Temple V (Tikal)

Temple V is located south of the main square, next to Mundo Perdido , Piazza de Seven Temples and the Southern Acropolis. In front of the bulk platform supporting the temple, there is a depression, which in the past served as a reservoir ^[4] .

By the end of the classical period, access to the temple was severely limited by a reservoir from the north, the Southern Acropolis from the west, a complex of palaces in the east, and a depression from the south. The rest of the city’s temples are connected by a Sakbe system, but they don’t lead to Temple V, which may mean that by the late classical period it had already been abandoned and began to collapse. This would explain its poor preservation in comparison with other temples ^[5] .

The pyramid stands on a man-made platform towering five meters above the central square ^[7] . The platform was built by erecting a system of cavities with inclined megalithic walls, reinforced by vertical internal walls. This allows you to withstand the enormous weight of the temple ^[8] .

The base of the pyramid has an area of ​​about 2050 m² ^[7] , 36 × 51 meters ^[9] . The temple has seven four-meter steps with rounded corners (rounding radius 3 m) ^{[7] [9]} . In addition to Temple V, not a single large temple has rounded corners; however, in Karakol ( Belize ) have similar angles. The main structure of the pyramid, apparently, had decorated bummer , but they remained only at the corners ^[9] .

The main staircase is 20 meters wide and is located on the north side, which is unusual for Tikal: most of the local large temples are facing east or west ^{[7] [9]} . The base of the 90-step ladder is more than 12 meters behind the base of the pyramid. Railing stairs have a width of 2.6 meters and go along it all along. Such railings are characteristic of early classical structures of Tikal ^[10] .

The sanctuary at the top of the temple has a single room only 90 cm deep, while the wall behind it is 4.57 meters thick ^[2] . The width of the room is 3.95 m, its height is 4.4 m, so this is the smallest room in the sanctuaries of Tikal, and the temple itself is the only large church in the city where the sanctuary has only one room. Above it are three walled premises with a false arch , facilitating the weight of the building. The original carved lintels are still preserved in the sanctuary. The cornice of the sanctuary on the north side is decorated with three masks of the Mayan god of rain, Chuck , and on the sides are images of people in full growth ^[4] .

The temple is crowned with a 12.5-meter roofing ridge , its weight is reduced by 11 or 12 immured voids. The comb has four stepped sections, the uppermost of which is almost completely destroyed; on the other three were eight masks. On the north side of the lower part of the ridge is a very large mask of Chuck, on the sides of it there are two more masks, personifying the solar deity ^[4] .

Offering 1 was discovered after archaeologists made a test hole in the platform north of the main staircase. There were two ceramic vessels, one on the other, inside them there was a bowl of porous ceramic, a small ceramic vessel and sinks-decorations. All finds are dated to the early classical period, although they are located in the late classical church ^[11] .

Offering 2 was located under the north-south axis and, most likely, was laid before the start of construction. It contains five used censors , two of which are cylindrical in shape and decorated with masks of the sun gods, and also contain traces of red and blue paint. They are located on the sides of the three other censer, made in the form of human figures. All censers date from the late classical period ^[12] .

The burial 1 was found under two stones 60 cm north of the offering 1. In it was found the skeleton of a girl about 15 years old, laid in an embryonic position and looking to the west. The teeth of the deceased are perforated for decorative purposes. The likely cause of death is a , possibly caused by an abscess in a tooth . At the right knee of the deceased is a vessel of porous clay. The burial dates from the Late Classical period ^{[11] [9] [13]} .

Burial 2 was located at the end of a tunnel made by archaeologists under a pyramid placed in a stone box , on top of which were two ceramic vessels. The burial chamber is carved directly from the rock and covered with boards (rather than stone blocks, as usual). The boards were laid in grooves, which show that the boards were 1.35 meters long and 20 centimeters thick. The burial chamber itself has dimensions of 0.5 × 0.7 × 0.35 meters. It is located not on the central axis of the pyramid, but on the central axis of the sanctuary, which means that builders have detailed plans with precise measurements of the future temple ^[14] . The burial contains offerings, including a ceramic vessel with the same ceramic censer, located on the burial chamber ^[15] .

The remains belong to a young man, 18-22 years old, his height, based on the length of the remaining femur , is estimated at 1.62 meters, which is about 5 cm above the average male growth of the late classical period. The skull of a man is , the teeth are perforated and were inlaid (only the pyrite ornaments in the lower canines are preserved ). In general, the deceased was healthy during life, except for the period of anemia in childhood. Before burial, the bones were separated, and many small ones in the skeleton are missing, in particular, some of the bones of the arms and spine. According to archaeologists, the buried most likely was not sacrificed , since there are very few cuts on the bones ^[13] .

