page_title: North Acropolis, Tikal
section_title: Burials
hierarchical_section_title: North Acropolis, Tikal / Burials
caption_attribution_description: English: Effigy of K'awiil (God K) in the site museum at Tikal, Guatemala. Español: Figura del dios K'awill (Dios K) en el museo de sitio de Tikal, Guatemala.
context_page_description: The North Acropolis of the ancient Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala is an architectural complex that served as a royal necropolis and was a centre for funerary activity for over 1300 years. The acropolis is located near the centre of the city and is one of the most studied of Maya architectural complexes. Excavations were carried out from 1957 to 1969 by the University of Pennsylvania, directed by Edwin M. Shook and William Coe.
  The first traces of human activity at the site date to approximately 800 BC, with the first structures being built about 350 BC. Around 250 AD the complex underwent a major redevelopment with the construction of a massive basal platform that supported a cluster of temples; this was followed around AD 450 by the addition of a row of four pyramids on a terrace to the south of the main platform.
  A number of royal tombs have been excavated that have been identified with named kings, including the tombs of Yax Nuun Ayiin I, Siyaj Chan K'awiil II, Wak Chan K'awiil and "Animal Skull". An early tomb in the North Acropolis has been tentatively identified as that of the dynastic founder Yax Ehb' Xook.
context_section_description: Burial 10 was the tomb of late 4th-century king Yax Nuun Ayiin I. The tomb consists of a large chamber carved out of the bedrock beneath Temple 34. The remains of the king were interred upon a wooden bier and he was accompanied by nine human sacrifices and a headless caiman. The tomb contained a large quantity of grave goods, including an impressive array of ceramic vessels, many decorated with Teotihuacan-linked imagery. One ceramic drinking vessel bore the writing "the drinking vessel of the son of Spearthrower Owl". Five turtle shells of assorted sizes, some still attached to a rack, were the remains of a musical instrument similar to a marimba. A small jade ornament was also found, sculpted into the form of a caiman's head with a curled snout. The skull of the king was dyed red. The association of caimans with the king's remains related to an element of the king's name; ayiin means "crocodile" and the animal may have been the king's way (spirit companion).
  Burial 23 was a royal tomb inserted by destroying the second version of the access stairway of Temple 33. The individual interred within the tomb has not been identified but the tomb is one of two proposed locations for the burial of the late 7th-century king Nuun Ujol Chaak. The tomb was cut into the bedrock under the temple, to the south of the burial of Siyaj Chan K'awiil II. The king appears to have been hastily interred in a tomb that was still being prepared while the burial took place, since plaster from the walls was splashed on some of the grave goods and a flint pick was accidentally left behind by a workman. The body of the king was laid upon a litter painted with cinnabar and overlain with jaguar-pelts; the corpse was laid out on the pelts and covered in layers of marine shells.
  Burial 24 was an elite status burial inserted into the rubble core of Temple 33 during the final phase of the pyramid's construction. The tomb contained painted ceramic dishes that appear to name Nuun Ujol Chaak's father and grandfather, who both preceded him as rulers of the city.
  Burial 48 was carved from the bedrock under the terrace, upon the central north-south axis of the North Acopolis directly under Temple 33; it has been identified as the tomb of king Siyaj Chan K'awiil II. The remains of the king were flanked those of two juvenile human sacrifices; one of these was a child and one was an adolescent. The walls of the tomb were coated in stucco, onto which were painted hieroglyphs indicating that the tomb was sealed in March 457, a year after the king had died. The king was interred bundled in a seated position and his remains lacked the skull, hands, and femurs. Grave goods included 27 ceramic vessels of mixed of local and imported origin, stone and shell artefacts including a well-used stone metate and accompanying handstone, a large quantity of jade artefacts, including jade discs and hundreds of beads that once formed a semicircular collar, two pairs of earspools and a great many more beads in small groups that did not form a part of the collar. Two obsidian blades also accompanied the burial.
  Burial 85 dates to the 1st century AD, in the Late Preclassic, and was enclosed by a platform, with a primitive corbel vault. It was the first royal burial that characterised the shift in ceremonial focus from the Mundo Perdido complex to the North Acropolis. The tomb was centrally located upon the north-south axis of the North Acropolis, under what would later become Temple 26, and contained a single male skeleton, which lacked a skull and its thighbones. The dynastic founder of Tikal, Yax Ehb' Xook, has been linked to this tomb, which lies deep in the heart of the North Acropolis. The deceased had probably died in battle with his body being mutilated by his enemies before being recovered and interred by his followers. The bones were wrapped carefully in textiles to form an upright bundle. The missing head was replaced by a small greenstone mask with shell-inlaid teeth and eyes and bearing a three-pointed royal headband. This head wears an emblem of rulership on its forehead a
caption: Effigy of K'awiil from Burial 195
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