Location: Tikal, El Petén Department Map
Found: 4th century BC
Tikal Archaeological Site is an important Mayan archeological site that gained a title of UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tikal ancient site located in El Petén Department of Guatemala. Tikal Archaeological Site is one of the most important Mayan sites in the region. During its heyday Tikal was the capital of one of the most powerful city states. Archeological digs still continue, but scientists already uncovered over three thousands buildings of various sizes. Some of the most interesting sites of Tikal Archaeological Site include six large pyramids in the historic center that date back to VII- VIII centuries. In addition to traditional notation Roman numerals that archeologists usually give to major buildings, these temples received romantic names including Temple of Jaguar, Temple of Masks, Temple of Inscriptions and many others.
Tikal (or Tik'al, according to the modern Mayan orthography) is
one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the
pre-Columbian Mayan civilization. It is part of the Tikal National
Park, which was declared a World Heritage Site, by Unesco, in 1979.
According to the glyphs found in the site, its Mayan name would have
been Yax Mutul.
Tikal was the capital of a belligerent state,
which became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya,
although the monumental architecture of the site dates back to the
fourth century BC. Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic
Period, between 200 and 900 AD. During this time, the city dominated
great part of the Mayan region, in the political, economic and
military scope and maintained links with other regions, throughout
Mesoamerica, even with the great metropolis of Teotihuacan, in the
distant Valley of Mexico. After the Late Classic, no major monuments
were built. With a long list of dynastic rulers, the discovery of
many of their respective tombs and the study of their monuments,
temples and palaces, Tikal is probably the best understood of the
great Mayan cities of the lowlands of Mesoamerica.
Tikal Archaeological Site is an unique place among
other Mayan sites. In addition to its historic and archaeological
significance, Tikal is also famous for its extensive work on
conservation of rare and endangered species of wild animals such as
ocelots, peccaries, monkeys, parrots and jaguars.
The name Tikal can be a derivation of the words ti ak'al, in the
Yucatec Mayan language, meaning "in the water well". Apparently, the
name was applied by hunters and travelers from the region and
referred to one of the ancient water reserves of the site. An
alternative explanation suggests that the name comes from the Mayan
Itza language and means "place of voices", or "place of languages".
However, Tikal is not the old name of the site, but rather the
name that was adopted shortly after its rediscovery, in the 1840s.
The glyphic inscriptions in Maya writing, in the ruins, refer to the
ancient city as Yax Mutal or Yax Mutul, whose meaning is "first
mutal." It is possible that Tikal was so named to distinguish it
from Dos Pilas, which came to use the same emblem glyph. The rulers
of the city, apparently, wanted to distinguish themselves as the
first city bearing this name.The kingdom, as a whole, was called
Mutul, being the reading of the emblem glyph. Its exact meaning is
not clear, although some scientists think that it refers to the
hairstyle of the Ku'hul Ahaw, or ruler.
There are traces of an early agriculture in Tikal, dating from
the Middle Preclassic, around 1000 BC. In a sealed chultún, an
underground cavity in the shape of a bottle, a hiding place with
Mayan pottery was discovered, dating from around 700 to 400 BC. In
the late preclassic, for the first time around 400 to 300 BC.,
already important constructions in Tikal were realized, including
the construction of pyramids and platforms, although the city was
being eclipsed by other more powerful sites, located to the north,
like the Mirador and Nakbé.
At that time, Tikal was part of
the Chikanel culture, which dominated the central and northern zone
of Mesoamerica, a region that included the entire Yucatan Peninsula,
including the north and east of Guatemala and the territory of
Belize. Two temples, dating from the late Chikanel, had masonry
walls, whose superstructures may have been Mayan arches, although
this has not been proven. One of these temples had elaborate
paintings, on the outer walls, showing human figures on a background
of decorative figures, painted in yellow, black, pink and red.
In the 1st century AD, rich graves appeared for the first time
and Tikal experienced a political and cultural flowering, after the
decline of its powerful neighbors in the north. At the end of the
Late Preclassic period, Izapa art and architecture, from the Pacific
coast, began to exert its influence in Tikal, as evidenced by the
first murals in the city and a sculpture in the acropolis.
The dynastic government, a common regime among the Maya of the
lowlands, was strongly rooted in Tikal. According to later glyphic
records, the dynasty was founded by Yax-Moch-Xoc, possibly in the
third century. At the beginning of the Early Classic, power in the
Maya region was concentrated in Tikal and Calakmul, in the core of
the central Maya region. It is possible that Tikal has benefited
from the fall of the great Preclassic states, such as
El Mirador. In the
Early Classic, Tikal developed rapidly in the most dynamic city of
the Mayan region, stimulating the development of other nearby Mayan
cities.
However, Tikal was often at war and the inscriptions
mention alliances and conflicts with other Mayan states, such as
Uaxactún, El Caracol, Naranjo and Calakmul. At the end of the Early
Classic, Tikal was defeated by El Caracol, which replaced Tikal, as
the main center of power, in the southern Maya lowlands. During the
first part of the Early Classic period, hostilities also took place
between Tikal and the neighboring city of Uaxactún, of which there
are inscriptions in Uaxactún regarding the capture of Tikal
prisoners. There seems to have been a break in the male succession
of the dynasty, in 317 AD., when Une 'B'alam carried out an
end-of-katun ceremony, apparently as queen of the city.
