technotlitlan but the two other cities where Texcoco and Tlacopan all having their own Tlatuani but I guess people focus more on Technotlitlan due to it being the most militarily involved but I really hope he goes over the Tlaotiani of the other two Aztec powerhouses since I thought it was odd someone didnt mentioned Nezahualcoyotl the Philosopher-Poet Tloatoni of Texcoco

[@qus.9617]

Unfortunately so much is lost about the political history, I wonder how these three rulers corresponded with each other, any cool details about their misgrievances during interactions. Such details like I wonder if other city states or polities ever tried to go around Tenochtitlan by asking Texcoco and Tlacopan to bond together to oppose a decision from Tenochtitlan. Stuff like that.

[@abuhado-verbigraciaramirez8682]

@@qus.9617 I constantly ask a Nahua friend of my cousins stuff like this and seems most of their stories have been passed down through oral tradition even though their writing system is still there but they don't understand it

[@pablohernandez2040]

This was such a great video! I would love it if you made more of these about the mayans, specifically from guatemala. I am mayan from the k'iche' and kaqchikel tribes in guatemala and am happy to hear about my history.

[@gibsoncash7932]

Please do the Inca family tree.

[@rogerwilco2]

This was more interesting than I would have initially thought.

[@francesgardner7070]

I would love to see one on Tikal (mostly because I've been there, so I'm partial)

[@theghosthero6173]

Cool video , I love mesoamerica, I hope you will cover the Mixtec dynasties or Purepecha, it would be very nice 👌

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

7:13 Age of Empires 2 Scenario editor!!!!

[@ianchen9217]

@UsefulCharts ummm.. I noticed that in Civ IV there is a leader for Maya called "Pacal the II" but there they are actually refering to Pakal the Great?

[@andreanah8614]

The " Red Queen" info would be great !

[@benedictewrstad8379]

It amazes me that we can know that much about a city/civilitazion that started going down when we up here in the Nordic countries started being noticed with our Viking ships. Good job to the maya!

[@Gameflyer001]

Palenque's been on my bucket list for a long time, ever since I studied the Mayans in grade 5, and watched the Voyage of the Mimi docuseries starring Ben Affleck on the topic.

[@halam899live8]

Great video today keep it up your doing amazing job 👊🏻👊🏻🎉🎉

[@ajitvyas905]

Can we do a video on kings of Lesotho and happy 99th video I think!

[@f66685]

Great video! All your charts are great. Will you be doing a chart of the family tree of the hindi gods? I really liked all the mythology ones and I was wondering if you would do the other religions and cultures.

[@kotaniyumiko]

Love the pre-Colombian cultures 😍🙌 Mayans, Haida, Cheyenne

[@rabbiteighteen4012]

Do Copan next !!

[@lukedanuser]

Got the Polish, Hungarian, Bohemian Greek, and Russian monarchs done. Working on Servmbians!

[@UsefulCharts]

When and where do we get to see?

[@lukedanuser]

UsefulCharts Hopefully after Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Romania. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to share it yet.

[@UsefulCharts]

​@@lukedanuser Instagram?

[@lukedanuser]

Don’t have one.

[@wealthycoyote9468]

You should do a family tree on Rasputin, or a tree showing relations between the us presidents

[@El-oHere]

Hey! Could you guys please try to do a family tree for the Malaysian monarchs? I mean in Malaysia we kinda have this thing where like most of the states take turns to make their monarch the monarch of Malaysia. It would be cool if you do it

[@thesynergyofblood]

Very interesting video, thank you ;-)

[@stickykeys2795]

I really like this chart! It looks neat. Did you change the style at all?

[@UsefulCharts]

Slightly. Using Adobe Illustrator now instead of LibreOffice.

[@AmigaX]

UsefulCharts Do you still use LibreOffice?

[@Inddesign]

I adore your charts! (like many People I am sure) and this one is great, I Just wish you could do a chart about the rulers of south america or something of the sort, but of course i do not make demands. I believe I descend From "guane" People, but my genealogical tree is a huge question, oh here I am feeling like a mongrel, hahahaha. Take care and thanks for all of your efforts! Stay safe.

[@fidelruiz7859]

You shuld do a chart for the mexican monarchy family tree

[@Revelationsfix]

I read this book called the mayan prophecies its a blue book and it shows how the border of pakalz is also put together and it forms a tiger i think its really cool it shows it u guys should check it out i would recomend it cool information

[@CitrusyGuy]

So I accidentally put this in a playlist, thanks me

[@-gemberkoekje-5547]

I am very happy right now :) I wish you all great happiness! Do something you are to be proud of! what makes you happy! :D I love you all! :D

[@fraternidademartinistaluzd1544]

Can you make one on HERMETIC TRADITION? From Trismegistus to Paracelsus, or even further like Éliphas Lévi and Stanislas de Guaita, passing through the rosicrucians, freemasons, alchemists..

