title: Default mode network

text: Around 2007, the number of papers referencing the default mode network skyrocketed. In all years prior to 2007, there were 12 papers published that referenced "default mode network" or "default network" in the title; however, between 2007 and 2014 the number increased to 1,384 papers. One reason for the increase in papers is a result of the robust effect of finding the DMN with resting-state scans and independent component analysis (ICA). Another reason is the DMN can be measured with short and effortless resting-state scans, meaning they can be performed on any population including young children, clinical populations, and nonhuman primates. A third reason is that the role of the DMN has been expanded to more than just a passive brain network.


title: Default mode network

text: The default mode network is an interconnected and anatomically defined set of brain regions. The network can be separated into hubs and subsections:


title: Default mode network

text: The default mode network is most commonly defined with resting state data by putting a seed in the Posterior cingulate cortex and examining which other brain areas most correlate with this area. The DMN can also be defined by the areas deactivated during external directed tasks compared to rest. Independent component analysis (ICA) robustly finds the DMN for individuals and across groups, and has become the standard tool for mapping the default network.


title: Default mode network

text: It has been shown that the default mode network exhibits the highest overlap in its structural and functional connectivity, which suggests that the structural architecture of the brain may be built in such a way that this particular network is activated by default. Recent evidence from a population brain-imaging study of 10,000 UK Biobank participants further suggests that each DMN node can be decomposed into subregions with complementary structural and functional properties. It has been a widespread practice in DMN research to treat its constituent nodes to be functionally homogeneous, but the distinction between subnodes within each major DMN node has mostly been neglected. However, the close proximity of subnodes that propagate hippocampal space-time outputs and subnodes that describe the global network architecture may enable default functions, such as autobiographical recall or internally-orientated thinking.


title: Default mode network

text: In the infant's brain, there is limited evidence of the default network, but default network connectivity is more consistent in children aged 9–12 years, suggesting that the default network undergoes developmental change.


title: Default mode network

text: Functional connectivity analysis in monkeys shows a similar network of regions to the default mode network seen in humans. The PCC is also a key hub in monkeys; however, the mPFC is smaller and less well connected to other brain regions, largely because human's mPFC is much larger and well developed.


title: Default mode network

text: Diffusion MRI imaging shows white matter tracts connecting different areas of the DMN together. The structural connections found from diffusion MRI imaging and the functional correlations from resting state fMRI show the highest level of overlap and agreement within the DMN areas. This provides evidence that neurons in the DMN regions are linked to each other through large tracts of axons and this causes activity in these areas to be correlated with one another.


title: Default mode network

text: The default mode network is active during passive rest and mind-wandering which usually involves thinking about others, thinking about one's self, remembering the past, and envisioning the future rather than the task being performed. Recent work, however, has challenged a specific mapping between the default mode network and mind-wandering, given that the system is important in maintaining detailed representations of task information during working memory encoding. Electrocorticography studies (which involve placing electrodes on the surface of a subject's cerebral cortex) have shown the default mode network becomes activated within a fraction of a second after participants finish a task. Additionally, during attention demanding tasks, sufficient deactivation of the default mode network at the time of memory encoding has been shown to result in more successful long-term memory consolidation.


title: Default mode network

text: Studies have shown that when people watch a movie, listen to a story, or read a story, their DMNs are highly correlated with each other. DMNs are not correlated if the stories are scrambled or are in a language the person does not understand, suggesting that the network is highly involved in the comprehension and the subsequent memory formation of that story. The DMN is shown to even be correlated if the same story is presented to different people in different languages, further suggesting the DMN is truly involved in the comprehension aspect of the story and not the auditory or language aspect.


title: Default mode network

text: The default mode network is deactivated during some external goal-oriented tasks such as visual attention or cognitive working memory tasks. However, with internal goal-oriented tasks, such as social working memory or autobiographical tasks, the DMN is positively activated with the task and correlates with other networks such as the network involved in executive function. Regions of the DMN are also activated during cognitively demanding tasks that require higher-order conceptual representations. The DMN shows higher activation when behavioral responses are stable, and this activation is independent of self-reported mind wandering.


title: Default mode network

text: A hitherto unsuspected possibility is that the default network is activated by the immobilization inherent in the testing procedure (the patient is strapped supine on a stretcher and inserted by a narrow tunnel into a massive metallic structure). This procedure creates a sense of entrapment and, not surprisingly, the most commonly reported side-effect is claustrophobia. This alternative view is suggested by a recent article that links theory of mind to immobilization.


title: Default mode network

text: Recent research has shown that the DMN is related to the perception of beauty, in which the network becomes activated in a generalized way to aesthetically moving domains such as artworks, landscapes, and architecture. This would explain a deep inner feeling of pleasure related to aesthetics, interconnected with the sense of personal identity, due to the network functions related to the self.


title: Default mode network

text: The default mode network has been hypothesized to be relevant to disorders including Alzheimer's disease, autism, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder (MDD), chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and others. In particular, the DMN has also been reported to show overlapping yet distinct neural activity patterns across different mental health conditions, such as when directly comparing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.


title: Default mode network

text: People with Alzheimer's disease show a reduction in glucose (energy use) within the areas of the default mode network. These reductions start off as slight decreases in patients with mild symptoms and continue to large reductions in those with severe symptoms. Surprisingly, disruptions in the DMN begin even before individuals show signs of Alzheimer's disease. Plots of the peptide amyloid-beta, which is thought to cause Alzheimer's disease, show the buildup of the peptide is within the DMN. This prompted Randy Buckner and colleagues to propose the high metabolic rate from continuous activation of DMN causes more amyloid-beta peptide to accumulate in these DMN areas. These amyloid-beta peptides disrupt the DMN and because the DMN is heavily involved in memory formation and retrieval, this disruption leads to the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.


