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Kan B'ahlam I is the final ancestor mentioned in the inscriptions of the Temple of the Cross Tablet, a monument commissioned by his dynastic namesake, Kan B'ahlam II. He is introduced with a sudden variation in the pattern of the narrative whereby a Distance Number of between 25 and 42 years counts forward from the birth of a given ruler to his accession. Here we see the comparatively much smaller Distance Number of 1 day, 1 month, and 1 year (U6-T7) counting forward from the birth (U7) of the previous ruler, Ahkal Mo' Nahb' II (T9), to another verb for birth rather than accession (U9). The glyphs U9 and T10 read "and then he was born Kan B'ahlam". The short interval of just over a year between the births suggests that Ahkal Mo' Nahb' and Kan B'ahlam were brothers, probably sons of the fifth Palenque ruler, K'an Joy Chitam I. The latter ruled for over 35 years and died at the advanced age of seventy-four. So his elder son Ahkal Mo' Nahb' did not inherit the throne until he was in his forties. When he died after ruling for only five years, his younger brother Kan B'ahlam followed him on the throne. The Calendar Round date at the end of the passage, 7 Kan 17 Mol (U10-T11), is that associated with the birth of Ahkal Mo' Nahb' rather than Kan B'ahlam, as might have been expected given the sentence structure. |