The ancient Mayan city of Tikal, in present-day Guatemala, flourished between 600 BC. C. Y. 900 A. D. approximately. Starting as a modest series of villages, it is a gigantic Mayan city-state with more than two dozen primary pyramids.
The so-called “Tikal” is a fashionable Mayan call that means “in the water well”. In ancient times, it was known as Mutul and in the midst of a harsh Mayan kingdom, wrote archaeologist Robert Sharer, curator of the Penn Museum, in his e-book “The Ancient Maya, Sixth Edition (opens in a new tab)” (Stanford University Press, 2005). Tikal is one of the largest archaeological sites in Central America and is part of Tikal National Park.
At its peak between 682 and 909 A. D. , the town stretched over at least 50 square miles (130 square kilometers), wrote John Montgomery, a researcher who studied and wrote extensively about the Maya, wrote in his e-book “Tikal: An Illustrated History of the ancient Mayan capital (opens in a new tab)” (Hippocrene Books, 2001). Demographic estimates vary, but most likely between 45,000 and 62,000 more people lived in the city at the height of its power, wrote David Webster, professor emeritus of anthropology at Penn State University, in his e-book “The Population of Tikal: Implications for Mayan Demography (opens in a new tab)” (Archaeopress, 2018). This has made it one of the largest villages in the region.
To house such a large population, city dwellers created a complicated water control formula that ensured other people’s access to water in periods of little rainfall, according to a study published in 2012 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (opens in a new tab). It included a formula of dams and reservoirs, as well as a sand filtration formula that was used to evacuate water. It was used for about 1000 years, until the collapse of the city in the tenth century.
Like the population of other Mayan cities, the population of Tikal used a glyptic writing formula inscribed on the stone and on a perishable curtain made from the bark of trees (most of which have not survived). Researchers were to decipher the writing, which, along with the city’s archaeological remains, helped them reconstruct much of Tikal’s past.
Tikal is located in a region of Central America that has many other Mayan remains. In 2018, researchers detected more than 60,000 Mayan structures unknown in the past in Guatemala, adding pyramids, houses, and defensive fortifications. They used lidar (short for “light detection”) and range), which works by sending laser pulses to the ground from an airplane. When the pulses bounce, their wavelengths are measured to create a three-dimensional virtual symbol of the archaeological remains on the ground.
Stone-carved buildings were first built in Tikal around 200 BC. while the “Lost World” complex, one of the first monumental sites of Tikal, was completed around year 1. The first population of Tikal were Maya, although they were probably influenced by the population of a people called Teotihuacan. The first population of Tikal probably spoke Mayan languages, he said.
Teotihuacan was a town in central Mexico more than 1,000 km away that flourished approximately between 100 BC. AD and six hundred AD. Above the village. Mayan writing, in addition to the inscriptions discovered in Tikal, refers to the people with a glyph that translates as “spinning wheel reed”, and teotihuacan artistic motifs, such as depictions of the rain god Tlaloc, also appear in Tikal.
A notable example of Teotihuacan influence occurred on September 13, 379, when it is recorded that a ruler named Siyaj K’ak’ ascended to Tikal. He is depicted in sculptures with feathers and shells and holding an atlatl (spear thrower), features usually related to Teotihuacan, he wrote. This would possibly mean that he was originally from Teotihuacan or strongly influenced or supported through them when he became king.
Another notable example of Teotihuacan’s influence on the Mayan people is a pyramid and courtyard in Tikal that appear to be a miniature edition of a pyramid complex in Teotihuacan now known as La Ciudadela or “La Ciudadela”. Tikal researchers announced the discovery of miniature editing in 2021 and dated it around 250 AD. C. , a time when Teotihuacan. La miniature edition flourished has the same design and orientation as the Citadel and has artifacts similar to Teotihuacan, such as pottery and dart tips, and a tomb.
Tikal stands out for its numerous pyramids. Ambitious pyramidal structure projects were motivated in part by the famous Mayan calfinishar. Beginning at least in 672 A. D. , the city’s rulers built a complex of double pyramids at the end of each K’atun (20-year period). of those flat-topped pyramids, built next to his binocular and contained a staircase on each of its sides. Between the pyramids a square whose structures were arranged to the north and south.
One of the earliest examples built by the Jasaw ruler Kaan K’awil around 700 AD. C. in his book. So far, archaeologists have discovered nine such dual pyramid complexes at Tikal; its structure turns out to have continued until the end of the city.
In addition to the dual pyramid complexes, the rulers of Tikal also built “temple” pyramids, structures that marked the burial position of a ruler. Two of them, known today as Temples I and II, face each other in the middle of the city, with the giant square of Tikal between them.