title: Default mode network

text: DMN is thought to be disrupted in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. These individuals are impaired in social interaction and communication which are tasks central to this network. Studies have shown worse connections between areas of the DMN in individuals with autism, especially between the mPFC (involved in thinking about the self and others) and the PCC (the central core of the DMN). The more severe the autism, the less connected these areas are to each other. It is not clear if this is a cause or a result of autism, or if a third factor is causing both (confounding).


title: Default mode network

text: Although it is not clear whether the DMN connectivity is increased or decreased in psychotic bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, several genes correlated with altered DMN connectivity are also risk genes for mood and psychosis disorders.


title: Default mode network

text: Rumination, one of main symptoms of major depressive disorder, is associated with increased DMN connectivity and dominance over other networks during rest. Such DMN hyperconnectivity has been observed in first-episode depression and chronic pain. Altered DMN connectivity may change the way a person perceives events and their social and moral reasoning, thus increasing their susceptibility to depressive symptoms.


title: Default mode network

text: Lower connectivity between brain regions was found across the default network in people who have experienced long-term trauma, such as childhood abuse or neglect, and is associated with dysfunctional attachment patterns. Among people experiencing PTSD, lower activation was found in the posterior cingulate gyrus compared to controls, and severe PTSD was characterized by lower connectivity within the DMN.


title: Default mode network

text: Adults and children with ADHD show reduced anticorrelation between the DMN and other brain networks. The cause may be a lag in brain maturation. More generally, competing activation between the DMN and other networks during memory encoding may result in poor long-term memory consolidation, which is a symptom of not only ADHD but also depression, anxiety, autism, and schizophrenia.


title: Default mode network

text: Some have argued the brain areas in the default mode network only show up together because of the vascular coupling of large arteries and veins in the brain near these areas, not because these areas are actually functionally connected to each other. Support for this argument comes from studies that show changing in breathing alters oxygen levels in the blood which in turn affects DMN the most. These studies however do not explain why the DMN can also be identified using PET scans by measuring glucose metabolism which is independent of vascular coupling and in electrocorticography studies measuring electrical activity on the surface of the brain, and in MEG by measuring magnetic fields associated with electrophysiological brain activity that bypasses the hemodynamic response.


title: Default mode network

text: The idea of a "default network" is not universally accepted. In 2007 the concept of the default mode was criticized as not being useful for understanding brain function, on the grounds that a simpler hypothesis is that a resting brain actually does more processing than a brain doing certain "demanding" tasks, and that there is no special significance to the intrinsic activity of the resting brain.


title: Default mode network

text: The default mode network has also been called the language network, semantic system, or limbic network. Even though the dichotomy is misleading, the term "task-negative network" is still sometimes used to contrast it against other more externally-oriented brain networks.


title: Default mode network

text: In 2019, Uddin et al. proposed that "medial frontoparietal network" ("M-FPN") be used as a standard anatomical name for this network.


title: Neith

text: Neith (, a borrowing of the Demotic form , likely originally to have been nrt "she is the terrifying one"; Coptic: ⲛⲏⲓⲧ; also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an early ancient Egyptian deity. She was said to be the first and the prime creator, who created the universe and all it contains, and that she governs how it functions. She was the goddess of the cosmos, fate, wisdom, water, rivers, mothers, childbirth, hunting, weaving, and war.


title: Neith

text: Neith was the tutelary deity of Sais ( "Sai" from Egyptian "Zau"), where her cult was centered in the western Nile Delta of Lower Egypt. It is attested as early as the First Dynasty. Neith was also one of the three tutelary deities of the southern city of Latopolis () or Esna (Snē) (Sahidic Coptic: from earlier Egyptian: "t3-snt", also "iwnyt") Latopolis was located on the western bank of the River Nile some south of Luxor (Thebes).


title: Neith

text: In her usual representations, she is portrayed as a fierce deity, a woman wearing the Red Crown, occasionally holding or using the bow and arrow, in others, a harpoon. Neith also is a goddess of war and of hunting and that is the symbolism depicted most often. Her symbol was two arrows crossed over a shield. The hieroglyphs of her name usually are followed by a determinative containing the archery elements, with the shield symbol of the name being explained as either double bows (facing one another), intersected by two arrows (usually lashed to the bows), or, by other imagery associated with her worship. Her symbol also identified the city of Sais. This symbol was displayed on top of her head in Egyptian art. In her form as a goddess of war, she was said to make the weapons of warriors and to guard their bodies when they died.


title: Neith

text: As a deity, Neith is normally shown carrying the was scepter (symbol of rule and power) and the ankh (symbol of life). She is called such cosmic epithets as the "Cow of Heaven", a sky-goddess similar to Nut, and as the Great Flood, Mehet-Weret, as a cow who gives birth to the sun daily. In these forms, she is associated with the creation of both the primeval time and the daily "re-creation". As protectress of the Royal House, she is represented as a uraeus, and functions with the fiery fury of the sun. In time, this led to her being considered as the personification of the primordial waters of creation.


title: Neith

text: Later, as religious practices evolved throughout the long history of their culture, ancient Egyptians began to note their deities in pairs, female and male. When that tradition arose, Neith was paired with Ptah-Nun. In the same manner, her personification as the primeval waters is Mehet-Weret, conceptualized as streaming water, related to another use of the verb "sti", meaning 'to pour'.