[@MitziGoebel]

What sources did you use to get your information? Asking because I am in a history class and was curious

[@chepep0n]

2022 note: We now can read casper's real name, wich is cha'way or "the one who transfigures". Maya lords had this ritual quality of transfigurating into their gods via several rites, dances and self-sacrifice.

[@registab6239]

PLEASE PLEASE can you do the Saudi monarchy family tree , love from London

[@UsefulCharts]

It's scheduled for May 15

[@ush__]

Make Royal Family of Mysuru family tree please, Fan from India

[@Rhapbus1]

i still think Jack Rackam is a cool ass name for a Duke Nukem rip off

[@retf8977]

It was the name of a famous English (i think) pirate irl

[@painiteeclipse5647]

@@retf8977 Well it was spelled Rackham.

[@newjerseylion4804]

You need to do a xiu family of Mayan

[@davidjorden2433]

The last time I was this early was never.

[@nayyaminoo2975]

Please do a video on ancient chinese emperors

[@randomdude8493]

Please do a family tree for the Balochis, that would be very interesting. They are related to the Prophet Muhammad’s uncle Hamza, meaning they are also related to many Islealian people and the British Royals. They are also related to many Syrians, Arabs, Pakistanis, Iranis and Afghanis. The Hoath Baloch family tree would be very interesting. Please please please consider this an option for a future video!

[@HVLLOW99]

Can you do Calakmul & Tikal

[@aryanti088]

Hey, can you show me some olmec's kingdom (if is possible) rulers, because I searched it on the internet they won't gave any information about it

[@JaredJaredJared]

MAYANS!!

[@callmethecommentcountess9329]

I thought it would be longer since we also live in Mexico but it’s typical shorts

[@KenDelloSandro7565]

So the ahow is the chief of that particular Indian tribe. This is pretty amazing stuff.

[@dedrakuhn6103]

Wasn't pelenque a game on the price is right?

[@maamirm]

Can u make custom chart for me ?

[@MrSuwavex]

Can you do the Sultans of Sultanate Sulu and North Borneo please

[@willanaylor2306]

Useful charts what are you doing next

[@UsefulCharts]

Next week is the Bible video I mentioned in the community tab. My 100th video!

[@toksik6]

How do you make these charts?

[@peterk.9571]

Do Tikal!

[@florinlazar7404]

Luxembourg's grand duck's family tree!

[@JuanRuiz-cn1xo]

1:50 he looks more like el chacal from sabado gigante to me

[@roychase8268]

I’d love to see a family tree of the Nepal Royal Family. RIP

[@spirituallyours64whengnats69]

I see 2 owls & horseshoe crab possible lower area. Blue bloods.

[@marsjackson9026]

Please cite your sources. Who's chronology are you following?

[@costaluna8421]

Please do Majapahit Royal Family Tree and who would be its king if the kingdom is still exist

[@d.p.2375]

ooo finally a native american video

[@vojtechpikal183]

4:45 lot o qeens can also mean, that there were no male heirs available due deaths in armed conflicts, maybe?

[@instantinople3796]

Jack Rackam? The pirate?

[@athiboyshaktish5776]

Please do a family tree of the Mexican royal family

[@luismedina5792]

maybe I didn't read that right or if you did not type it but did you just say Royal?

[@anaz5918]

Mexico has never had any royal families there was a small period where Iturbide become Emperor but was shortly lived same with Maximiliano from the Habsburg line . If you are talking about Mesoamérica before Mexico become a country they were different tribes but the most well know were the Aztecs which he already made a video .

[@fsuccessfulf3664]

Family tree for Steve jobs .please

[@ajgibson1307]

God bless

[@carbony26]

Can you do the Inca next?

[@luismedina5792]

imagine being related to one of them

[@Amir-nq9ey]

The next video family tree of oguz trible and oguz khan

[@Ammmssk]

make one about georgia! and armenia

[@tartarianknight33]

make Kazakh Khanate Khans, they were direct descendants of Genghis Khan

[@jestersareawesome4332]

Do the Incas next!

[@screwthenet]

Just like the Japanese: they got 3 ways to write their language, and it will just bite em in the arse...in the end. lol :P Nice vid.

