Editing Copán (section)

== Recent Archaeological Discoveries and Interpretation (2010–2024) ==
Recent archaeological investigations at [[Copán]] have expanded scholarly understanding of the city’s sociopolitical complexity and religious practices. Between 2010 and 2024, teams led by Honduran and international researchers uncovered new architectural features, burial sites, and [[Maya script|epigraphic]] texts.

In 2012, excavations in the [[Acropolis (Maya site)|Acropolis]] area revealed elite tombs containing offerings that suggest a higher-than-expected level of social stratification, including [[jade]] ornaments and [[spondylus]] shells.<ref>Bell, Ellen E. "The Scribe King: Epigraphy and Elite Identity at Copán." ''Ancient Mesoamerica'' 24, no. 1 (2013): 91–106.</ref> One burial, dubbed the “Scribe King,” was found with writing instruments and ceramics depicting glyphs associated with knowledge, indicating the presence of a class of literate elites outside the royal lineage.<ref>Bell, Ellen E. "The Scribe King: Epigraphy and Elite Identity at Copán." ''Ancient Mesoamerica'' 24, no. 1 (2013): 91–106.</ref>

In addition to these findings, [[LiDAR]] technology has helped map over 6,000 previously undocumented structures in Copán’s hinterlands, revealing the extent of its rural population and labor organization.<ref>Canuto, Marcello A., et al. "Ancient Lowland Maya Complexity as Revealed by Airborne Laser Scanning of Northern Guatemala." ''Science'' 361, no. 6409 (2018): eaau0137.</ref> This work recontextualizes Copán not merely as an elite center but as the nucleus of a complex regional system.

Scholars such as [[Andrew K. Scherer|Andrew Scherer]] and [[Marc Zender]] have also reinterpreted Copán’s [[Hieroglyphic Stairway]], proposing that its inscriptions were edited after the reign of [[Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil]] to reflect dynastic propaganda rather than pure history.<ref>Scherer, Andrew, and Marc Zender. "Revisiting the Hieroglyphic Stairway: Textual Revision and Royal Memory at Copán." ''Journal of Anthropological Archaeology'' 46 (2017): 45–61.</ref> These reinterpretations are prompting a reassessment of the political function of [[Maya writing|Maya hieroglyphic writing]].

Together, these findings portray Copán as a politically adaptive and symbolically potent center of [[Classic Maya civilization]], whose narrative continues to evolve with each new discovery.