title: Neith

text: Neith is one of the most ancient deities associated with ancient Egyptian culture. Flinders Petrie ("Diopolis Parva", 1901) noted the earliest depictions of her standards were known in predynastic periods, as can be seen from a representation of a barque bearing her crossed arrow standards in the Predynastic Period, as is displayed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.


title: Neith

text: Her first anthropomorphic representations occur in the early dynastic period, on a diorite vase of King Ny-Netjer of the Second Dynasty. The vase was found in the Step Pyramid of Djoser (Third Dynasty) at Saqqara. That her worship predominated the early dynastic periods is demonstrated by a preponderance of theophoric names (personal names that incorporate the name of a deity) within which Neith appears as an element. Predominance of Neith's name in nearly forty percent of early dynastic names, and particularly in the names of four royal women of the First Dynasty, clearly emphasizes the importance of this goddess in relation to the early society of Egypt, with special emphasis on association with the Royal House.


title: Neith

text: In the very early periods of Egyptian history, the main iconographic representations of this goddess appear to have been limited to her hunting and war characteristics, although there is no Egyptian mythological reference to support the concept that this was her primary function as a deity. It has been suggested these hunting and war features of Neith's imagery may indicate her origin from Libya, located west and southwest of Egypt, where she was the goddess of the combative peoples there.


title: Neith

text: It has been theorized that Neith's primary cult point in the Old Kingdom was established in Saïs (modern Sa el-Hagar) by Hor-Aha of the First Dynasty, in an effort to placate the residents of Lower Egypt by the ruler of the unified country. Textual and iconographic evidence indicates that she was a national goddess for Old Kingdom Egypt, with her own sanctuary in Memphis, indicating the high regard held for her. There, she was known as "North of her Wall", as counterpoise to Ptah's "South of his Wall" epithet. While Neith is generally regarded as a deity of Lower Egypt, her worship was not consistently located in that delta region. Her cult reached its height in Saïs and apparently in Memphis in the Old Kingdom, and remained important, although to a lesser extent, through the Middle and New Kingdom. Her cult regained cultural prominence again during the twenty-sixth dynasty when worship at Saïs flourished again, as well as at Esna in Upper Egypt.


title: Neith

text: Neith's symbol and part of her hieroglyph also bore a resemblance to a loom, and so in later syncretisation of Egyptian myths by the Greek ruling class of that time, she also became the goddess of weaving. At this time her role as a creator was conflated with that of Athena, as a Greek deity who wove all of the world and existence into being on her loom.


title: Neith

text: Sometimes Neith was pictured as a woman nursing a baby crocodile, and she then was addressed with the title, "Nurse of Crocodiles", reflecting a southern provincial mythology in Upper Egypt that she served as either the mother of the crocodile god, Sobek. As the mother of Ra, in her Mehet-Weret form, she was sometimes described as the "Great Cow who gave birth to Ra". As a maternal figure (beyond being the birth-mother of the sun-god Ra), Neith is associated with Sobek as her son (as early as the Pyramid Texts), but in later religious conventions that paired deities, no male deity is consistently identified with her in a pair and so, she often is represented without one. Later triad associations made with her have little or no religious or mythological supporting references, appearing to have been made by political or regional associations only.


title: Neith

text: Some modern writers assert that they may interpret that as her being 'androgynous', since Neith is the creator capable of giving birth without a partner (asexually) and without association of creation with sexual imagery, as seen in the myths of Atum and other creator deities. However, her name always appears as feminine. Erik Hornung interprets that in the Eleventh Hour of the Book of the Amduat, Neith's name appears written with a phallus ("Das Amduat", Teil I: "Text": 188, No. 800.(Äg. Abh., Band 7, Wiesbaden) 1963). See also Ramadan el-Sayed, "La Déese Neith de Saïs", I:16; 58-60, for both hieroglyphic rendering and discussion of an androgynous nature of Neith as creator/creatress deity, and "Lexikon der Ägyptologie" (LÄ I) under ""Götter, androgyne"": 634-635 (W. Westendorf, ed., Harassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1977). In reference to Neith's function as creator with both male and female characteristics, Peter Kaplony has said in the Lexikon der Ägyptologie: "Die Deutung von Neith als "Njt" "Verneinung" ist sekundär. Neith ist die weibliche Entsprechung zu "Nw(w"), dem Gott der Urflut (Nun and Naunet). (Citing Sethe, "Amun", § 139)". "LÄ" II: 1118 (Harassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1977). She was considered to be eldest of the Ancient Egyptian deities. Neith is said to have been "born the first, in the time when as yet there had been no birth" (St. Clair, "Creation Records": 176).


title: Neith

text: In the Pyramid Texts, Neith is paired with the goddess Selket as the two braces for the sky, which places these goddesses as the supports for the heavens (see PT 1040a-d, following J. Gwyn Griffths, "The Conflict of Horus and Seth", (London, 1961) p. 1). This ties in with the vignette in the Contendings of Seth and Horus when, as the most ancient among them, Neith is asked by the deities to decide who should rule. She was appealed to as an arbiter in the dispute between Horus and Seth. In her message of reply, Neith selects Horus, and says she will "cause the sky to crash to the earth" if he is not selected.


