Eyebrow
A roughly horizontal projecting ledge over some feature, usually an inset panel in a facing, may be termed an eyebrow.
Facade Sculpture
Sculptural treatment, usually in relief but sometimes almost full round, in the facade of a building, or anywhere on a structure, can be designated as a facade sculpture and numbered for reference.
Face Surface
The surface of facing stones that remains exposed after setting is the face surface.
Facing Masonry
Outer surfaces of platforms, walls, and vaults, that is, facing masonry, normally have little or no capacity to retain unstable hearting. Facing masonry provides a base for plaster and sets the final form of features such as platforms.
Fake Building Platform
In some “late” work at Tikal we see moldings at the base of exterior walls, usually with shallow projection, that either do not correspond in height to the wall base level, or are not part of any platform installed as a base for wall construction; such features may be called fake building platforms.
Falsework
In preparation for masonry work a system of poles, called a falsework, may be erected to establish angles and heights for the guidance of workers. In vaulting, the practice of leaving a gap between half-vaults may have allowed for projection of falsework members.
Fill
Hearting of low platforms, using loose material such as gravel, and needing retention at the edges, can be called fill.
Floor
A floor may be merely an activity surface flattened by walking, or a distinct constructional element with a thickness, a topping, and a ballast layer.
Floor Pad
A layer of concrete installed to raise the level of a floor may be called a floor pad.
Formwork
Members of a timber falsework intended to actually retain masonry immediately after installation until mortar has reached final set is called a formwork.
Frontality
Tikal structures often have features on the frontal facade that do not appear on the sides or rear. For example, upper zones at the front may have sculptural treatment while those at the rear are plain. On the Great Temples projecting stairs form distinctive frontal features. Emphasis on frontality may have encouraged a sense that the structures, when occupied by non-material forces, could be sentient witnesses to ceremonial performances and sacrifices.
Grading Floor
An application of flooring material that runs part way across some space and feathers out onto a pre-existing floor surface is called a grading floor.
Half-vault
From Intermediate through the Late Classic at Tikal vaults were installed by halves, first on one side of a room and then for completion, on the other side. The two half-vaults do not touch or lean against each other; each is independently stable. Short end-vault units prevent the long half-vaults from rolling into the room space.
Header
A facing stone set with its length projecting into the hearting of the wall or other feature.
Hip Molding
On some upper zones medial and superior moldings are joined at the corners by diagonal hip moldings to create a framed effect.
Inset Corner
Platform terraces at Tikal often have corner elements inset from other face elements. None of these occur in the Central Acropolis.
Jamb
The sides of doorway openings are called jambs.
Lintel
A beam over a doorway, window, or niche is a lintel beam. Most lintels at Tikal employ a number of beams, many seemingly much too small in diameter for the load imposed by the vault mass and they must have been braced until vault mortar had reached full set.
Lintel Bed
Lintels over doorways are normally set some way below wall-top level and support a layer of supra-lintel masonry forming a fair surface on which to install vault spring and medial molding corbels.
Lower Substructure Platform (LSP)
A platform sustaining a building platform is a lower substructure platform unless there is an even lower platform sustaining it, in which case it is a supplementary platform.
Major Substructure Platform (MSP)
This term is introduced as a label for substructure units that cannot be called either pyramids or building platforms.
Masonry
Construction in stone is called masonry whether well-cut and bedded or simply rubble. The core material of substantial platforms at Tikal is masonry, whether bedded or not. (See also Facing Masonry.)
Medial Molding
At wall-top level a corbel course projecting out over the exterior wall surface is known as a medial molding.
Mortar
The adhesive element in concrete is cement, which the ancient Maya made from limestone. When used in masonry as a binder it is called mortar and usually is not as fine grained or pure as plaster. Mortar is usually gray or brown while plaster is white. Ancient Maya builders varied the quality of their mortars using relatively fine mortars for facings and less fine ones for heartings or cores.
Niche
A recess in a wall surface is called a niche. Usually niches are set well up in walls but there are, also, full-height niches that run from floor to vault spring.
Outset
Terraces, walls, and roofcombs, often have elements of surface projected out from other elements. Some may have iconographic significance, particularly rear axial outsets and stair-side outsets. Even side outsets might have carried meanings that would have been known to the people using the structures.
Patch
Deposits intruded into floors are sealed by floor material called patches. This is common in the North Acropolis
