see a certain amount of notching in some ashlar facings and this must have been done on the job.
Axis
The center-line of a structure, running front to rear is known as the principal axis; some structures also, have a secondary axis running from side to side but the great majority of Maya structures at Tikal have only the principal axis. Symmetry of a facade is worked around an axis, which may or may not be emphasized by a wider doorway opening or a sculptural treatment.
Balustrade
Any raised edge to a stair can be called a balustrade. Strictly speaking a balustrade should consist of balusters like miniature columns supporting a railing. The term is used very loosely in Maya architecture.
Ballast
In floors installed on platforms, a layer of relatively smaller aggregate, ballast, is needed to establish a level substrate for the final surface.
Basal Platform
A platform that sustains a single structure, usually supporting a pyramid, is a basal platform.
Batter
Non-vertical faces are battered. Leaning outward is negative batter, inward is positive.
Beam
A spanning member is a beam. Wood beams are common but stone ones are known, particularly as lintels.
Bed Joint
The more-or-less horizontal mortar layer below stones is the bed joint.
Block Facings
Facing stones proportioned so that their thickness is comparable to their height are known as block facings. Typically they are oblong on the face but less precisely shaped than veneer facings.
Bolster
A raised bench element, also called an upstand, could be called a bolster, though this is a term not generally used.
Building
The part of a structure that contains the accessible rooms is the building. Accessible rooms installed at substructure or roof level generally are not considered as building elements, though upper stories certainly are buildings.
Building Platform
Platforms that directly sustain the walls of buildings are building platforms. Some apparent building platforms are actually fakes, mere moldings at the base of walls, and not the outer faces of actual platforms. Fake building platforms imply existence of platform units sustaining walls when in fact such units had no place in the construction process.
Butt
The parts of beams that bear on their supports are their butts. Some butts are concealed, others exposed.
Capstone
Stones bridging the gap between half-vaults are capstones. Wood members bridging half-vault gaps are known and may be described as wooden capstones.
Cement
The ancient Maya made an adhesive or bonding agent from limestone. The best lime cement was probably made by burning limestone to get lime, which was then mixed with water and fine aggregate or sand to make mortar or plaster.
Cobble
Small stones, about fist sized or slightly bigger and not squared or shaped but just broken to size are cobbles. Walls of Str. 5D-46-C and 46-B1 (second story) employ cobbles as facing stones and also in the hearting.
Concrete
A mixture of cement and aggregate is concrete. As the aggregate gets smaller the cement may be called mortar.
Construction Stage
Major works of architecture at Tikal display a standard set of the following features: basal platform, pyramid, lower substructure platform, supplementary platform, building platform, building, and roofcomb. Building and building platform appear most frequently, and others appear on different structures in various combinations. They are numbered from topmost to basal, but described in reverse order, that is, basal to topmost. Although the terms imply distinct stages of construction, this is not always the case. For example, some building platforms are not stages of construction at all, and many buildings present walls, vaults, and upper zones as distinct constructional modules that perhaps might best be designated as substages, though this has not been formalized.
Corbel
A stone projecting in the manner of a cantilever is a corbel. Some Maya vaults are corbelled, many, particularly “late” vaults, are not corbelled. True corbels do not depend on mortar. Corbels in Tikal architecture are most common as vault springs, medial moldings, and apron springs.
Cord Holder
Interior and occasionally exterior building walls present recessed features with rods or pegs that could be used to secure ties or cords.
Core
The hearting of platforms, walls, and vaults is called core. In very low platforms—those less than a meter high—hearting may be loose material placed by dumping and may be called fill, retained by masonry at the edges. In higher platforms builders were careful to assemble cores so that they would be internally stable and would not require retention at the edges.
Double-vault Mass
Vaults bearing on spine walls have two soffit faces and constitute double-vault masses. Often there is a more-or-less vertical joint at the center indicating that one half-vault was followed by the other, in order of assembly.
End Joint
In masonry the roughly vertical mortar applications between stones are end joints. Staggering end joints improves stability but most Maya facings were not regarded as load bearing so end joints are often not consistently staggered.
End-vault
Most vaulted rooms at Tikal have four vault facets, two half-vaults, and two end-vaults. The half-vaults do not touch but the end-vaults bond to the halfvaults so as to prevent them from tumbling into the room space.
Epicentral Tikal
This term refers to the parts of the city center that are interconnected by continuous plaster paving. The four structures of this volume are all in the city center, and individual location maps for each one depict part of it. By means of the causeway system the epicenter extends from the Great Plaza to the North Group and to Great Temple VI. Since plaster paving is inherently fragile, maintaining such an extensive paving must have been important and meaningful.