Burial 2, apparently, was laid after the creation of the platform, but before the start of construction of the temple. On the floor of the burial chamber is the dust and fragments of coal , which indicates that a certain ritual was performed before the remains were placed there. On the bones lay a two-centimeter layer of brown dust - all that remained of the wooden box where the bones had been laid. The burial was created in 600-650 years (the conclusion was made on the ceramics lying in the chamber), but the man lying there most likely was not the ruler, as the offerings lying with him are rather poor ^[16] .

Temple V is one of the greatest construction projects completed in the Late Classical period. Some (but not all) researchers believe that the eldest son of Khasav-Chan-Kavil I , who most likely died soon after he ascended the throne in 734, is buried there ^[17] . Excavations of the platform show that construction began between 550 and 650 years ^[18] . The pyramid was erected simultaneously, and not on the basis of an earlier building ^[19] .

The researcher Osvaldo Gomez suggests that the temple was dedicated to the god of rain, Chuck, or contains the burial of the ruler dearly worshiping him, in connection with which six masks of Chuck are fixed on the temple, and the temple itself is turned towards the reservoir ^[6] .

The temple was discovered by Modesto Mendez, governor of Pétain , who set out on the first expedition to Tikal. According to the records of Modesto, he climbed to the top of the temple on February 26, 1848, and from there he saw the crests of the other large temples ^[20] .

Although Temple V is one of the largest buildings in Tikal, in the XX century it was almost not paid attention, possibly due to the lack of hieroglyphic inscriptions . Due to poor condition and gradual destruction, the temple was included in the list of planned works of the Tikal National Project ^[21] .

Alfred Maudsley visited Tikal in 1881 and photographed the northern facade of Temple V, named Temple D. He also briefly described the interior of the sanctuary on top and a description of the building. Theobert Muller , who arrived in Tikal in 1894, assigned the Roman number V to the temple. Both researchers cleared the ruins of growing greenery. Alfred Tozer visited the temple in 1911 and conducted a study of the ruins, after which the rain forest again covered the neighborhood of the temple ^[22] .

In 1965, Christopher Johns of the University of Pennsylvania conducted excavations at the base of the stairs, trying in vain to find the two monuments described by Theobert Muller ^{[23] [24]} . In 1968, a new study of the ruins was conducted under the leadership of Miguel Orrego ^[25] , in 1987 and 1991, restoration work was carried out under the roofing ridge to patch a hole through which it was possible to crawl to the top of the building ^[23] . The next expedition was conducted in 1995 under the leadership of Osvaldo Gomez ^[25] .

• Coe, William R. Tikal: Guía de las Antiguas Ruinas Mayas: [ isp. ] . - Guatemala: Piedra Santa, 1988. - ISBN 84-8377-246-9 .
• Gómez, Oswaldo. Nuevas excavaciones en el Templo V, Tikal. (Spanish) // XI Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 1997 (edited by JP Laporte and H. Escobedo): diario. - Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, 1998. - p . 54-70 . Archived July 7, 2011.
• Gómez, Oswaldo. Excavaciones en el interior del Templo V, Tikal. (Spanish) // XII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 1998 (edited by JP Laporte and H. Escobedo): diario. - Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, 1999. - P. 174-182 . Archived July 7, 2011.
• Gómez, Oswaldo; Cristiana Vidal Lorenzo. El Templo V de Tikal: Su excavación. (Spanish) // X Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 1996 (edited by JP Laporte and H. Escobedo): diario. - Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, 1997. - P. 315-331 . Archived September 14, 2011.
• Muñoz Cosme, Gaspar. El Templo V de Tikal: Su arquitectura. (Spanish) // X Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 1996 (edited by JP Laporte and H. Escobedo): diario. - Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, 1997. - P. 300—314 . Archived September 14, 2011.
• Sharer, Robert J. The Ancient Maya. - 6th (fully revised). - Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006. - ISBN 0-8047-4817-9 .
• Valdés, Juan Antonio. Disaster in Sight: The Terminal Classic in the Highlands // Collapse, Transition, and Transformation / Arthur A. Demarest, Prudence M. Rice and Don S. Rice (eds.). - Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2005. - P. 162–194. - ISBN 0-87081-822-8 .

• Gómez, Oswaldo. Nuevos datos para la historia de Tikal. (Spanish) // XXV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2011 (edited by B. Arroyo, L. Paiz, and H. Mejía): diario. - Guatemala City, Guatemala: Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropología e Historia and Asociación Tikal, 2012. - P. 71-79 . Archived August 8, 2014.