[@ghost4613]

😕 Who is Maya ??? 😕 Who is Viracocha ??

[@theonewhowokeup9987]

I was going through your Playlist and I realized that there are no archeological evidence shown in North American museums of rulers that walked this land let alone the tombs and mummies of rulers. Why is that? I'm very sure they are here in North America. All I've seen is pottery, tablets, small statues of deities it's almost like the are purposely hidden.

[@Udoch]

Snake Dynasty of Calakmul next?

[@spirituallyours64whengnats69]

Utz potato chips?

[@FreeJaffa92]

Hey Sorry to be a little nitpicky but the Maya were not a single culture, they are more of a cultural group.

[@UsefulCharts]

I think the more important point, which Jack made at the very beginning, is that they were not a single, unified political entity. Whether or not they had a single culture is relative. For example, you could say that New York has a different culture than Chicago but you could also say that they share a single American culture.

[@FreeJaffa92]

UsefulCharts Well to be clear I believe that different languages to me equal different cultures , there are 21 Mayan languages. To be clear I believe that different cultures split off from one another before their language does. To me the most appropriate Way to define the Mayans are as a culture group like slovs, Scandinavian, Latin, or germanic. I’m not criticizing the video just nitpicking over information I wish it was added. And also for the record i’m a strong believer in the book “11 American nations” it would definitely say Chicago and New York have different cultures

[@stormveil]

​@@FreeJaffa92 So just level of detail? Like saying 'European culture' rather than listing every state in Europe. Equally, someone could just prefer even greater detail, through regions, cities, neighbourhoods, wealth and subsistence type, size of settlement and environment. For the video in question I think this level of detail is fine. Also curious as to why you equate culture with language, when language boundaries are themselves rarely clear?

[@FreeJaffa92]

Stormveil I’m really not upset with the video. The point I’m trying to make is that the internal Mayan division are more extensive than individual kings. I try to compare it to a European context, external cultures may not see the differences between English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh but to in-groups do. The Mayan context were more culturally diverged than just having different leadership. The reason I use a language is that from my understanding of history is that A culture will have a court area where the language is used extensively/exclusively and then in areas with multiple lingual influences you get different cultures ie, Belgium(French/flemish/Dutch). I’m not really criticizing the video just pointing out a minor bug.

[@alexandarthedivine]

Hey, can you make a Harry Potter family tree? That would be great

[@faiz1699]

Do for Barack H. Obama..

[@elmajraz6019]

I thought you're gonna do the biblical one? Well, let me give you one tip on that one. And that tip is: You should not read timeline from the Masoretic version of the Bible. You must also read from the Septuagint and the Samaritan versions as well. Only take the similarities. Reject the odd one out of the three.

[@UsefulCharts]

Bible one is next week.

[@nikolaevkatesla3823]

When you see the Mayan family tree and compared to the ones of your country (Laughs in European)

[@UsefulCharts]

Keep in mind that European civilization was built upon thousands of years of connections between many diverse civilizations, going all the way back to Ancient Sumer. The Mayans, on the other hand, developed a complex calendar and writing system (and built massive stone structures) pretty much independently, based only on a few preceding civilizations like the Olmecs. That's pretty darn remarkable imho.

[@nikolaevkatesla3823]

UsefulCharts OMG thanks for taking the time to answer me, I already knew that it was just for the jokes Xd Pd: I am from Spain, could you make a video about how the Hasbours relate to the borbons ( I know that that it’s probably not how you write it but I hope you understand it)

[@qus.9617]

Feudalism and importance of family house and length history of many independent kingdoms. To the point that even females coming from an important house there is plenty of documentation. Plenty of stories, plenty of families, plenty of politics, plenty of conflict etc. Pretty cool. You don't really get that amount of details in China because feudalism just continued to lose political legitimacy (spring and autumn, warring states, quasi-feudal han dynasty and etc.) with every centralised dynasty that comes along. Great families are told to know their subservient place or be annihilated E.g. Zi/Yin (Shang), Ji (Zhou) Sima (Jin), Liu (Han), Li (Tang), Zhao (Song etc. So it is really cool history in Europe.. If you look at Europe, families rise and dip but they never really lose their complete relevency and continue to intermingle into important royal houses.

[@jwa-globalmarkettrading7678]

I'm taking $7billion to Jerusalem

[@jamesmatthew7368]

Palenque means market in Filipino lol 😂

[@AmigaX]

That was my idea

[@AmigaX]

Thanks for the heart, can you also pin my comment?

[@jasonmelvin9102]

If you couldn't draw it was really impossible to write anything lmao