Editing Quiriguá (section)

===Decline and collapse===
Little is known of "Jade Sky", who succeeded "Sky Xul" and was the last recorded ruler of Quiriguá. The city's power already was waning, as evidenced by the two stunted stelae erected during his reign, which indicate that the kingdom no longer had access to the kind of resources needed to produce monuments of a similar quality to those of his predecessors. "Jade&nbsp;Sky" did build two of the largest structures in the acropolis, however.<ref name="MG224">Martin & Grube 2000, p.224.</ref>

[[File:Stela H east.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Eroded and unreadable hieroglyphs forming a diagonal interlace pattern|The badly eroded east face of Stela H.<ref>Looper 2003, p.93</ref>]]

Quiriguá apparently retained its independence from Copán and continued to flourish until the beginning of the 9th century.<ref name="Drew242"/> Relations between the two cities had improved somewhat by 810, when king [[Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat]] of Copán visited Quiriguá in order to carry out a ''[[katun (Maya calendar)|k'atun]]''-ending ritual.<ref>Webster 2002, p.303.</ref><ref>Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.483.</ref> However, 810 was also the year when the last hieroglyphic texts were raised at Quiriguá, although a reduced level of construction continued in the city centre.<ref>Demarest ''et al.'' 2005, p.556.</ref> After this, Quiriguá falls into silence, engulfed by the greater phenomenon of the [[Classic Maya collapse]]&nbsp;– it had lost its reason for existence when trade no longer flowed along the Motagua;<ref>Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.527.</ref> within a few years Quiriguá was all but deserted and sites throughout the Motagua Valley suffered severe decline or abandonment.<ref name="MG225">Martin & Grube 2000, p.225.</ref>