title: Neith

text: An analysis of her attributes shows Neith was a goddess with many roles. From predynastic and early dynasty periods, she was referred to as an "Opener of the Ways" (same as Wepwawet), which may have referred, not only to her leadership in hunting and war but also as a psychopomp in cosmic and underworld pathways, escorting souls. References to Neith as the "Opener of Paths" occurs in Dynasty Four through Dynasty Six, and Neith is seen in the titles of women serving as priestesses of the goddess. Such epithets include: ""Priestess of Neith who opens all the (path)ways"", ""Priestess of Neith who opens the good pathways"", ""Priestess of Neith who opens the way in all her places"". (el-Sayed, I: 67-69). el-Sayed asserts his belief that Neith should be seen as a parallel to Wepwawet, the ancient j of Upper Egypt, who was associated in that southern region with both royalty in victory and as a psychopomp for the dead.


title: Neith

text: The main imagery of Neith as "Wepwawet" was as the deity of the unseen and limitless sky, as opposed to representations of Nut and Hathor, who respectively represented the manifested night and day skies. Neith's epithet as the "Opener of the Sun's paths in all her stations" refers to how the sun is reborn (due to seasonal changes) at various points in the sky, under Neith's control of all beyond the visible world, of which only a glimpse is revealed prior to dawn and after sunset. It is at these changing points that Neith reigns as a form of sky goddess, where the sun rises and sets daily, or at its 'first appearance' to the sky above and below. It is at these points, beyond the sky that is seen, that Neith's true power as the deity who creates life is manifested.


title: Neith

text: Georges St. Clair ("Creation Records", 1898) noted that Neith is represented at times as a cow goddess with a line of stars across her back (as opposed to representations of Nut with stars across the belly) [See el-Sayed, II, Doc. 644], and maintained this indicated that Neith represents the full ecliptic circle around the sky (above and below), and is seen iconographically in ancient texts as both the regular and the inverted determinative for the heavenly vault, indicating the cosmos below the horizon. St. Clair maintained it was this realm that Neith personified, for she is the complete sky that surrounds the upper (Nut) and lower (Nunet?) sky, and who exists beyond the horizon, and thereby, beyond the skies themselves. Neith, then, is that portion of the cosmos that is not seen, and in which the sun is reborn daily, below the horizon (which may reflect the statement assigned to Neith as "I come at dawn and at sunset daily").


title: Neith

text: Since Neith also was goddess of war, she thus had an additional association with death: in this function, she shot her arrows into the enemies of the dead, and thus she began to be viewed as a protector of the dead, often appearing as a uraeus snake to drive off intruders and those who would harm the deceased (in this form she is represented in the tomb of Tutankhamun). She also is shown as the protectress of one of the Four sons of Horus, specifically, of Duamutef, the deification of the canopic jar storing the stomach, since the abdomen (often mistakenly associated as the stomach) was the most vulnerable portion of the body and a prime target during battle.


title: Neith

text: In some ancient Egyptian creation myths, Neith was identified as the mother of Ra and Apep. When she was identified as a water goddess, she was viewed as the mother of Sobek, the crocodile. It was because of this association with water, i.e. the Nile, that during pairing of deities she sometimes was considered the wife of Khnum and sometimes was associated with the source of the River Nile. In that cult center, she also was associated with the Nile Perch as well as being the goddess of the triad.


title: Neith

text: As the goddess of creation and weaving, she was said to reweave the world on her loom daily. An interior wall of the temple at Esna records an account of creation in which Neith brings forth the Nun, the first land, from the primeval waters. All that she conceived in her heart comes into being, including all thirty deities. Having no husband she has been described as "Virgin Mother Goddess":


title: Neith

text: Proclus (412–485 AD) wrote that the adyton of the temple of Neith in Sais (of which nothing now remains) carried the following inscription:


title: Neith

text: It was said that Neith interceded in the kingly war between Horus and Set, over the Egyptian throne, recommending that Horus rule.


title: Neith

text: A great festival, called the "Feast of Lamps", was held annually in honor of Neith and, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, her devotees burned a multitude of lights in the open air all night during the celebration.


title: Neith

text: The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC) noted that the Egyptian citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped Neith. The Greeks sought to draw a syncretic relationship to associate Egyptian deities with those of Greece. They identified Neith with Athena. The "Timaeus", a dialogue written by Plato, mirrors that identification with Athena, possibly as a result of the identification of both goddesses with war and weaving.


title: Neith

text: The English Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge suggested that the Christian biblical account of the flight into Egypt as recorded in the apocryphal gospels was directly influenced by stories about Isis and Horus; Budge argued that the writers of these gospels ascribed to Mary, the mother of Jesus, many peculiarities which, at the time of the rise of Christianity, were perceived as belonging to both Isis and Neith, for example, the parthenogenesis concept shared by both Neith and Mary.


title: Neith

text: Neith has been speculated by some scholars, such as J. Gwyn Griffiths and Jan Assmann, to be the actual goddess depicted in the first and second century Greek historian Plutarch's description of the Veil of Isis in his "On Isis and Osiris." The veiled Isis is a motif which associates her with mystery and ceremonial magic. Plutarch described the statue of a seated and veiled goddess in the Egyptian city of Sais. He identified the goddess as "Athena, whom [the Egyptians] consider to be Isis." However, Sais was the cult center of the goddess Neith, whom the Greeks compared to their goddess Athena, and could have been the goddess that Plutarch spoke of. More than 300 years after Plutarch, the Neoplatonist philosopher Proclus wrote of the same statue in Book I of his "Commentaries on Plato's "Timaeus"". In this version, a statement is added: "The fruit of my womb was the sun", which could further be associated with Neith, due to her being the mother of the Sun god Ra.


