Tikal Temple V
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.
[2] The architectural style of the pyramid includes features that were popular during the Early Classic period, such as wide balustrades flanking the main stairway and the rounded corners of the temple.
The main body of the pyramid appears to have originally supported decorated mouldings although surviving examples have only been found at the corners of the building.
[12] The main stairway measures 20 metres (66 ft) wide and rises from the north, unusually for Tikal where most of the larger temples face east or west.
[17] Offering 1 was found when a test pit was sunk into the basal platform immediately to the north of the pyramid's main stairway.
It consisted of the skeleton of an adolescent human female aged approximately 15 years placed in a fetal position, facing to the west.
[21] The burial was accompanied by funerary offerings that included an earthenware bowl containing a ceramic incense burner that were placed on top of the wooden lid closing the cist.
His height was calculated from an intact femur as 1.62 metres (5.3 ft), which is 5 centimetres (2.0 in) taller than the average for an adult male in the Late Classic.
In the opinion of the excavator it is unlikely that the remains were those of a human sacrifice specifically in order to dedicate the temple since there were few signs of cutmarks on the bones.
The cist contained ashes at the bottom and small fragments of carbon, evidence of a ritual performed before the human remains were deposited inside and the pyramid was built.
It is believed by some investigators to be the funerary temple of the eldest son of Jasaw Chan Kʼawiil I who is presumed to have died shortly after taking power in AD 734.
[28] Although Temple V is one of the largest buildings in the site core, it was largely overlooked in the 20th century, perhaps due in part to its apparent lack of hieroglyphic inscriptions.
Due to its poor preservation and its continuing decay, in 1987 Temple V was included on a list of planned works by the Proyecto Nacional Tikal.
Teoberto Maler arrived at the ruins in 1894 and it was he who renamed the pyramid as Great Temple V. Maudslay also wrote a fuller description of the structure.
[31] In 1965 Christopher Jones of the University of Pennsylvania carried out investigations at the base of the stairway in an unsuccessful search for two monuments reported by Teoberto Maler in the 19th century.
[33] In 1987 and again in 1991 rescue work was undertaken upon the roof comb by the Proyecto Nacional Tikal to repair damage caused by a hole that allowed visitors to climb through onto the crest of the building.