The fourteenth king of Tikal was Chak Tok Ich'aak (Great Jaguar
Claw) Chak Tok Ich'aak built a palace, which was preserved and
enlarged by later rulers, until it became the nucleus of the central
acropolis. Little is known about Chak Tok Ich'aak, except that he
was murdered on January 14, 378 AD. On the same day, Siyah K'ak '('
Fire is born ') arrived from the west, after passing through El
Perú, a site west of Tikal, on January 8. The inscriptions on Stela
31 refer to him as "Lord of the West." Siyah K'ak 'was probably a
foreign general, serving a figure represented by an atypical glyph
for the Maya, composed of a spear thrower. , in combination with an
owl, a glyph that is known from the great metropolis of Teotihuacan,
in the distant Valley of Mexico. The spear-throwing owl, even, may
have been the ruler of Teotihuacan. These recorded events suggest
that Siyah K'ak 'led an invasion of Teotihuacan, which defeated the
native king of Tikal, who was captured and executed
immediately.Siyah K'ak' seems to have received the support of a
powerful political faction, in Tikal himself. More or less
coinciding with that conquest, a group of Teotihuacan Indians
resided near the Mundo Perdido complex, it seems, and also exercised
control over other cities in the area, such as Uaxactún, where they
became king, but did not take the throne. of Tikal for himself In
the course of a year, the son of Búho spear thrower, Yax Nuun Ayiin
I (first crocodile), was installed as the tenth king of Tikal, while
he was still a boy. and Tikal remained a vassal of Siyah K'ak ',
during the time he lived. It seems likely that Yax Nuun Ayiin I
married one of the pre-existing wives of the defeated Tikal dynasty,
with the purpose of legitimizing the right to rule of his son, Siyaj
Chan K'awiil II.
Blue River, a small site, 100 kilometers
northeast of Tikal, was conquered by it, during the reign of Yax
Nuun Ayiin I. The site became an outpost of Tikal, protecting it
from the hostile cities in the north and It also became a link for
trade with the Caribbean.
Although the new rulers of Tikal
were foreigners, their descendants quickly adapted to the Mayan
culture. Tikal became the main ally and commercial partner of
Teotihuacan, in the Maya lowlands. After its conquest by
Teotihuacan, Tikal quickly dominated the north and east of Petén.
Uaxactún, along with the smaller towns of the region, were absorbed
in the kingdom of Tikal. Other sites, such as Bejucal and Motul de
San José, near Lake Petén Itzá, became vassals of its most powerful
neighbor in the north. By the middle of the fifth century, Tikal had
a core territory of at least 25 kilometers in all directions.
Residential development of the city occupied about 60 km². The
ancient settlement has hundreds of stone structures, of which only a
small part has been excavated so far. The city was built on rugged
terrain, where limestone hills were interspersed with swamps, because of
which the structures had to be built in groups, and then connected by
“sakbe” roads.
The Maya erected buildings from limestone, which
was mined directly in the city (the resulting ditches were later used to
supply water). The wooden structural elements are made of heavy
sapodilla wood and have been preserved despite their age.
The
heart of the city is the central square, bounded by two famous temples,
I and II, to the north of it is the North Acropolis, where there are
many pyramids with altars and stelae, and to the south - the Central
Acropolis, 45 two- and three-story buildings, supposedly serving as
palaces to the rulers and their families. In the distance stands the
Fifth Temple, behind which lies the unexplored South Acropolis. Next is
the Square of the Seven Temples and the complex of temples of Mundo
Perdido (“the lost world”). Among other structures, one can single out
the palaces of rulers, smaller temples, an observatory in Mundo Perdido,
a building that apparently served as a prison (lattices made of wooden
beams on the windows have been preserved), ball courts.
Well-preserved inscriptions helped to establish the dates of
construction of structures and the names of the rulers of the city.
Temple I built around 695,
Temple III in 810,
the largest
temple-pyramid IV, 72 meters high, was completed by 720.
Temple V -
750.
Temple VI - 766.
The largest temples
All the largest
temples were built as funerary ones. The Maya considered the pyramids to
be analogues of the mountains, on which, according to their beliefs, the
spirits of the dead live. Before construction, apparently, models of
buildings were made from limestone.
The northern acropolis was
the burial-temple complex of the most ancient, preclassical rulers of
Tikal. About 250 AD. e. The acropolis was razed to the ground and
rebuilt.
Another preclassical complex, Mundo Perdido (the "lost
world"), was largely explored in the 1970s by Guatemalan archaeologists
and included an observatory and, with it, the center of the city's
ritual life.
The twin pyramids are a typical example of Mayan
architecture expressing the model of the world: next to the two
stargazing platforms, in the south, there is a building with nine doors,
symbolizing the underworld, and in the north, a fenced area with a
stele. Similar plots were found on the lids of sarcophagi in Pakala: the
World Tree with a fence in the north, in the south - a building with
nine doors and the mouth of the underworld. The northern acropolis and
the central square also made up such an ensemble, and temples I and II,
built later, played the role of double pyramids.
Research
The
first mention of the ruins of Tikal by Spanish authors dates back to the
17th century. In 1848, the first scientific expedition was organized to
explore the settlement.
In the 19th - early 20th centuries there
were several of them, drawings were taken from the bas-reliefs and
inscriptions. In 1951, an airstrip was built to facilitate access to the
facility. In 1957-1970, a large amount of work was carried out by the
staff of the University of Pennsylvania at Tikal. In 1979 the government
of Guatemala organized a new archaeological project in Tikal, work
continues.