18 Rabbit at a Glance
- Reign
- AD 695–738 — 43 years, 13th king of Copán’s Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ dynasty.
- Achievements
- The Great Plaza, the final ballcourt, Stelae A–D, the Rosalila temple buried intact.
- Hieroglyphic Stairway
- Commissioned by his successor — 2,200 glyphs, the longest Maya text.
- Death
- Captured 29 April 738 by Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá and beheaded 3 May 738.
I. Overview
18 Rabbit inherited a rich but provincial kingdom on the south-eastern frontier and made it the cultural capital of the Maya world. His sculptors carved portrait stelae of impossible delicacy; his architects buried the Rosalila temple whole — painted red, stucco-masked — inside a larger pyramid, where archaeologists found it intact in 1989. But his overreach proved fatal: Quiriguá, his small vassal on the Motagua jade route, rebelled with Calakmul’s backing and took the holy lord himself (WHE, “Copan”).
II. Timeline
The Athens of the Maya
18 Rabbit filled the Great Plaza with seven portrait stelae showing himself as gods of maize, sun and rain. He rebuilt the Acropolis, consecrated the Rosalila shrine to the founder Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ, and staged ballgames in the finest court in the lowlands. Copán’s scribes and astronomers were famed from Palenque to Tikal.
Quiriguá Rebels
On 29 April 738 Quiriguá’s king Kʼakʼ Tiliw — installed by 18 Rabbit himself in 724 — captured his overlord in battle. Four days later, on 3 May, 18 Rabbit was beheaded as a sacrifice. Quiriguá raised its own giant stelae to boast; Copán raised none for 18 years. The dynasty survived under Smoke Monkey, but never regained its glory.
III. Gallery
IV. Watch & Study
V. Sources
Primary sources
- WHE — “Copan”.
https://www.worldhistory.org/Copan/ - Britannica — “Copán”.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Copan - FAMSI / Mesoweb — Copán notes.
https://www.mesoweb.com/
He planted his image like maize in the plaza; the gods ate, and the city sang.— after Copán Stelae A–D