This stele depicts the celebration of a Flapstaff ritual in 746 A.D., where Bird-Jaguar, the son on the right, takes over the reins of power from his father, Shield Jaguar on the left. The flapstaff, or double-headed serpent bar, was a symbol of rulership, akin to a sceptre, and is depicted standing between the two figures. Shield-Jaguar had already been dead for four years when this event occurred and the son used the event retrospectively to legitimize his claim to the throne. Hieroglyphic texts around the scene, and in the panel at the bottom, record the event and the figures, and their time and place in the calendar and the cosmos. On the upper left in the lower panel, the first glyph with the long cigar-like shape is the place name of the city of Yaxchilan. Due to the great wealth of hieroglyphic inscriptions on its monuments, the site has been crucial in the discovery of historical information about the Maya, as well as the decipherment of their writing system.