The North Acropolis of Tikal consisted of numerous plaster-surfaced stone temples—eventually numbering more than 100—that were built and rebuilt on great stone platforms. The facades of the early temples were decorated with modeled and painted stucco that included huge masks flanking the stairs. The wide staircases provided a platform for ritual performances by Maya rulers, and the masks defined specific mythological connections. As the centuries passed, the structures of the North Acropolis were built ever larger and more massive. The temples became higher, their sacred precincts remote and impenetrable. They dominated the landscape of Tikal. Within the heart of the North Acropolis, the rulers were buried in vaulted tomb chambers with painted walls together with elaborate grave goods: elegant ceramics, jade ornaments, and other objects of bone, shell, obsidian, and pearl.
Citation for this page
Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. "Tikal: Sacred Architecture". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/maya2/hd_maya2.htm (October 2001)
Suggested Further Reading(s)
Find these publications in a library
Coe, William R. Tikal: A Handbook of the Ancient Maya Ruins. 2d ed. Philadelphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1988.
Harrison, Peter D. The Lords of Tikal: Rulers of an Ancient Maya City. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999.
Sharer, Robert J., with Loa P. Traxler. The Ancient Maya. 6th ed. . Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2006.
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