Tikal Temple IV is a
Mesoamerican pyramid in the ruins of the ancient
Maya city of
Tikal in modern
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
. 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
A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet ...
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
Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...
,
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,
Yik'in Chan K'awiil, 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 site core, with
Temple III visible directly in front and
Temple I and
Temple II beyond it.
The structure
The pyramid has a rectangular base with its long axis running north–south.
It stands from its supporting platform to the highest part of the
roof comb.
[Coe 1967, 1988, p.80.] Archaeologists estimate that of construction material were utilised in the bulk of the pyramid.
The temple faces eastwards towards the site core and supports a massive roof comb in pure
Petén style, which was built upon the highest part of the structure's rear. It was hollow and was faced with an enormous mosaic sculpture.
The architecture of Temple IV is broadly similar to that of the other major temples at Tikal, such as Temple I and Temple II.
The pyramid body itself, excluding the superstructure, consists of seven stepped levels with slanting ''
talud'' walls and multiple corners. The lowest of these levels measures , whilst the uppermost platform measures . The pyramid was built on top of an enormous supporting platform that measures ; this platform had two levels and rounded corners; it was accessed via a wide projecting stairway. The supporting platform was of very high-quality and utilised enormous stones in its construction.
The summit shrine was accessed via a wide stairway that climbed from the supporting platform; a plain
stela (Stela 43) and the associated Altar 35 are centrally located at the base of the stairway. The shrine has been partially restored and has walls up to thick. The shrine was built upon a platform resting upon a supplementary platform, which was in turn seated upon the top of the pyramid.
The supplementary platform measures with the longer axis running north–south. A stairway projects eastwards from this, giving access to the shrine itself. The supplementary platform is not exactly rectangular but consists of a number of architectural elements forming a complex plan. The platform resting on top of this measures high; this element is poorly preserved, being visible only on the east side and in the middle of the north and south sides.
The roof comb is high and consists of three distinct levels. The massive bulk of the roof comb was lightened by internal chambers, with four being built into each of the three levels. The roof comb was originally somewhat taller as evidenced by the bases of three smaller architectural elements on top.
The shrine
The shrine measures , with a maximum height of excluding the roof comb.
[Morales et al 2008, p.422.] The exterior walls of the shrine are vertical, contrasting with the rest of the pyramid.
The upper sections of the exterior walls formed a
frieze, with three giant stone mosaic masks facing eastwards over the temple access.
The central mask was directly over the outer doorway, while the other two were near the northern and southern extremes of the building's facade.
The shrine had three chambers situated one behind the other, each linked by a doorway with a lintel fashioned from
sapodilla wood.
[Coe 1967, 1988, pp.80-81.] These three rooms were the only accessible chambers in the entire pyramid temple.
The lintel of the exterior doorway was plain but the two interior lintels were intricately carved.
These two were removed in 1877 by
Gustav Bernoulli
Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to:
*Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film
* ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short cart ...
and are now found in the
Ethnographic Museum Ethnographic museums conserve, display and contextualize items relevant to the field of ethnography, the systematic study of people and cultures. Such museums include:
List by country/region Albania
* Ethnographic Museum of Kavajë,
* Gjirokastà ...
in
Basel in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. The lintels were carved elsewhere and then moved to the pyramid, raised to the summit shrine and installed in prepared positions; this was a laborious task given that sapodilla wood weighs 1120 kg/m
3 (69.1 lb/cubic foot).
It was only after the installation of the lintels that the shrine was roofed and the roof comb built.
[Coe 1967, 1988, p.81.]
The
hieroglyphic inscriptions on the sculpted lintels indicate that the temple was built in 741 AD, and
radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
of the lintels and wooden beams in the vaulting confirmed this, giving a result of 720±60 AD.
Lintel 3 is a wooden panel measuring that is carved in low
relief.
[Rubio 1992, p.189.] It depicts the Tikal king Yik'in Chan K'awiil seated on a litter underneath the arch of a celestial serpent. The lintel was sculpted to mark his victory over the city of
El Perú in 743.
[Martin and Grube 2000, p.49.] It has two panels of hieroglyphic script, containing a total of 64
glyph
A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...
s.
Modern history
The Tikal Project of the
University of Pennsylvania stabilised the ruins of the pyramid between 1964 and 1969, carrying out some limited restoration work to the upper part of the temple.
The National Tikal Project (''Proyecto Nacional Tikal'') carried out emergency repairs in the second half of the 1970s.
Gallery
File:Interior, Templo IV, Tikal 1957.jpg, Interior of shrine
File:Tikal Temple IV summit.jpg, Summit
File:Tikal Temple IV corner detail 1.jpg, Corner detail
File:Tikal Temple IV resoration work 2010.jpg, 2010 restoration work
See also
*
Tikal Temple V
Tikal Temple V is the name given by archaeologists to one of the major pyramids at Tikal. Tikal is one of the most important archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization and is located in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala. ...
Notes
References
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tikal Temple 04
Tikal
Maya architecture
Pyramids in Guatemala
Buildings and structures completed in the 8th century
8th century in Guatemala
8th-century establishments in the Maya civilization