Introduction
Tikal is one of the most famous and important cities of the Mayan area (Fig. 1), and Mesoamerica in general, and is the largest pre-Hispanic city that exists in Guatemala (Gómez 2013: 10). In addition, it has been one of the most studied by researchers of this culture and has a large corpus of inscriptions that covers from the Early Classic to the Late Classic. It was discovered on February 26, 1848 by the Corregidor de Petén, Colonel Modesto Méndez, guided by the Governor of Petén Ambrosio Tut, who were accompanied by the artist Eusebio Lara to draw the findings (Gómez 2013: 10).
Map of the Maya territory, with the location of Tikal. (Map by Harri Kettunen)
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Further Reading
Clancy, F. 1990. A genealogy for freestanding Maya monuments. In Vision and revision in Maya studies, ed. F. Clancy and P. Harrison, 21–32. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Coe, W. 1988. Tikal: guía de las antiguas ruinas mayas. Guatemala: Centro Impresor Piedra Santa para la Asociación Tikal.
Jones, C., and L. Satterthwaite. 1982. In The monuments and inscriptions of Tikal. The carved monuments, Tikal reports no. 33 Part A, University Museum monograph 44, ed. W. Coe and W. Haviland. Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
Schele, L., and D. Freidel. 1990. A forest of kings: The untold story of the ancient Maya. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.
Willey, Gordon R. 1974. The classic Maya hiatus: A rehearsal for the collapse? In Mesoamerican archaeology: New approaches, ed. N. Hammond, 417–430. Austin: Duckworth.
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López Oliva, M.S. (2020). Tikal (Maya): Geography and Culture. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2921
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