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El Mirador City - the oldest Maya capital city.
- El Mirador flourished from about the 6th century BCE
- reached its height from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD
- with a peak population of perhaps 80,000 people.
- the site covers some 10 square miles
- it contained about 30 major "triadic" structures consisting of a large low artificial platform topped with a set of 3 step-pyramids.
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El Mirador Site Plan- composed of two groups of monumental construction connected by a causeway; in fact a whole network of causeways radiate out from El Mirador across the surrounding swampland.
- The East Group is dominated by the Danta pyramid and its associated platform which cover 18 hectares
- the West Group is dominated by the smaller Tigre pyramid.
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Danta pyramid - reaches a height of 230 feet
- equivalent to an 18 story building
- With an overall volume of 2,800,000 cubic meters
- it might be the biggest pyramid in the world, and is certainly the biggest Maya pyramid.
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The Tigre pyramid - is 180 ft high
- These structures were originally faced with cut stone which was then decorated with huge stucco faces depicting Maya gods, especially the Principle Bird Deity.
- There is some evidence that the architectural groups are aligned in ways related to the trajectory of the sun and the moon.
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Temple of Masks - Early Classic Period 200-600 ce
- At Uaxactun, another important Late Preclassic site
- It is faced by brilliantly white plaster
- rises in several tiers, each having apron moldings which are a common lowland Maya figure.
- On all four sides are centrally placed, inset stairways flanked by great monster masks which apparently represent the Jaguar God of the Underworld (the night sun), as well as sky-serpents.
- Postholes on the floor at the top show that there was a pole and thatch superstructure
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E-VII Sub When observed from E-VII-sub, the three small structures that face it mark the equinoxes and solstices: in other words, the complex functioned as a chronographic marker. |
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Group A - Uaxactun is the Group
- A three-temple complex.
- This diagram shows the evolution of the site over time.
- Formerly, as kings died, their successors buried them in tombs topped by new temples in their honor.
- In the 7th century, with Group A, a new type took over:
- long, ranging palaces first blocked off the main stairs, and then proceeded to turn the old cluster into a sequence of private courts.
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Leiden Plate - The Early to Late Classic period (250-900)
- is when the Maya, particularly in the Central Area, reached intellectual and artistic heights to which few civilizations anywhere in the world at the time reached.
- This was a kind of Golden Age for all of Mesoamerica, with large populations, flourishing economies, lots of trade, but still plenty of warfare. Government was not priestly but secular.
- Many of the monuments from this period are datable to the day, because the Maya had a highly complex calendrical system which scholars have unraveled and collated with our own.
- The so-called Leiden Plate (R) shows a king on one side and a dated inscription on the back, which reads 8.14.3.1.12, which corresponds to 14 September 320 CE.
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Maya Calender - three levels: a 260 day cycle
- a 52-year cycle
- far, far longer "Long Count" calendar.
- These were connected in very complex ways.
- Below, the 260 day calendar, which had 13 "months" and 20 days; this then corresponded to the 52-year cycle in the very complex fashion represented in the diagram on the right.
- The Long Count calendar corresponded to this one according to yet another formula.
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Temple of the Hieroglyphic Stairway (Temple 25) - Late Classic period, 8th century
- Located on one of the most famous Maya ruins is Copán in Western Honduras.
- Every one of these sixty-three steps is embellished with a dynastic text containing about 2,500 Mayan glyphs.
- The stairway was built by successive rulers, and mostly by the 13th ruler, "18 Rabbit,"
- The stair was completed around 750 by "Smoke Shell," the 15th ruler,
- with a strange "bilingual" inscription: one part Maya, and the other a matching text in what some local artist must have imagined to be Teotihuacan hieroglyphs.
- This goes to show that even 150 years after the fall of Teotihuacan, memories of its prestige lingered.
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Temple of the Hieroglyphic Stairway Inscription - The stair was completed around 750 by "Smoke Shell," the 15th ruler,
- with a strange "bilingual" inscription: one part Maya, and the other a matching text in what some local artist must have imagined to be Teotihuacan hieroglyphs.
- This goes to show that even 150 years after the fall of Teotihuacan, memories of its prestige lingered.
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| 18 Rabbit is represented in Stela H at Copán. |
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Tikal's Great Plaza
in Guatemala - Late Classic Period: around 8th century
- Late Classic site of this period in the Southeast
- The core of Tikal is the Great Plaza
- It is flanked on west and east by two temple pyramids, on the north by the Acropolis
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Tikal six temple-pyramids - skyscrapers among the buildings in their class.
- Temple IV (741 CE) is the largest of them all, and measures 229 ft in height.
- It was a royal tomb for Yik'in Chan K'awil.
- Temple I (695) – shown here – started the pyramid-mania at Tikal. It was the tomb of Jasaw Chan K'awil.
- We don't know why the temples were so big.
- Why were the pyramids at Tikal so big? Was it a game of oneupsmanship by the heirs of these rulers? Was the size of the pyramid understood as a reflection of the great power of the deceased king? Or was it simply to intimidate neighboring rival cities?
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Tikal Six Twin Pyramid Complexes Tikal also has six twin pyramid complexes (starting in the late 7th century). These were built to celebrate the katun, or, 20 year period of the Maya calendar. |
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Palenque - late classic period, 600-900 ce
- In the West of the Maya lowlands
- many consider to be the most beautiful Maya site
- it is much smaller than Tikal
- It lies in a superb setting just above the flood plain of the River Usumacinta.
- because of the constrained site, it was among the most densely inhabited of the Maya cities
- for it contained over 1000 structures.
