Scroll Serpent

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title: "Scroll Serpent" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["kings-of-calakmul", "6th-century-maya-people", "7th-century-maya-people", "6th-century-monarchs-in-north-america", "7th-century-monarchs-in-north-america"] description: "Ruler of the Kaan kingdom from 579 to 611" topic_path: "general/kings-of-calakmul" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scroll_Serpent" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Ruler of the Kaan kingdom from 579 to 611 ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox royalty"]

Field	Value
name	Uneh Chan
(Scroll Serpent)
title	Ajaw
succession	King of Calakmul/Dzibanche
reign	2 September 579 – 611
predecessor	Yax Yopaat
successor	Yuknoom Ti' Chan
spouse	Lady Scroll-in-Hand?
issue	Yuknoom Ti' Chan
Tajoom Uk'ab K'ahk'
Yuknoom Head
Yuknoom Ch'een II
royal house	Snake dynasty
father	Ut Chanal
birth_place	Dzibanche
death_date	611
death_place	Dzibanche
religion	Maya religion
::

| name =Uneh Chan (Scroll Serpent) | title =Ajaw | image = | image_size = | caption = | coronation = | full name = | succession =King of Calakmul/Dzibanche | reign = 2 September 579 – 611 | predecessor =Yax Yopaat | successor =Yuknoom Ti' Chan | spouse =Lady Scroll-in-Hand? | issue = Yuknoom Ti' Chan Tajoom Uk'ab K'ahk' Yuknoom Head Yuknoom Ch'een II | royal house = Snake dynasty | father =Ut Chanal | mother = | birth_date = | birth_place = Dzibanche | death_date = 611 | death_place = Dzibanche | date of burial = | place of burial = | religion = Maya religion | signature = |}} Scroll Serpent (Uneh Chan) was a Maya ruler of the Kaan kingdom. He ruled from AD 579 to 611. He acceded on 2 September.

Reign

Inscriptions at Palenque record two long-range attacks by Kaan during the reign of this powerful king in the years following the eclipse of Tikal's power and the ascendency of the Snake kingdom. In the dry season of AD 599 and then again 611 his forces crossed the Usumacinta River and struck Lakamha', the very center of Palenque.

Scroll Serpent maintained an existing relationship by overseeing an action of Yajaw Te' K'inich II of Caracol at some point before 583.

There are no Scroll Serpent monuments at Calakmul today.

Scroll Serpent's celebration of the 9.8.0.0.0 k'atun ending is recorded on both Stela 8 and Stela 33. Stela 33, erected by Yuknoom the Great in 657, appears to combine the focus on Scroll Serpent with a statement of Yuknoom the Great's birth in 600, suggesting that he was a son of Scroll Serpent. If so, the three rulers who intervened between Scroll Serpent and Yuknoom the Great – Yuknoom Ti' Chan, Tajoom Uk'ab K'ahk' and Yuknoom Head – might also have been sons of Scroll Serpent.

That Scroll Serpent erected no monuments of his own at Calakmul is suggested by the retrospective references to his activities by Yuknoom Ch’een II and Yuknoom Took' K'awiil, given that there are more likely to be accounts of the activities of previous rulers when their own accounts are not in evidence. An absence of Scroll Serpent’s monuments at Calakmul is consistent with the hypothesis that the Kaan dynasty was located elsewhere at this time, perhaps at Dzibanche.

Scroll Serpent’s logistical achievement in attacking Lakamha’ was all the more impressive since it quite possibly originated even further away from Palenque than the eventual capital of the Kaan kingdom in Calakmul. During the reign of Scroll Serpent, Kaan may have been centered at Dzibanche.

Scroll Serpent's wife was possibly Lady Scroll-in-Hand.

References

References

1. [http://www.traditionalhighcultures.org/Calakmul_chronology.pdf Calakmul Stela 114 ] {{webarchive. link. (2009-11-17)
2. ''Maya political science : time, astronomy, and the cosmos''. Author: Prudence M Rice. "It is known from later stelae that the Calakmul ruler Scroll Serpent (579–611) ..."
3. [[Simon Martin (Mayanist). Martin]] and Grube 2008:39, 104–105
4. ''Historical Dictionary of Ancient Mesoamerica'' by Walter R. T. Witschey, Clifford T. Brown.
5. Martin and Grube 2008:105–106
6. [https://books.google.com/books?id=LdCvyJzl27gC&dq=Scroll+Serpent+Calakmul&pg=PA119 ''Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs, 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1903, Dio 1903''] by Steve Glassman, Armando Anaya
7. ''Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens'' by Simon Martin and [[Nikolai Grube]]
8. [[Simon Martin (Mayanist). Simon Martin]], personal communication 2002{{what?. (December 2014)
9. ''Martin and Grube'' 2008:101–103

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