title: Tikal

text: Tikal () ("Tik’al" in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén, the site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Tikal

text: Tikal was the capital of a conquest state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya. Though monumental architecture at the site dates back as far as the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period, c. 200 to 900. During this time, the city dominated much of the Maya region politically, economically, and militarily, while interacting with areas throughout Mesoamerica such as the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. There is evidence that Tikal was conquered by Teotihuacan in the 4th century AD. Following the end of the Late Classic Period, no new major monuments were built at Tikal and there is evidence that elite palaces were burned. These events were coupled with a gradual population decline, culminating with the site's abandonment by the end of the 10th century.


title: Tikal

text: Tikal is the best understood of any of the large lowland Maya cities, with a long dynastic ruler list, the discovery of the tombs of many of the rulers on this list and the investigation of their monuments, temples and palaces.


title: Tikal

text: The name Tikal may be derived from "ti ak'al" in the Yucatec Maya language; it is said to be a relatively modern name meaning "at the waterhole". The name was apparently applied to one of the site's ancient reservoirs by hunters and travelers in the region. It has alternatively been interpreted as meaning "the place of the voices" in the Itza Maya language. Tikal, however, is not the ancient name for the site but rather the name adopted shortly after its discovery in the 1840s. Hieroglyphic inscriptions at the ruins refer to the ancient city as "Yax Mutal" or "Yax Mutul", meaning "First Mutal". Tikal may have come to have been called this because Dos Pilas also came to use the same emblem glyph; the rulers of the city presumably wanted to distinguish themselves as the first city to bear the name.


title: Tikal

text: The kingdom as a whole was simply called "Mutul", which is the reading of the "hair bundle" emblem glyph seen in the accompanying photo. Its precise meaning remains obscure.


title: Tikal

text: The closest large modern settlements are Flores and Santa Elena, approximately by road to the southwest. Tikal is approximately north of Guatemala City. It is south of the contemporary Maya city of Uaxactun and northwest of Yaxha. The city was located southeast of its great Classic Period rival, Calakmul, and northwest of Calakmul's ally Caracol, now in Belize.


title: Tikal

text: The city has been completely mapped and covered an area greater than that included about 3,000 structures. The topography of the site consists of a series of parallel limestone ridges rising above swampy lowlands. The major architecture of the site is clustered upon areas of higher ground and linked by raised causeways spanning the swamps. The area around Tikal has been declared as the Tikal National Park and the preserved area covers . It was created on 26 May 1955 under the auspices of the Instituto de Antropología e Historia and was the first protected area in Guatemala.


title: Tikal

text: The ruins lie among the tropical rainforests of northern Guatemala that formed the cradle of lowland Maya civilization. The city itself was located among abundant fertile upland soils, and may have dominated a natural east–west trade route across the Yucatan Peninsula. Conspicuous trees at the Tikal park include gigantic kapok ("Ceiba pentandra") the sacred tree of the Maya; tropical cedar ("Cedrela odorata"), and Honduras mahogany ("Swietenia macrophylla"). Regarding the fauna, agoutis, white-nosed coatis, gray foxes, Geoffroy's spider monkeys, howler monkeys, harpy eagles, falcons, ocellated turkeys, guans, toucans, green parrots and leafcutter ants can be seen there regularly. Jaguars, ocelots, and cougars are also said to roam in the park.


title: Tikal

text: Tikal had no water other than what was collected from rainwater and stored in ten reservoirs. Archeologists working in Tikal during the 20th century refurbished one of these ancient reservoirs to store water for their own use. The average annual rainfall at Tikal is . However, the arrival of rain was often unpredictable, and long periods of drought could occur before the crops ripened, which severely threatened the inhabitants of the city.


title: Tikal

text: Population estimates for Tikal vary from 10,000 to as high as 90,000 inhabitants. The population of Tikal began a continuous curve of growth starting in the Preclassic Period (approximately 2000 BC – AD 200), with a peak in the Late Classic with the population growing rapidly from AD 700 through to 830, followed by a sharp decline. For the area falling within the earthwork defenses of the hinterland, the peak population is estimated at 517 per square kilometer (1340 per square mile). In an area within a radius of the site core, peak population is estimated at 120,000; population density is estimated at 265 per square kilometer (689 per square mile). In a region within a radius of the site core and including some satellite sites, peak population is estimated at 425,000 with a density of 216 per square kilometer (515 per square mile). These population figures are even more impressive because of the extensive swamplands that were unsuitable for habitation or agriculture. However, some archeologists, such as David Webster, believe these figures to be far too high.


title: Tikal

text: There are traces of early agriculture at the site dating as far back as 1000 BC, in the Middle Preclassic. A cache of Mamon ceramics dating from about 700-400 BC were found in a sealed chultun, a subterranean bottle-shaped chamber.


title: Tikal

text: Major construction at Tikal was already taking place in the Late Preclassic period, first appearing around 400–300 BC, including the building of major pyramids and platforms, although the city was still dwarfed by sites further north such as El Mirador and Nakbe. At this time, Tikal participated in the widespread Chikanel culture that dominated the Central and Northern Maya areas at this time – a region that included the entire Yucatan Peninsula including northern and eastern Guatemala and all of Belize.


title: Tikal

text: Two temples dating to Late Chikanel times had masonry-walled superstructures that may have been corbel-vaulted, although this has not been proven. One of these had elaborate paintings on the outer walls showing human figures against a scrollwork background, painted in yellow, black, pink and red.


title: Tikal

text: In the 1st century AD rich burials first appeared and Tikal underwent a political and cultural florescence as its giant northern neighbors declined. At the end of the Late Preclassic, the Izapan style art and architecture from the Pacific Coast began to influence Tikal, as demonstrated by a broken sculpture from the acropolis and early murals at the city.


