Corpus Volume 16

Cancuen Stela 1: Cobán, Alta Verapaz, and Santa Elena, Peten, Guatemala

It has long been known that the lower half of Stela 1 from Cancuen is in a school room in Cobán, Alta Verapaz (Figure 1), but perhaps not so well known is that the upper half is in a school courtyard in Santa Elena, Petén (Figure 2). The story of how they got there is unknown to me. Someone created a plaque with the two halves photographically combined, a plaque on display in the Santa Elena schoolyard and in possession of the school principal in Cobán (Figure 3). Perhaps one or more of our readers know the history and would like to add that to this blog in the future.

This year, during a three-month photographic field season, I shot the upper and lower halves, including front and back and the two edges: Cobán on March 26 and Santa Elena on April 3, 2025. I developed the images in June after returning home, combining the upper and lower halves, and I present them here for their value to Classic Maya history. The overall height is roughly 2.50 m, the width in the center is around .90 m and thickness is .16 to .21 m.

I thank Ruud van Akkeren for arranging my work in Cobán and Bernhard Mittelstaedt for Santa Elena. School officials were gracious and welcoming in both cities.

Note: I have closeup drawing aids from multiple light angles for the glyphs and will be happy to share those with anyone who asks for them. Please write: brucelove9@gmail.com.

Vicinity Map: Locations of Cobán, Cancuen, and Santa Elena, Guatemala. Source of base map: Mundo Maya, Maya World. Edición Quimera (2007).
Figure 1. The lower half of Cancuen Stela 1 is in a classroom at Instituto Normal Mixto del Norte “Emilio Rosales Ponce” in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.
Figure 2. The upper half of Cancuen Stela 1 is in a courtyard at Escuela Normal Rural No. 5 “Prof Julio E. Rosado” in Santa Elena, Petén, Guatemala.
Figure 3. A plaque showing front and back, the two halves combined.

Photographs by Bruce Love.

Cancuen Stela 1: Cobán, Alta Verapaz, and Santa Elena, Peten, Guatemala (photographed 2025)
click on the image then the (i) in the lower right to view full image

Stela 1, Front, photo

Stela 1, Back, photo

Stela 1, Left Side, photo

Stela 1, Right Side, photo

Suggested Citation: Love, Bruce. “Corpus Volume 16: Cancuen Stela 1: Cobán, Alta Verapaz, and Santa Elena, Peten, Guatemala.” Contributions to Mesoamerican Studies, July 11, 2025. https://brucelove.com/corpus/corpus-volume-016.

Downloadable PDF: CtMS_Corpus_V016_Stela1_Cancuen_Guatemala

The corpus photographs and drawings may be freely used and distributed in non-commercial use and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0