Tikal Report 37: Historical Archaeology at Tikal, Guatemala

Summary

The pre-Columbian city we call Tikal was abandoned by its Maya residents during the tenth century A.D. and succumbed to the Guatemalan rain forest. It was not until 1848 that it was brought to the attention of the outside world. For the next century Tikal, remote and isolated, received a surprisingly large number of visitors. Public officials, explorers, academics, military personnel, settlers, petroleum engineers, chicle gatherers, and archaeologists came and went, sometimes leaving behind material traces of their visits. A short-lived hamlet was established among the ancient ruins in the late 1870s. In 1956 the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology initiated its fourteen-year-long Tikal Project.

This report chronicles documented visits to Tikal during the century following its modern discovery, and presents the post-Conquest material culture recovered by the Tikal Project in the course of its investigation of the pre-Columbian city. Further research on the nineteenth-century settlement was carried out in 1998 in its southern part by the Lacandon Archaeological Project (LAP) under the direction of Joel W. Palka of the University of Illinois at Chicago. The material culture recovered by the LAP supplements the Tikal Project collection and is referenced here. Historical Archaeology at Tikal, Guatemala is intended as a contribution to nineteenth and early twentieth century Lowland Mesoamerican research. It is rounded out with several appendices that will be of interest to historians and historical archaeologists. The printed volume includes many black and white photographs and drawings. A gallery of color photographs, several from Palka's 1998 excavations, is included on the accompanying CD.

Hattula Moholy-Nagy is Consulting Scholar in the American Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Cite this Record

Tikal Report 37: Historical Archaeology at Tikal, Guatemala. ( tDAR id: 376590) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8WD41ZF

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

URL: http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15004.html


Keywords

Culture
Historic

Geographic Keywords
Guatemala

Spatial Coverage

min long: -89.757; min lat: 16.989 ; max long: -89.32; max lat: 17.332 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Resources Inside this Project (Viewing 1-79 of 79)

Documents

  1. Appendix A: Database Structure (2012)
  2. Appendix B: Codes for Object and Provenience Databases (2012)
  3. Tikal Report 37: Historical Archaeology at Tikal, Guatemala (2012)

Images

  1. Appendix L: Figure 1 (2012)
  2. Appendix L: Figure 10 (2012)
  3. Appendix L: Figure 11 (2012)
  4. Appendix L: Figure 12 (2012)
  5. Appendix L: Figure 13 (2012)
  6. Appendix L: Figure 14 (2012)
  7. Appendix L: Figure 15 (2012)
  8. Appendix L: Figure 16 (2012)
  9. Appendix L: Figure 17 (2012)
  10. Appendix L: Figure 18 (2012)
  11. Appendix L: Figure 19 (2012)
  12. Appendix L: Figure 2 (2012)
  13. Appendix L: Figure 20 (2012)
  14. Appendix L: Figure 21 (2012)
  15. Appendix L: Figure 22 (2012)
  16. Appendix L: Figure 23 (2012)
  17. Appendix L: Figure 24 (2012)
  18. Appendix L: Figure 25 (2012)
  19. Appendix L: Figure 26 (2012)
  20. Appendix L: Figure 27 (2012)
  21. Appendix L: Figure 28 (2012)
  22. Appendix L: Figure 29 (2012)
  23. Appendix L: Figure 3 (2012)
  24. Appendix L: Figure 30 (2012)
  25. Appendix L: Figure 31 (2012)
  26. Appendix L: Figure 32 (2012)
  27. Appendix L: Figure 33 (2012)
  28. Appendix L: Figure 34 (2012)
  29. Appendix L: Figure 35 (2012)
  30. Appendix L: Figure 36 (2012)
  31. Appendix L: Figure 37 (2012)
  32. Appendix L: Figure 38 (2012)
  33. Appendix L: Figure 39 (2012)
  34. Appendix L: Figure 4 (2012)
  35. Appendix L: Figure 40 (2012)
  36. Appendix L: Figure 41 (2012)
  37. Appendix L: Figure 42 (2012)
  38. Appendix L: Figure 43 (2012)
  39. Appendix L: Figure 44 (2012)
  40. Appendix L: Figure 45 (2012)
  41. Appendix L: Figure 46 (2012)
  42. Appendix L: Figure 47 (2012)
  43. Appendix L: Figure 5 (2012)
  44. Appendix L: Figure 6 (2012)
  45. Appendix L: Figure 7 (2012)
  46. Appendix L: Figure 8 (2012)
  47. Appendix L: Figure 9 (2012)
  48. Appendix M: Figure 1, Peten map (2012)
  49. Appendix M: Figure 10, 5D-52 (2012)
  50. Appendix M: Figure 11, 5D-52, 2 (2012)
  51. Appendix M: Figure 12, 5D-52, 3 (2012)
  52. Appendix M: Figure 13, 5D-65 (2012)
  53. Appendix M: Figure 14, San Jose pots gray (2012)
  54. Appendix M: Figure 15, RS 5F-1 plan (2012)
  55. Appendix M: Figure 16, RS 5F-1 section (2012)
  56. Appendix M: Figure 17, RS 5F-2 plan (2012)
  57. Appendix M: Figure 18, manos metates (2012)
  58. Appendix M: Figure 19, metate 1 (2012)
  59. Appendix M: Figure 2, Tikal map (2012)
  60. Appendix M: Figure 20, metate 2 (2012)
  61. Appendix M: Figure 21, ground stone (2012)
  62. Appendix M: Figure 22, glass (2012)
  63. Appendix M: Figure 23, metal 1 (2012)
  64. Appendix M: Figure 24, metal 2 (2012)
  65. Appendix M: Figure 27, pottery 2 (2012)
  66. Appendix M: Figure 28, pottery, 3 (2012)
  67. Appendix M: Figure 29, Thompson bowls (2012)
  68. Appendix M: Figure 3, Village S map (2012)
  69. Appendix M: Figure 4, aguada (2012)
  70. Appendix M: Figure 5, panorama (2012)
  71. Appendix M: Figure 6, Temple II (2012)
  72. Appendix M: Figure 7, Temple III (2012)
  73. Appendix M: Figure 8, camp (2012)
  74. Appendix M: Figure 9, plan of ruins (2012)

Datasets

  1. Appendix C: Proveniences for Excavation Lots (2012)
  2. Appendix D: Artifacts (2012)