Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and had a population of perhaps 100,000. But in 553, Yajaw Te' K'inich II (Lord Water)
came to the throne of Caracol (in southwestern Belize), and within a decade had
conquered Tikal and sacrificed its king. Tikal and other Petén kingdoms suffered under
Caracol's rule until the late 7th century when, under new leadership, it apparently cast off
its oppressor and rose again.
Tikal's Renaissance
A powerful king named Jasaw Chan K'awiil I (682-734, also called Ah Cacao or Moon
Double Comb), 26th successor of Yax Ehb' Xooc, restored not only Tikal's military
strength but also its primacy in the Maya world. He conquered the greatest rival Maya
state, Calakmul in Mexico, in 695, and his successors were responsible for building most
of the great temples around the Gran Plaza that survive today. King Ah Cacao was buried
beneath the staggering height of Templo I.
Tikal's greatness waned around 900, but it was not alone in its downfall, which was
part of the mysterious general collapse of lowland Maya civilization.
Rediscovery
No doubt the Itzáes, who occupied Tayazal (now Flores), knew of Tikal in the late Post-
classic period. Perhaps they even came here to worship at the shrines of old gods. Spanish
missionary friars who moved through El Petén after the conquest left brief references to
these jungle-bound structures, but their writings moldered in libraries for centuries.
It wasn't until 1848 that the Guatemalan government sent out an expedition, under the
leadership of Modesto Méndez and Ambrosio Tut, to visit the site. This may have been in-
spired by John L Stephens' bestselling accounts of fabulous Maya ruins, published in
1841 and 1843 (though Stephens never visited Tikal). Like Stephens, Méndez and Tut
took an artist, Eusebio Lara, to record their archaeological discoveries. An account of
their findings was published by the Berlin Academy of Science.
In 1877 the Swiss Dr Gustav Bernoulli visited Tikal. His explorations resulted in the re-
moval of carved wooden lintels from Templos I and IV and their shipment to Basel, where
they are still on view in the Museum für Völkerkunde.
Scientific exploration of Tikal began with the arrival of English archaeologist Alfred P
Maudslay in 1881. Others continued his work, Teobert Maler, Alfred M Tozzer and RE
Merwin among them. Tozzer worked at Tikal on and off from the beginning of the 20th
century until his death in 1954. The inscriptions at Tikal were studied and deciphered by
Sylvanus G Morley.