title: Tikal

text: Dynastic rulership among the lowland Maya is most deeply rooted at Tikal. According to later hieroglyphic records, the dynasty was founded by Yax Ehb Xook, perhaps in the 1st century AD. At the beginning of the Early Classic, power in the Maya region was concentrated at Tikal and Calakmul, in the core of the Maya heartland.


title: Tikal

text: Tikal may have benefited from the collapse of the large Preclassic states such as El Mirador. In the Early Classic Tikal rapidly developed into the most dynamic city in the Maya region, stimulating the development of other nearby Maya cities.


title: Tikal

text: The site, however, was often at war and inscriptions tell of alliances and conflict with other Maya states, including Uaxactun, Caracol, Naranjo and Calakmul. The site was defeated at the end of the Early Classic by Caracol, which rose to take Tikal's place as the paramount center in the southern Maya lowlands. The earlier part of the Early Classic saw hostilities between Tikal and its neighbor Uaxactun, with Uaxactun recording the capture of prisoners from Tikal.


title: Tikal

text: There appears to have been a breakdown in the male succession by AD 317, when Lady Unen Bahlam conducted a katun-ending ceremony, apparently as queen of the city.


title: Tikal

text: The fourteenth king of Tikal was Chak Tok Ich'aak (Great Jaguar Paw). Chak Tok Ich'aak built a palace that was preserved and developed by later rulers until it became the core of the Central Acropolis. Little is known about Chak Tok Ich'aak except that he was killed on 14 January 378 AD. On the same day, Siyah K’ak' (Fire Is Born) arrived from the west, having passed through El Peru, a site to the west of Tikal, on 8 January. On Stela 31 he is named as "Lord of the West". Siyah K’ak' was probably a foreign general serving a figure represented by a non-Maya hieroglyph of a spearthrower combined with an owl, a glyph that is well known from the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. Spearthrower Owl may even have been the ruler of Teotihuacan. These recorded events strongly suggest that Siyah K’ak' led a Teotihuacan invasion that defeated the native Tikal king, who was captured and immediately executed. Siyah K'ak' appears to have been aided by a powerful political faction at Tikal itself; roughly at the time of the conquest, a group of Teotihuacan natives were apparently residing near the Lost World complex. He also exerted control over other cities in the area, including Uaxactun, where he became king, but did not take the throne of Tikal for himself. Within a year, the son of Spearthrower Owl by the name of Yax Nuun Ayiin I (First Crocodile) had been installed as the fifteenth king of Tikal while he was still a boy, being enthroned on 13 September 379. He reigned for 47 years as king of Tikal, and remained a vassal of Siyah K'ak' for as long as the latter lived. It seems likely that Yax Nuun Ayiin I took a wife from the preexisting, defeated, Tikal dynasty and thus legitimized the right to rule of his son, Siyaj Chan K'awiil II.


title: Tikal

text: Río Azul, a small site northeast of Tikal, was conquered by the latter during the reign of Yax Nuun Ayiin I. The site became an outpost of Tikal, shielding it from hostile cities further north, and also became a trade link to the Caribbean.


title: Tikal

text: Although the new rulers of Tikal were foreign, their descendants were rapidly Mayanized. Tikal became the key ally and trading partner of Teotihuacan in the Maya lowlands. After being conquered by Teotihuacan, Tikal rapidly dominated the northern and eastern Peten. Uaxactun, together with smaller towns in the region, were absorbed into Tikal's kingdom. Other sites, such as Bejucal and Motul de San José near Lake Petén Itzá became vassals of their more powerful neighbor to the north. By the middle of the 5th century Tikal had a core territory of at least in every direction.


title: Tikal

text: Around the 5th century an impressive system of fortifications consisting of ditches and earthworks was built along the northern periphery of Tikal's hinterland, joining up with the natural defenses provided by large areas of swampland lying to the east and west of the city. Additional fortifications were probably also built to the south. These defenses protected Tikal's core population and agricultural resources, encircling an area of approximately . Recent research suggests that the earthworks served as a water collection system rather than a defensive purpose.


title: Tikal

text: In the 5th century the power of the city reached as far south as Copán, whose founder K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' was clearly connected with Tikal. Copán itself was not in an ethnically Maya region and the founding of the Copán dynasty probably involved the direct intervention of Tikal. K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' arrived in Copán in December 426 and bone analysis of his remains shows that he passed his childhood and youth at Tikal. An individual known as Ajaw K'uk' Mo' (lord K'uk' Mo') is referred to in an early text at Tikal and may well be the same person. His tomb had Teotihuacan characteristics and he was depicted in later portraits dressed in the warrior garb of Teotihuacan. Hieroglyphic texts refer to him as "Lord of the West", much like Siyah K’ak'. At the same time, in late 426, Copán founded the nearby site of Quiriguá, possibly sponsored by Tikal itself. The founding of these two centers may have been part of an effort to impose Tikal's authority upon the southeastern portion of the Maya region. The interaction between these sites and Tikal was intense over the next three centuries.


title: Tikal

text: A long-running rivalry between Tikal and Calakmul began in the 6th century, with each of the two cities forming its own network of mutually hostile alliances arrayed against each other in what has been likened to a long-running war between two Maya superpowers. The kings of these two capitals adopted the title "kaloomte"', a term that has not been precisely translated but that implies something akin to "high king".


title: Tikal

text: The early 6th century saw another queen ruling the city, known only as the "Lady of Tikal", who was very likely a daughter of Chak Tok Ich'aak II. She seems never to have ruled in her own right, rather being partnered with male co-rulers. The first of these was Kaloomte' B'alam, who seems to have had a long career as a general at Tikal before becoming co-ruler and 19th in the dynastic sequence. The Lady of Tikal herself seems not have been counted in the dynastic numbering. It appears she was later paired with lord "Bird Claw", who is presumed to be the otherwise unknown 20th ruler.


