page_title: Tikal Temple I
section_title: Structure
hierarchical_section_title: Tikal Temple I / Structure
caption_attribution_description: Pyramid, Tikal, Guatemala. Image taken by Clark Anderson/Aquaimages. en:Category:Tikal
context_page_description: Tikal Temple I is the designation given to one of the major structures at Tikal, one of the largest cities and archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Mesoamerica. It is located in the Petén Basin region of northern Guatemala. It also is known as the Temple of the Great Jaguar because of a lintel that represents a king sitting upon a jaguar throne. An alternative name is the Temple of Ah Cacao, after the ruler buried in the temple. Temple I is a typically Petén-styled limestone stepped pyramid structure that is dated to approximately 732 AD.
  Situated at the heart of a World Heritage Site, the temple is surmounted by a characteristic roof comb, a distinctive Maya architectural feature. Building Temple I on the eastern side of the Great Plaza was a significant deviation from the established tradition of building funerary temples just north of the plaza in Tikal's North Acropolis.
context_section_description: The structure is a funerary temple associated with Jasaw Chan K'awiil I, a Classic Period ruler of the polity based at Tikal, who ruled from AD 682–734. The tomb of this ruler has been located by archaeologists deep within the structure, the tomb having been built first with the temple being raised over it. Construction of both were overseen by Jasaw Chan K'awiil's son and heir Yik' in Chan K'awiil. Jasaw Chan K'awiil probably planned the building of the temple long before his death. The temple rises in nine stepped levels, which may be symbolic of the nine levels of the underworld. The temple has grooved moldings and inset corners. A steep staircase climbs the temple to the summit shrine.
  The temple rises 55 meters (180 ft) over the Great Plaza. The pyramid is topped by a funerary shrine, containing finely carved wooden lintels, the execution of which probably was overseen by Jasaw Chan K'awiil as part of his plans for his funerary monument. The lintels were carved from sapodilla wood and one of them, Lintel 3, once was painted red. Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) is a very hard red-brown wood available locally. The lintels were formed from planks of this wood set into small niches fashioned into the walls forming the three doorways; the outermost lintel was smooth, but the central lintel was carved intricately from four planks. Two of these planks were removed in the nineteenth century and their location now is unknown. The other two were removed by the British explorer John Boddam-Whetham and donated to the British Museum in London. The scene carved onto one lintel shows a seated figure with an enormous serpent rising above him.
  The shrine bears a high roof comb decorated with a sculpture of the seated king, Jasaw Chan K'awiil, although it now is difficult to discern. The roof comb consists of two parallel structures with an enclosed, vaulted hollow between them, which reduces the weight of the construction,. The weight of this heavy superstructure is borne through the spine of the temple. The front of the roof comb was finished with stone blocks carved to represent the enormous figure of the king, flanked by scrolls and serpents. It originally supported molded plaster decoration as well. The shrine contains three narrow, dark chambers that were accessible only through a single doorway. The three rooms were arranged one behind the other, and had high corbel-vaulted ceilings, braced by wooden beams. The beams were fashioned from sapodilla, the wood that was used in the lintels.
  Temple I was reused in the Postclassic Period. The Late Classic burial shaft was reopened apparently, and a new burial made inside. The offerings accompanying the new burial included censers of a type found in Mayapán and two ceramic types that were widespread in Petén during the Postclassic. The type of censer associated with the new burial was not used after the fifteenth century.
caption: Temple I, seen from the northwest
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