K'awiil Scepter
The K'awiil scepter, often called the manikin scepter, is a short staff topped by a small figure of the Maya lightning god K'awiil, a deity shown with a mirror set in his forehead, an elongated snout and a serpent leg. Classic Maya rulers carried it as proof of divine kingship, and royal portraits at Copan, Tikal, Piedras Negras and Palenque show it held at accession and in dance rituals, its snake leg trailing to the ground. The forehead mirror links the scepter to the lightning that K'awiil sent forth, and the god himself belonged to the Palenque Triad of patron deities. Stelae record how th