Stela C: Cauac Sky's portrait on south side of stela
To help keep track of the Quirigua Monuments, here is a link to a spreadsheet of most of the Quirigua monuments in chronological order, with dedication date, ruler, and associated details from inscriptions. There are also links from the spreadsheet monument number to the section devoted to that monument.
Monument 3: Stela C, South Side. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
Cauac Sky's portraits on all of his stelae look, at first glance, almost cartoonishly bland and simplistic, but even so, his features are consistently recognizable across the entire range of his long stela building career. Although his earliest stelae (Stelae H and J) show him beardless, he wears a short goatee in all later stelae beginning with Stela F, and is always recognizable.
This stela is about 12 feet in hight. Cauac Sky stands barefoot on a platform of glyphs instead of on a more traditional earth-monster mask, and is holding a traditional double-headed ceremonial bar across his chest.
Monument 3: Stela C, South Side. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
The heads on Cauac Sky's double-headed ceremonial bar appear to be jaguar heads, and he wears a three-tiered headdress which in badly eroded above the first layer.
Monument 3: Stela C, South Side. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
Cauac Sky is standing on a row of four glyphs instead of the usual earth-monster mask.
Monument 3: Stela C, West Side. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
This glyph of a hand scattering some precious substance is thought to represent an offering, possibly of incense. It occurs in the text on the west side of the stela.
Regarding the text, Robert Sharer writes: "The west side bears a historical Initial Series date of 9.1.0.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Yacxkin (455 A.D.) followed in the sixth row from the top by glyphs representing a ruler's title and Quirigua'a "emblem glyph."
It would appear that the west side date and text refer to an early Quirigua ruler, perhaps the founder of the site or its ruling dynasty. The 9.1.0.0.0 date is several decades before the earliest known Quirigua stelae, Monuments 21 and 26. The later of these, Monument 26 at 9.2.1.8.0.0 or 493 A.D., seems to refer to the third or fourth ruler in Quirigua's dynastic succession. Thus, Monument 3, while carved 325 years later, appears to contain the earliest historical reference at Quirigua."
Monument 3: Stela C, West Side. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
Another interesting glyph from the text on the west side of Stela C.
Monument 1: Stela A, East Side. Erected by Cauac Sky in A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
Stela A stands at the entrance to the site and is a frontal portrait of Cauac Sky. "The east and west sides ar sculpted with two columns of large hieroglyphs. The east side [shown in photo] opens with a dedicatory date in bar-and-dot notation, 9.17.5.0 6 Ahau 13 Kayab. The continuing inscription of the west side of the monument includes a phrase referring to Quirigua's greatest ruler, Cauac Sky, in his fifth katun of life (between 79- and 98- years old) when this monument was carved."
Robert J. Sharer, Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center & Its Sculptures, Carolina Academic Press, 1990, p. 26
Carolyn Tate, in "Trees of Paradise and Pillars of the World", mentiones that stelae and other sculptured monuments had proper names, which were often related to particular supernaturals depicted in their imagery, usually those that appear in the ruler's headdress or emerge from the ends of his serpent-bar scepter. Stuart (1996: 165) has also observed that stelae are often named for the period endings they commemorate, bearing such appellatives as Six Ahau Tun (the hieroglyphic name of Stela A at Quirigua, dedicated on 9.17.5.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Kayab).
Monument 1: Stela A, South Side. Erected by Cauac Sky in A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
Monument 1: Stela A, East Side. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
Monument1: Stela A, West Side. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
Monument 2: Zoomorph B. Erected by Cauac Sky in 780 A.D. or 9.17.10.0.0 longcount.
"A large boulder ca. 4 m (12 feet) long and 2 m (6 feet) high sculpted entirely over its upper surface to represent a grotesque two-headed monster. The overall form of this carving like other "zoomorphs" at Quirigua, represents a fundamental Maya cosmological concept embodied in a bicephalic reptilian (crocodilian) monster."
Robert J. Sharer, Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center & Its Sculptures, Carolina Academic Press, 1990, p. 28-9
Monument 2: Zoomorph B. Erected by Cauac Sky in 780 A.D. or 9.17.10.0.0 longcount.
"Emerging from the wide-open jaws of its south-facing head is the upper portion of a human figure, probably a portrait of Cauac Sky."
Robert J. Sharer, Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center & Its Sculptures, Carolina Academic Press, 1990, p. 28-9
NOTE: Remnants of the original red paint is still visible on this monument.
Monument 7: Zoomorph G. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
"The second colossal boulder carved over its entire upper surface, located on the northern Plaza Platform (4.4 m long and 1.2 m height). It appears to represent a composite mythological creature with predominant feline (jaguar) characteristics along with possible amphibian (toad?) traits. Note the jaguar mouth and fangs (north side) as well as the clawed front and rear paws with dappled spots. But also note the additional possible representations of scales(?) and poison glands behind the eyes typical of the sacred tropical toad, bufo marinus."
Robert J. Sharer, Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center & Its Sculptures, Carolina Academic Press, 1990, p. 42-3
Monument 7: Zoomorph G. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
"Monument 7 is bicephalic, but its principal head faces north, unlike all other sculptures in the northern cluster, toward Structure 1A-3."
Robert J. Sharer, Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center & Its Sculptures, Carolina Academic Press, 1990, p. 44
Monument 7: Zoomorph G. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
"Emerging from the open jaguar jaws of both heads is the upper portion of a human figure, now eroded, apparently representing Cauac Sky. Since this sculpture is best described as Cauac Sky's funerary monument, the jaguar theme is appropriate, given this creature's association with the night and the underworld in Maya ideology."
Robert J. Sharer, Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center & Its Sculptures, Carolina Academic Press, 1990, p. 44
Monument 7: Zoomorph G. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
"The hieroglyphic text may be found on two panels on each side. The inscription on the east side begins at the southern end of the lower panel, recording the dedicatory date 9.17.15.0.0 using head-variant numerals. A series of dates are counted from this on the west side. One of these, 9.17.14.13.0 (784 A.D.), appears to refer to the death of Cauac Sky. Another at 9.17.14.16.18 9 Eznab 1 Kanklin, some 78 days later, probably records the accession of his successor, a ruler named Sky Xul. Thus, Monument 7 is seemingly Cauac Sky's death or funerary monument, as well as a commemoration of the inauguration of his successor (and son?). The fact that Monument 7 is facing the center of Structure 1A-3 may be an indication that Cauac Sky's tomb lies within or beneath this structure. However, following this clue in 1977, the Quirigua Project trenched and tunneled through the north-south axis of Structure 1A-3 without turning up a single sign of a tomb. Cauac Sky's final resting place remains unlocated, although it may still lie within an unexcavated portion of Structure 1A-3 or, perhaps more likely, within the northern Plaza Platform itself."
Robert J. Sharer, Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center & Its Sculptures, Carolina Academic Press, 1990, p. 44
Monument 7: Zoomorph G. Erected by Cauac Sky in 775 A.D. or 9.17.5.0.0 longcount.
"A broken pottery box, with cover, containing a single obsidian blade-core found beneath Monument 7 by Morris and Stromsvik in 1934."
Robert J. Sharer, Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center & Its Sculptures, Carolina Academic Press, 1990, p. 45