The end of the Classic period in the Southern Maya Lowlands is known as a time of political collapse and site abandonment. Not all settlements, however, were abandoned and some even prospered during the Terminal Classic period (ca. 810-1000 CE). This talk presents new archaeological data from one of these prospering settlements, the ancient city of Ucanal, the capital of the K’anwitznal kingdom. Research at the site by the Proyecto Arqueológico Ucanal documents an early 9th century fire-burning event at the Maya site of Ucanal and argues that it marked a momentous moment in not only the political history of the kingdom, but in the political transition between the Late Classic (ca. 600-810 CE) and Terminal Classic period in the Southern Maya Lowlands. The fire-burning rite involved the destruction of an earlier dynastic line, in which the contents of a Late Classic royal tomb were taken out and burned. Although this momentous event was seemingly an ending, it was really just the beginning. This talk outlines the ways in which the K’anwitznal polity reinvented itself in the Terminal Classic period. In particular, it examines new types of public buildings, new interregional connections, and new ceremonial practices that would become the foundations of later Postclassic (ca. 1000-1521 CE) practices.