title: Tikal

text: In the mid 6th century, Caracol seems to have allied with Calakmul and defeated Tikal, closing the Early Classic. The "Tikal hiatus" refers to a period between the late 6th to late 7th century where there was a lapse in the writing of inscriptions and large-scale construction at Tikal. In the latter half of the 6th century AD, a serious crisis befell the city, with no new stelae being erected and with widespread deliberate mutilation of public sculpture. This hiatus in activity at Tikal was long unexplained until later epigraphic decipherments identified that the period was prompted by Tikal's comprehensive defeat at the hands of Calakmul and the Caracol polity in AD 562, a defeat that seems to have resulted in the capture and sacrifice of the king of Tikal. The badly eroded Altar 21 at Caracol described how Tikal suffered this disastrous defeat in a major war in April 562. It seems that Caracol was an ally of Calakmul in the wider conflict between that city and Tikal, with the defeat of Tikal having a lasting impact upon the city. Tikal was not sacked but its power and influence were broken. After its great victory, Caracol grew rapidly and some of Tikal's population may have been forcibly relocated there. During the hiatus period, at least one ruler of Tikal took refuge with Janaab' Pakal of Palenque, another of Calakmul's victims. Calakmul itself thrived during Tikal's long hiatus period.


title: Tikal

text: The beginning of the Tikal hiatus has served as a marker by which archeologists commonly subdivide the Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology into the Early and Late Classic.


title: Tikal

text: In 629 Tikal founded Dos Pilas, some to the southwest, as a military outpost in order to control trade along the course of the Pasión River. B'alaj Chan K'awiil was installed on the throne of the new outpost at the age of four, in 635. When he was older, for many years he served as a loyal vassal fighting for his brother, the king of Tikal. Roughly twenty years later, Dos Pilas was attacked by Calakmul and was soundly defeated. B'alaj Chan K'awiil was captured by the king of Calakmul but, instead of being sacrificed, he was re-instated on his throne as a vassal of his former enemy.


title: Tikal

text: He attacked Tikal in 657, forcing Nuun Ujol Chaak, then king of Tikal, to temporarily abandon the city. The first two rulers of Dos Pilas continued to use the Mutal emblem glyph of Tikal, and they probably felt that they had a legitimate claim to the throne of Tikal itself. For some reason, B'alaj Chan K'awiil was not installed as the new ruler of Tikal; instead he stayed at Dos Pilas. Tikal counterattacked against Dos Pilas in 672, driving B'alaj Chan K'awiil into an exile that lasted five years. Calakmul tried to encircle Tikal within an area dominated by its allies, such as El Peru, Dos Pilas, and Caracol.


title: Tikal

text: In 682, Jasaw Chan K'awiil I erected the first dated monument at Tikal in 120 years and claimed the title of "kaloomte"', so ending the hiatus. He initiated a program of new construction and turned the tables on Calakmul when, in 695, he captured the enemy noble and threw the enemy state into a long decline from which it never fully recovered. After this, Calakmul never again erected a monument celebrating a military victory.


title: Tikal

text: By the 7th century, there was no active Teotihuacan presence at any Maya site and the center of Teotihuacan had been razed by 700. Even after this, formal war attire illustrated on monuments was Teotihuacan style. Jasaw Chan K'awiil I and his heir Yik'in Chan K'awiil continued hostilities against Calakmul and its allies and imposed firm regional control over the area around Tikal, extending as far as the territory around Lake Petén Itzá. These two rulers were responsible for much of the impressive architecture visible today.


title: Tikal

text: In 738, Quiriguá, a vassal of Copán, Tikal's key ally in the south, switched allegiance to Calakmul, defeated Copán and gained its own independence. It appears that this was a conscious effort on the part of Calakmul to bring about the collapse of Tikal's southern allies. This upset the balance of power in the southern Maya area and lead to a steady decline in the fortunes of Copán.


title: Tikal

text: In the 8th century, the rulers of Tikal collected monuments from across the city and erected them in front of the North Acropolis. By the late 8th century and early 9th century, activity at Tikal slowed. Impressive architecture was still built but few hieroglyphic inscriptions refer to later rulers.


title: Tikal

text: By the 9th century, the crisis of the Classic Maya collapse was sweeping across the region, with populations plummeting and city after city falling into silence. Increasingly endemic warfare in the Maya region caused Tikal's supporting population to heavily concentrate close to the city itself, accelerating the use of intensive agriculture and the corresponding environmental decline. Construction continued at the beginning of the century, with the erection of Temple 3, the last of the city's major pyramids, and the erection of monuments to mark the 19th K'atun in 810. The beginning of the 10th Bak'tun in 830 passed uncelebrated, and marks the beginning of a 60-year hiatus, probably resulting from the collapse of central control in the city. During this hiatus, satellite sites traditionally under Tikal's control began to erect their own monuments featuring local rulers and using the Mutal emblem glyph, with Tikal apparently lacking the authority or the power to crush these bids for independence. In 849, Jewel K'awiil is mentioned on a stela at Seibal as visiting that city as the Divine Lord of Tikal but he is not recorded elsewhere and Tikal's once-great power was little more than a memory. The sites of Ixlu and Jimbal had by now inherited the once exclusive Mutal emblem glyph.


