Tikal (; 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. One of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, it is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now the Petén Department in northern Guatemala. The site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
Tikal was the capital of a state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 1. Hammond 2000, p. 233. Though monumental architecture at the site dates back as far as the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period, c. 200 to 900. During this time, the city dominated much of the Maya region politically, economically, and militarily, while interacting with areas throughout Mesoamerica such as the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. There is evidence that one of Tikal's great ruling dynasties was founded by conquerors from Teotihuacan in the 4th century AD. Following the end of the Late Classic Period, no new major monuments were built at Tikal and there is evidence that elite palaces were burned. These events were coupled with a gradual population decline, culminating with the site's abandonment by the end of the 10th century.
More has been uncovered about Tikal compared to other larger lowland Mayan cities, thanks to its long dynastic ruler list, which has allowed for the discovery of these rulers' tombs and investigation into their monuments, temples and palaces.Adams 2000, p.34.
After centuries of abandonment, the site was first explored in the modern era in 1848. Tikal National Park was established in 1955, protecting the site and of surrounding tropical forests, savannas, and wetlands within the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
Etymology
The name Tikal may be derived from in the Yucatec Maya language; it is said to be a relatively modern name meaning 'at the waterhole'. The name was apparently applied to one of the site's ancient reservoirs by hunters and travelers in the region.Martin & Grube 2000, p.30. It has alternatively been interpreted as meaning 'the place of the voices' in the Itzaʼ Maya language. Tikal, however, is not the ancient name for the site but rather the name adopted shortly after its discovery in the 1840s.Drew 1999, p.136. Hieroglyphic inscriptions at the ruins refer to the ancient city as or , meaning 'First Mutal'. Tikal may have come to have been called this because Dos Pilas also came to use the same emblem glyph; the rulers of the city presumably wanted to distinguish themselves as the first city to bear the name.Schele & Mathews 1999, p.64. The kingdom as a whole was simply called ,Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.1. which is the reading of the "hair bundle" emblem glyph seen in the accompanying photo. Its precise meaning remains obscure.
Geography
The closest large modern settlements are Flores and Santa Elena, approximately by road to the southwest.Kelly 1996, pp.111–2. Tikal is approximately north of Guatemala City. It is south of the contemporary Maya city of Uaxactun and northwest of Yaxha.Webster 2002, p.118. The city was located southeast of its great Classic Period rival, Calakmul, and northwest of Calakmul's ally Caracol, now in Belize.Webster 2002, pp.188, 192.
The city has been completely mapped and covered an area greater than that included about 3,000 structures.Coe 1999, p.104. The topography of the site consists of a series of parallel limestone ridges rising above swampy lowlands. The major architecture of the site is clustered upon areas of higher ground and linked by raised causeways spanning the swamps.Drew 1999, p.185. The area around Tikal has been declared as the Tikal National Park and the preserved area covers .Kelly 1996, p.140. It was created on 26 May 1955 under the auspices of the Instituto de Antropología e Historia and was the first protected area in Guatemala.Torres.
The ruins lie among the tropical rainforests of northern Guatemala that formed the cradle of lowland Maya civilization. The city itself was located among abundant fertile upland soils, and may have dominated a natural east–west trade route across the Yucatán Peninsula.Webster 2002, p.261. Conspicuous trees at the Tikal park include gigantic Kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) the sacred tree of the Maya; tropical cedar (Cedrela odorata), and Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). Regarding the fauna, agoutis, white-nosed coatis, gray foxes, Geoffroy's spider monkeys, howler monkeys, harpy eagles, falcons, ocellated turkeys, guans, toucans, green parrots and leafcutter ants can be seen there regularly. Jaguars, ocelots, and cougars are also said to roam in the park.Coe 1967, pp. 9–10. Hidinger 1996, p. 52.
Tikal had no water other than what was collected from rainwater and stored in ten reservoirs. Archaeologists working in Tikal during the 20th century refurbished one of these ancient reservoirs to store water for their own use. The average annual rainfall at Tikal is . However, the arrival of rain was often unpredictable, and long periods of drought could occur before the crops ripened, which severely threatened the inhabitants of the city.Webster 2002, p.239.
Population
Population estimates for Tikal vary from 10,000 to as high as 90,000 inhabitants. The population of Tikal began a continuous curve of growth starting in the Preclassic Period (approximately 2000 BC – AD 200), with a peak in the Late Classic with the population growing rapidly from AD 700 through to 830, followed by a sharp decline. For the area falling within the earthwork defenses of the hinterland, the peak population is estimated at 517 per square kilometer (1340 per square mile). In an area within a radius of the site core, peak population is estimated at 120,000; population density is estimated at 265 per square kilometer (689 per square mile). In a region within a radius of the site core and including some satellite sites, peak population is estimated at 425,000 with a density of 216 per square kilometer (515 per square mile). These population figures are even more impressive because of the extensive swamplands that were unsuitable for habitation or agriculture. However, some archaeologists, such as David Webster, believe these figures to be far too high.
