archaeologist peter matthews. matthews: we can now read this entire inscription. it begins over here with the date, the verb of which is recorded here, saying literally, "he was born." it then moves directly into another date, and these numbers here represent 4 followed by the glyph for a 20-year period here. so 4 times 20 years, or roughly 80 years between those two dates. then we get a glyph here giving the event of the second date, he died. and then the name of the person who both was born and died, the great son, pacal, shown here by a shield sign, which is read "pacal" in mayan. finally, to end this first passage, we get "the holy lord of palenque," indicating that he was the king of palenque. keach: a king at the age of 12, pacal left a wealth of inscriptions that traces his lineage back six generations. his sons carried the lineage forward, to reveal a phenomenal record of a ruling maya dynasty. but the writing also revealed an abrupt and puzzling break in the dynastic succession. this is the palace, begun by pacal and continued by his sons, including kan x