The fourteenth king of Tikal was Chak Tok Ich 'aak ( Great Jaguar Paw ) . Chak Tok Ich 'aak built a palace that was preserved and developed by later rulers until it became the core of the Central Acropolis . Little is known about Chak Tok Ich 'aak except that he was killed on 14 January 378 AD . On the same day , Siyah K ’ ak ’ ( Fire Is Born ) arrived from the west , having passed through El Peru , a site to the west of Tikal , on 8 January . On Stela 31 he is named as " Lord of the West " . Siyah K ’ ak ’ was probably a foreign general serving a figure represented by a non @-@ Maya hieroglyph of a spearthrower combined with an owl , a glyph that is well known from the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico . Spearthrower Owl may even have been the ruler of Teotihuacan . These recorded events strongly suggest that Siyah K ’ ak ’ led a Teotihuacan invasion that defeated the native Tikal king , who was captured and immediately executed . Siyah K 'ak ' appears to have been aided by a powerful political faction at Tikal itself ; roughly at the time of the conquest , a group of Teotihuacan natives were apparently residing near the Lost World complex . He also exerted control over other cities in the area , including Uaxactun , where he became king , but did not take no throne of Tikal for himself . Within a year , the son of Spearthrower Owl by the name of Yax Nuun Ayiin I ( First Crocodile ) had been installed as the tenth king of Tikal while he was still a boy , being enthroned on 13 September 379 . He reigned for 47 years as king of Tikal , and remained a vassal of Siyah K 'ak ' for as long as the latter lived . It seems likely that Yax Nuun Ayiin I took a wife from the preexisting , defeated , Tikal dynasty and thus legitimized the right to rule of his son , Siyaj Chan K 'awiil II .