Temple I, also known as the Temple of the Great Jaguar, built around the year 730. It rises 44 meters (145 feet) above the ground, about the height of a 13-story building. A staircase climbs a series of nine layers of steps and leads to a closed room in the most sensitive one that includes photographs of the ruler for whom it was built: Jasaw Kaan K’awil. The king who led Tikal’s forces to victory over the city’s fiercest enemy: the rival Mayan city of Calakmul, located in what is now southern Mexico. In 1959, archaeologists discovered Jasaw Kaan K’awil’s burial chamber inside the pyramid, which contained many luxury items, plus jaguar skins, jade, and “delicately incised photographs of figures in canoes on human bones. “wrote Heather McKillop, a former professor in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University. in his e-book “The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives (opens in new tab)” (ABC-CLIO, 2004).
The pyramid in front of Jasaw Kaan K’awil, known today as Temple II or Temple of the Masks, is said to be dedicated to the sovereign’s wife, Lady Tun Kaywak. Investigators believe he was from the city of Yaxhá, about 30 km southeast of Tikal. His marriage to K’awil cemented a political alliance between the two cities. Its pyramid rises up to 125 feet (38 m) and consists of 3 floors. In the most sensitive part of a door, the symbol of a woman, believed to be Tun Kaywak, is carved from wood. “Lady Tun Kaywak wears embroidered stoles [a long shawl] and an elaborate sun god cap, her symbol is now seriously eroded and dewormed,” he wrote.
Just north of those two temples is a domain that is now known as the North Acropolis. It comprises pyramid-shaped temples and royal tombs, and is used as a burial place for the early rulers of Tikal. Montgomery wrote that “the tomb and shrines [are] equivalent to the ‘Valley of the Kings’ of Tikal. “
The North Acropolis turned out to have begun between the 350s and 200s and has been rebuilt several times throughout the city’s history, writes Herbert Stanley Loten, a professor of architecture at Carleton University in Ottawa, in a study published in the e-book. “Tikal: Dynasties, Foreigners”.
The city palace, also known as the Central Acropolis, is located south of Temples I and II. Like the North Acropolis, it has expanded and changed over time.
It was used at least since the reign of Chak Tok Ich’aak I, who ruled for about two decades around 375 AD. C. Su palace had a modest design containing stairs to the east and west and stone benches.
Over time, the palace expanded into a complex with part of a dozen courtyards and a water reservoir to the south. At the southern end of the complex is a five-story palace that “confers a pyramidal effect on terraces,” he wrote.
On the east side of the complex is a “checkpoint” that overlooks an I-shaped ball box that has been excavated. The ball game, which was popular in some parts of the Western Hemisphere at the time, was played with a rubber ball. , the precise rules of the game are unknown.
One of the first pyramids of Tikal was built around year 1 and is known as Mundo Perdido (in English, the “Lost World”). It is about a hundred feet (30 m) tall and, at the time, “represented one of the greatest oversized structures in pre-Columbian America,” he wrote.
The complex was “one of the first astronomical complexes of the Maya, the orientation of the pyramidal sanctuary allowed the calculation of the equinox and solstice,” he wrote. In this complex several rich burials have been discovered and possibly those of royalty.
Tikal and much of the Mayan global collapse around the year 900, some cities, such as Chichen Itza, about 400 km north of Tikal, continued to thrive for centuries. The explanation for the collapse is still debated. Drought, affected by deforestation, appears to have played an important role, reports a team of researchers in a study published in 2012 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters .
It is possible that pollution also played a major role in the collapse of the city. Two of Tikal’s largest water reservoirs had been severely contaminated with high levels of mercury and phosphate, scientists found in a study published in 2020 in the journal Scientific Reports (opens in a new tab).
The jungle recovered the village after its abandonment, covering its numerous pyramids with vegetation. However, not all Mayan peoples have been abandoned. In Yucatan, the town of Chichen Itza developed, becoming one of the largest Mayan villages after the collapse of Tikal.
But while Tikal and other cities have collapsed, the other Mayan peoples continue to live, with more than 7 million Maya living in Central America and other parts of the world today, notes the Smithsonian Institution.
Originally published in Live Science on September 26, 2012 and updated on August 5, 2022.
Owen Jarus is a regular contributor to Live Science who writes about archaeology and the afterlife of humans. He has written for The Independent (UK), The Canadian Press (CP) and The Associated Press (AP), among others. Owen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Journalism from Ryerson University.
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