- It also had a sophisticated system of aqueducts and water channels, including one that goes underground beneath the main Palace in a corbel-vaulted passage.
- the Palace is recognizable by its unique tower.
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The Palace at Palenque - late classic period 600-900 ce
- The Palace is a labyrinth,
- 300 ft long and 240 ft wide, with a series of vaulted galleries and rooms surrounding interior courtyards and patios.
- It is dominated by a 4-story tower with an interior stairway.
- Nothing like this tower survives elsewhere in Maya architecture.
- Was it an astronomical observatory? A watchtower? We don't know. Along the sides of the courtyards are reliefs showing prisoners being forced to submit
- perhaps here the captives of Palenque were tortured and sacrificed.
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- The three most important temple-pyramids at Palenque together form the Cross Group.
- Temple of the Foliated Cross
- These are all arranged around the 3 sides of a plaza on the E side of the site.
- Each rests atop a stepped platform with frontal stairway. Each has a mansard roof with roof comb.
- Each also has an outer and inner vaulted room.
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Temple of the Sun - late classic 600-900 ce
- part of the cross group in Palenque
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Temple of the Cross - late classic 600-900 ce
- part of the cross group in Palenque
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| Temple of the Foliated Cross |
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Cross Temple Group Vaulted Rooms - Against the back wall of the inner vaulted room in each of these temples is a "sanctuary" which looks like a miniature of the temple itself
- In each of these sanctuaries is a relief tablet with hieroglyphics and a view of two male figures flanking some ceremonial object.
- In the Temple of the Sun, for instance, it is the mask of the Jaguar God of the Underworld
- in the other two, there is a branching world tree surmounted by a monstrous quetzal bird.
- The glyphs on the side panels of these tablets all record the accession in 684 of the king known as Kan Bahlem ("Snake Jaguar").
- The flanking figures on these tablets are thus apparently both depictions of him, but at different ages: as a 6 year old and as a 49 year old king.
The Maya called these back rooms pibnal, meaning "sweat bath." The Maya administered sweat baths to women before and after childbirth, and so anthropologists have hypothesized that this name here refers to the birth of the god to whom each building in the Cross Group was dedicated.
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Cross Temple Group Vaulted Rooms - Against the back wall of the inner vaulted room in each of these temples is a "sanctuary" which looks like a miniature of the temple itself
- In each of these sanctuaries is a relief tablet with hieroglyphics and a view of two male figures flanking some ceremonial object.
- In the Temple of the Sun, for instance, it is the mask of the Jaguar God of the Underworld
- in the other two, there is a branching world tree surmounted by a monstrous quetzal bird.
- The glyphs on the side panels of these tablets all record the accession in 684 of the king known as Kan Bahlem ("Snake Jaguar").
- The flanking figures on these tablets are thus apparently both depictions of him, but at different ages: as a 6 year old and as a 49 year old king.
The Maya called these back rooms pibnal, meaning "sweat bath." The Maya administered sweat baths to women before and after childbirth, and so anthropologists have hypothesized that this name here refers to the birth of the god to whom each building in the Cross Group was dedicated.
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Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque - Late class period: 600-900 ce
- Archaeoligst found the Great Funerary Crypt
- had reliefs of men
- huge rectangular slab on foloor with relief carvings
- beneath slab was monlithic sarcophagus where mayan ruler "Pakal the Great" (died in 683) was buried with Treasures
- Connection with Egyptian funerary monument
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Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque - Late class period: 600-900 ce
- Archaeoligst found the Great Funerary Crypt
- had reliefs of men
- huge rectangular slab on foloor with relief carvings
- beneath slab was monlithic sarcophagus where mayan ruler "Pakal the Great" (died in 683) was buried with Treasures
- Connection with Egyptian funerary monument
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Yaxchilian - Late classic period:600-900 ce
- builders of this site capitalized on a steep hill perched on a spit of land with a river below
- small structures are built up this hillside, with commanding views up the river, which they might have operated a toll barrier on.
- The building at the peak of this hill was an 8th century building that was narrow, single-chambered, it had a remarkable, heavy roofcomb.
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Building on top of Yaxchilian - Late classic period:600-900 ce
- builders of this site capitalized on a steep hill perched on a spit of land with a river below
- small structures are built up this hillside, with commanding views up the river, which they might have operated a toll barrier on.
- The building at the peak of this hill was an 8th century building that was narrow, single-chambered, it had a remarkable, heavy roofcomb.
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Hochob, Campeche - façade of this building is decorated with truly remarkable three-dimensional décor
- the roofcomb was originally composed of two rows of standing bound captives
- Thus the temple, a symbolic mountain, is surmounted by images of human sacrificial victims
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Palace at Xpuhil - these towers are solid and the stairs going up their faces are too steep to be mountable
- and, based on the archaeological evidence, the door at the top led to nothing. These were, in other words, representations of temple-pyramids rather than the actual thing.
- The wildest part of the Maya region is the southern Campeche
- Associated with the large site of Rio Bec, these all partake of a distinctive architectural style: showiness was prized here.
- Small palaces were decorated with high towers imitating the fronts of temple-pyramids, almost like mini-imitations of Tikal temples.
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Uxmal - is the largest and grandest of the Puuc Maya sites.
- As Miller points out, when casts of the façades from Uxmal were exhibited at the 1893 Chicago exhibition in Chicago, they had a huge impact on the young Frank Lloyd Wright, who later evoked them in such buildings as the Hollyhock House.
- Uxmal juxtaposes palace quadrangles with freestanding pyramids, some of which were surely funerary, like the others we have seen.
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