History
Preclassic
There are traces of early agriculture at the site dating as far back as 1000 BC, in the Middle Preclassic. A cache of Mamon ceramics dating from about 700–400 BC were found in a sealed chultun, a subterranean bottle-shaped chamber.Coe 1999, p.55.
Major construction at Tikal was already taking place in the Late Preclassic period, first appearing around 400–300 BC, including the building of major pyramids and platforms, although the city was still dwarfed by sites further north such as El Mirador and Nakbe.Coe 1999, p.73. At this time, Tikal participated in the widespread Chikanel culture that dominated the Central and Northern Maya areas at this time – a region that included the entire Yucatán Peninsula including northern and eastern Guatemala and all of Belize.Coe 1999, pp.73, 80.
Two temples dating to Late Chikanel times had masonry-walled superstructures that may have been corbel-vaulted, although this has not been proven. One of these had elaborate paintings on the outer walls showing human figures against a scrollwork background, painted in yellow, black, pink and red.
In the 1st century AD, rich burials first appeared and Tikal underwent a political and cultural florescence as its giant northern neighbors declined. At the end of the Late Preclassic, the Izapan style art and architecture from the Pacific Coast began to influence Tikal, as demonstrated by a broken sculpture from the acropolis and early murals at the city.Coe 1999, p.78.
Early Classic
Dynastic rulership among the lowland Maya is most deeply rooted at Tikal. According to later hieroglyphic records, the dynasty was founded by Yax Ehb Xook, perhaps in the 1st century AD. At the beginning of the Early Classic, power in the Maya region was concentrated at Tikal and Calakmul, in the core of the Maya heartland.Miller 1999, pp.88-9.
Tikal may have benefited from the collapse of the large Preclassic states such as El Mirador. In the Early Classic Tikal rapidly developed into the most dynamic city in the Maya region, stimulating the development of other nearby Maya cities.Webster 2002, p.191.
The site, however, was often at war and inscriptions tell of alliances and conflict with other Maya states, including Uaxactun, Caracol, Naranjo and Calakmul. The site was defeated at the end of the Early Classic by Caracol, which rose to take Tikal's place as the paramount center in the southern Maya lowlands.Sharer 1994, p.265. The earlier part of the Early Classic saw hostilities between Tikal and its neighbor Uaxactun, with Uaxactun recording the capture of prisoners from Tikal.Kelly 1996, p.129.
There appears to have been a breakdown in the male succession by AD 317, when Lady Unen Bahlam conducted a Kʼatun-ending ceremony, apparently as queen of the city.Martin & Grube 2000, p.27.
Tikal and Teotihuacan
As early as 200 AD, Teotihuacan had embassies in Tikal.The Origins & Collapse of the Preclassic Maya in the Mirador Basin – Richard Hansen at The Library of Congress (2014)
The fourteenth king of Tikal was Chak Tok Ichʼaak (Great Jaguar Paw).Coe 1999, p.90. Chak Tok Ichʼaak built a palace that was preserved and developed by later rulers until it became the core of the Central Acropolis. Little is known about Chak Tok Ichʼaak except that he was killed on 14 January 378 AD. On the same day, Siyaj Kʼakʼ (Fire Is Born) arrived from the west, having passed through El Peru, a site to the west of Tikal, on 8 January. On Stela 31 he is named as "Lord of the West". Siyaj Kʼakʼ was probably a foreign general serving a figure represented by a non-Maya hieroglyph of a spearthrower combined with an owl, a glyph that is well known from the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. Spearthrower Owl may even have been the ruler of Teotihuacan. These recorded events strongly suggest that Siyaj Kʼakʼ led a Teotihuacan invasion that defeated the native Tikal king, who was captured and immediately executed.Coe 1999, pp.90–1. Siyaj Kʼakʼ appears to have been aided by a powerful political faction at Tikal itself;Webster 2002, p.133. roughly at the time of the conquest, a group of Teotihuacan natives were apparently residing near the Lost World complex. He also exerted control over other cities in the area, including Uaxactun, where he became king, but did not take the throne of Tikal for himself.Drew 1999, p.200. Within a year, the son of Spearthrower Owl by the name of Yax Nuun Ahiin I (First Crocodile) had been installed as the fifteenth king of Tikal while he was still a boy, being enthroned on 13 September 379.Coe 1999, p.97. He reigned for 47 years as king of Tikal, and remained a vassal of Siyaj Kʼakʼ for as long as the latter lived. It seems likely that Yax Nuun Ayiin I took a wife from the preexisting, defeated, Tikal dynasty and thus legitimized the right to rule of his son, Siyaj Chan Kʼawiil II.
Río Azul, a small site northeast of Tikal, was conquered by the latter during the reign of Yax Nuun Ayiin I. The site became an outpost of Tikal, shielding it from hostile cities further north, and also became a trade link to the Caribbean.Drew 1999, pp.201–2