Talk:Tikal Temple V

A fact from Tikal Temple V appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 3 February 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Temple V (pictured) of the Classic Period Maya archaeological site of Tikal, in Guatemala, was the first pyramid to be discovered at the site?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/February.

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Use of traditions?[edit]

The introduction states: "These [architectural] features indicate the continued use of earlier traditions." Problem: a tradition isn't really used per se; it might have an influence or effect. Alternatively, traditional design elements or construction methods might be used. I'm not sure which of these syntactical constructions is really the better one, but either would be better than what's there now. --Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 01:54, 3 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fair comment, I've changed it. Regards, Simon Burchell (talk) 12:41, 3 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Construction-Date[edit]

I know that my english is not very good and so the problem is maybe on my side but I read in the upper Part of the Article, "The temple has been dated to about AD 700, in the Late Classic period, [...] its construction during the reign of Nun Bak Chak in the second half of the 7th century" - ok so far but in Section History I read, "that construction began between AD 550 and 650." - so this all is now very unclear to me, but as I told before, my english isn't very good. Maybe someone can explain me that in simple terms? Thanks in advice -- Hartmann Schedel ^Prost 14:14, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Hartmann. The structure has not been securely dated so there is some room for error. Various dating methods have produced slightly differing results. The 7th century is from AD 600 to AD 699. Radiocarbon dating places construction around AD 700. Ceramic analysis places construction around AD 650 - AD 700. The platform is the base, or terrace, supporting the pyramid itself and therefore was built before the pyramid. It has been dated to between AD 550 and AD 650.

So, in summary, the basal platform is the artificial flattening of the terrain before the pyramid was built, and took place around AD 550 to AD 650 (late 6th to early 7th century AD). Temple V was built on top of the platform and has been variously dated to between AD 650 and AD 700, the second half of the 7th century AD.

I hope this helps. Best regards, Simon Burchell (talk) 14:50, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]