HUUXTE'-K'UH AND THE ROLE OF ITS DYNASTY AT THE ROYAL COURT OF PALENQUE
The corpus of inscriptions from late classic Palenque (7th -8th centuries) (Chiapas, Mexico) contains a large amount of data on the representatives of the royal court of Bakal(ancient name of the state which capital was situated at Palenque). An analysis of the monuments shows that an influential group of people was present at the court of the Bakal rulers, who did not come from the capital, but were connected with the place called Huuxte'-K'uh. Palenque's connection with Huuxte'-K'uh' has been traced since the middle of the 6th century. The texts contain references to various members of it's dynasty. Several wives of the Bakal kings came from this place.The Huuxte'-K'uh dynasty is never mentioned to have a king title, nor it has a title of sajal, which indicates that they did not belong to the administrative stuff of the Bakal state, but had personal connections with the royal dynasty and had a great influence at the court of the Bakal kings.The own corpus of epigraphic sources from Huuxte'-K'uh was never found, therefore, attempts to localize this place are based on the mention of this toponym in the texts of other sites. Apart from Palenque, Huuxte'-K'uh is also mentioned in texts from Tortuguero, the political center located to the west from Palenque. Huuxte'-K'uh is mentioned in the context of military conflicts of the 644 and 655. Another mention is found on a stela from Pomoy, also a hitherto not localized center, which is supposedly located to the south or south-west from Palenque.An analysis of the references to the toponym Huuxte'-K'uh indicates that it can be linked to the Salto de Agua region on the Micol River. Archaeological evidence suggests that this region was located on the border of the territories controlled by Tortuguero and Palenque.Apparently, Huuxte'-K'uh was a domain, a part of the Bakal kingdom; it's dynasty retained a higher status than the governors-sajals. For a long time, the Palenque and Huuxte'-K'uh dynasties were closely linked by kinship and political relations. Representatives of Huuxte'- K'uh made up an influential group at the court of Palenque, and especially at times of dynastic crises provided substantial support to one or another candidate for the throne.