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Twin-pyramid Complex
A twin-pyramid complex or twin-pyramid group was an architectural innovation of the Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. Twin-pyramid complexes were regularly built at the great city of Tikal in the central Petén Basin of Guatemala to celebrate the end of the 20-year '' kʼatun'' cycle of the Maya Long Count Calendar. A twin-pyramid complex has been identified at Yaxha, a large city that was to the southeast of Tikal. Another has been mapped at Ixlu,Martin and Grube 2000, p.51. and Zacpeten appears also to possess at least one twin-pyramid complex and possibly two. These examples outside of Tikal itself indicate that their cities were closely linked to Tikal politically. The basic layout of a twin-pyramid complex consists of identical pyramids on the east and west sides of a small plaza, with a walled enclosure to the north housing a sculpted stela-altar pair and a range building to the south. Plain monuments were generally raised at the foot of the east pyramid. The t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plaza And Pyramid, Tikal, Guatemala
A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Related concepts are the civic center, the market square and the village green. Most squares are hardscapes suitable for open market (place), markets, concerts, political rallies, and other events that require firm ground. They are not necessarily a true square, geometric square. Being centrally located, town squares are usually surrounded by small shops such as Bakery, bakeries, meat markets, cheese stores, and clothing stores. At their center is often a well, monument, statue or other feature. Those with fountains are sometimes called fountain squares. The term "town square" (especially via the term "public square") is synonymous with the politics of many cultures, and the names of a certain town squares, such as the Euromaidan or Red Squar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya Rulers
Maya monarchs, also known as Maya kings and queens, were the centers of power for the Maya civilization. Each Mayan cities, Maya city-state was controlled by a dynasty of kings. The position of king was usually inherited by the oldest son. Symbols of power Maya kings felt the need to legitimize their claim to power. One of the ways to do this was to build a temple or Mesoamerican pyramid, pyramid. Tikal Temple I is a good example. This temple was built during the reign of Yikʼin Chan Kʼawiil. Another king named Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal would later carry out this same show of power when building the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque. The Temple of Inscriptions still towers today amid the ruins of Palenque, as the supreme symbol of influence and power in Palenqusix. Succession Maya kings cultivated godlike personas. When a ruler died and left no heir to the throne, the result was usually war and bloodshed. King Pacal's precursor, Pacal I, died upon the battlefield. However, inste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesoamerican Ballcourt
A Mesoamerican ballcourt () is a large masonry structure of a type used in Mesoamerica for more than 2,700 years to play the Mesoamerican ballgame, particularly the hip-ball version of the ballgame. More than 1,300 ballcourts have been identified, 60% in the last 20 years alone. Although there is a tremendous variation in size, in general all ballcourts are the same shape: a long narrow alley flanked by two walls with horizontal, vertical, and sloping faces. Although the alleys in early ballcourts were open-ended, later ballcourts had enclosed end-zones, giving the structure an -shape when viewed from above. Ballcourts were also used for functions other than, or in addition to, ballgames. Ceramics from western Mexico show ballcourts being used for other sporting endeavours, including what appears to be a wrestling match. It is also known from archaeological excavations that ballcourts were the sites of sumptuous feasts, although whether these were conducted in the context of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yax Nuun Ayiin II
Yax Nuun Ahiin IIThe ruler's name, when transcribed is YAX-?-AYI:N, translated "First ? Calman", Martin & Grube 2008, p.51. also known as Ruler C and Chitam, (before 768-c.794), was an ''ajaw'' of the Maya city of Tikal Tikal (; ''Tik'al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Col .... He took the throne on December 25, 768 and reigning probably until his death.These are the dates indicated on the Maya inscriptions in Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, Accession: 9.16.17.16.4 11 K'an 12 K'ayab, Martin & Grube 2008, p.51. He was son of Yik'in Chan K'awiil and brother of 28th Ruler. The monuments associated with Yax Nuun Ahiin II are: Stelae 19, 21 and Altars 6 and 10.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.313. Notes Footnotes References * * Monarchs of Tikal 794 deaths 8th-century Maya people 8t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guatemala City
Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Department and the most populous urban metropolitan area in Central America. The city is located in a mountain valley called Valle de la Ermita () in the south-central part of the country. Guatemala City is the site of the native Maya civilization, Mayan city of Kaminaljuyu in Mesoamerica, which was occupied primarily between 1500 BCE and 1200 CE. The present city was founded by the Spanish after their colonial capital, now called Antigua Guatemala, was destroyed by the devastating 1773 Guatemala earthquake, 1773 Santa Marta earthquake and its aftershocks. It became the third royal capital of the surrounding Captaincy General of Guatemala; which itself was part of the larger Viceroyalty of New Spain in imperial Spanish America and remained und ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya Script
Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, is historically the native writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century BCE in San Bartolo, Guatemala. Maya writing was in continuous use throughout Mesoamerica until the Spanish conquest of the Maya in the 16th and 17th centuries. Though modern Mayan languages are almost entirely written using the Latin alphabet rather than Maya script, there have been recent developments encouraging a revival of the Maya glyph system. Maya writing used logograms complemented with a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing. Maya writing was called "hieroglyphics" or hieroglyphs by early European explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries who found its general appearance reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphs, although the two systems are unre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tikal Temple IV
Tikal Temple IV is a Mesoamerican pyramid in the ruins of the ancient Maya city of Tikal in modern Guatemala. It was one of the tallest and most voluminous buildings in the Maya world.Morales et al 2008, p.421. The pyramid was built around 741 AD. Temple IV is located at the western edge of the site core. Two causeways meet at the temple; the Tozzer Causeway runs east to the Great Plaza, while the Maudslay Causeway runs northeast to the Northern Zone. Temple IV is the second tallest pre-Columbian structure still standing in the New World, just after the Great Pyramid of Toniná in Chiapas, Mexico, although Teotihuacan's Pyramid of the Sun may once have been taller. The pyramid was built to mark the reign of the 27th king of the Tikal dynasty, Yikʼin Chan Kʼawiil, although it may have been built after his death as his funerary temple. Archaeologists believe that Yik'in Chan K'awiil's tomb lies undiscovered somewhere underneath the temple. The summit shrine faces eastward to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edwin Shook
Edwin M. Shook (22 November 1911 – 9 March 2000) was an American archaeologist and Mayanist scholar, best known for his extensive field work and publications on pre-Columbian Maya civilization sites. Shook was born in Newton, North Carolina. At age 22 he took a job as a draftsman at the Carnegie Institution of Washington which was to lead him into Mesoamerican studies from 1934 to 1998. In 1955, he became the field director of the University of Pennsylvania's Tikal Project, overseeing and publishing extensive work at Tikal, the largest Classic Maya site. Other Maya sites Shook worked at include Uaxactun, Copán, Mayapan, Kaminaljuyu, Piedras Negras, Palenque, Seibal, Chichen Itza, and Dos Pilas, in addition to pre-Columbian sites in Costa Rica. In 1998 Shook donated his archives to the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. He died at his home in Antigua Guatemala two years later. References Obituary EDWIN M. SHOOK by Michael Love* External links Video: 1960 interview with Ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Tozzer
Alfred Marston Tozzer (July 4, 1877 – October 5, 1954) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, linguist, and educator. His principal area of interest was Mesoamerican, especially Maya, studies. He was the husband of Margaret Castle Tozzer and father of figure skating champion Joan Tozzer. Early studies and career Alfred Tozzer was born in Lynn, Massachusetts to Samuel Clarence (1846–1908) and Caroline (née Marston, 1847–1926) Tozzer, and graduated in anthropology from Harvard University in 1900. That summer he entered field as an assistant to Harvard's Roland Dixon to study American Indian languages of California. The following year he collected linguistic and ethnographic data on the Navajos living near Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico. From these experiences he published his first paper, which he presented at the Thirteenth International Congress of Americanists held in New York in 1902. In December 1901, he won appointment as a traveling fellow for the Archaeolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teobert Maler
Teobert Maler, later Teoberto (12 January 1842 – 22 November 1917), was an explorer who devoted his energies to documenting the ruins of the Maya civilization. Biography Teobert Maler was born on January 12, 1842, in Rome, Italy, to Friedrich Maler, a diplomat representing the Grand Duchy of Baden, and Wilhelmine Schwarz. His mother passed away in 1844 during the family's return to Baden, leaving Maler and his sister to be raised by their father. The early loss of his mother profoundly shaped Maler’s character, fostering a sense of independence and emotional resilience. His relationship with his father was distant and strained, a dynamic Maler later described in his autobiography ''Leben meiner Jugend'' (''My Younger Years''). Maler studied engineering and architecture at the Polytechnic University in Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), where he gained technical expertise that later influenced his detailed documentation of Maya ruins. In 1863, he moved to Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