title: Tikal

text: As Tikal and its hinterland reached peak population, the area suffered deforestation, erosion and nutrient loss followed by a rapid decline in population levels. Recent analysis also indicates that the city's freshwater sources became highly contaminated with mercury, phosphate and cyanobacteria leading to the accumulation of toxins. Tikal and its immediate surroundings seem to have lost most of their population between 830 and 950 and central authority seems to have collapsed rapidly. There is not much evidence from Tikal that the city was directly affected by the endemic warfare that afflicted parts of the Maya region during the Terminal Classic, although an influx of refugees from the Petexbatún region may have exacerbated problems resulting from the already stretched environmental resources.


title: Tikal

text: In the latter half of the 9th century there was an attempt to revive royal power at the much-diminished city of Tikal, as evidenced by a stela erected in the Great Plaza by Jasaw Chan K'awiil II in 869. This was the last monument erected at Tikal before the city finally fell into silence. The former satellites of Tikal, such as Jimbal and Uaxactun, did not last much longer, erecting their final monuments in 889. By the end of the 9th century the vast majority of Tikal's population had deserted the city, its royal palaces were occupied by squatters and simple thatched dwellings were being erected in the city's ceremonial plazas. The squatters blocked some doorways in the rooms they reoccupied in the monumental structures of the site and left rubbish that included a mixture of domestic refuse and non-utilitarian items such as musical instruments. These inhabitants reused the earlier monuments for their own ritual activities, far removed from those of the royal dynasty that had erected them. Some monuments were vandalized and some were moved to new locations. Before its final abandonment all respect for the old rulers had disappeared, with the tombs of the North Acropolis being explored for jade and the easier-to-find tombs were looted. After 950, Tikal was all but deserted, although a remnant population may have survived in perishable huts interspersed among the ruins. Even these final inhabitants abandoned the city in the 10th or 11th centuries and the rainforest claimed the ruins for the next thousand years. Some of Tikal's population may have migrated to the Peten Lakes region, which remained heavily populated in spite of a plunge in population levels in the first half of the 9th century.


title: Tikal

text: The most likely cause of collapse at Tikal is overpopulation and agrarian failure. The fall of Tikal was a blow to the heart of Classic Maya civilization, the city having been at the forefront of courtly life, art and architecture for over a thousand years, with an ancient ruling dynasty. However, new research regarding paleoenvironmental proxies from the Tikal reservoir system suggests that a meteorological drought may have led to the abandonment of Tikal, fouling some reservoirs near the temple and palace with algae blooms, while other reservoirs remained drinkable. Buildings were painted with mercury-bearing cinnabar, which were washed off by rain and polluted some reservoirs.


title: Tikal

text: Works of Kohler and colleagues showed that this city reached an unsustainable level of inequalities at the end.


title: Tikal

text: In 1525, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés passed within a few kilometers of the ruins of Tikal but did not mention them in his letters. After Spanish friar Andrés de Avendaño became lost in the Petén forests in early 1696 he described a ruin that may well have been Tikal.


title: Tikal

text: As is often the case with huge ancient ruins, knowledge of the site was never completely lost in the region. It seems that local people never forgot about Tikal and they guided Guatemalan expeditions to the ruins in the 1850s. Some second- or third-hand accounts of Tikal appeared in print starting in the 17th century, continuing through the writings of John Lloyd Stephens in the early 19th century (Stephens and his illustrator Frederick Catherwood heard rumors of a lost city, with white building tops towering above the jungle, during their 1839–40 travels in the region). Because of the site's remoteness from modern towns, however, no explorers visited Tikal until Modesto Méndez and Ambrosio Tut, respectively the commissioner and the governor of Petén, visited it in 1848. Artist Eusebio Lara accompanied them and their account was published in Germany in 1853. Several other expeditions came to further investigate, map, and photograph Tikal in the 19th century (including Alfred P. Maudslay in 1881–82) and the early 20th century. Pioneering archeologists started to clear, map and record the ruins in the 1880s.


title: Tikal

text: In 1951, a small airstrip was built at the ruins, which previously could only be reached by several days' travel through the jungle on foot or mule. In 1956 the Tikal project began to map the city on a scale not previously seen in the Maya area. From 1956 through 1970, major archeological excavations were carried out by the University of Pennsylvania Tikal Project. They mapped much of the site and excavated and restored many of the structures. Excavations directed by Edwin M. Shook and later by William Coe of the university investigated the North Acropolis and the Central Plaza from 1957 to 1969. The Tikal Project recorded over 200 monuments at the site. In 1979, the Guatemalan government began a further archeological project at Tikal, which continued through to 1984.


title: Tikal

text: Filmmaker George Lucas used Tikal as a filming location for the fictional moon Yavin 4 in the first "Star Wars" film, "Episode IV: A New Hope", which premiered in 1977.


title: Tikal

text: Tikal is now a major tourist attraction surrounded by its own national park. A site museum has been built at Tikal; it was completed in 1964.


title: Tikal

text: Tikal has been partially restored by the University of Pennsylvania and the government of Guatemala. It was one of the largest of the Classic period Maya cities and was one of the largest cities in the Americas. The architecture of the ancient city is built from limestone and includes the remains of temples that tower over high, large royal palaces, in addition to a number of smaller pyramids, palaces, residences, administrative buildings, platforms and inscribed stone monuments. There is even a building which seemed to have been a jail, originally with wooden bars across the windows and doors. There are also seven courts for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame, including a set of 3 in the Seven Temples Plaza, a unique feature in Mesoamerica.


title: Tikal

text: The limestone used for construction was local and quarried on-site. The depressions formed by the extraction of stone for building were plastered to waterproof them and were used as reservoirs, together with some waterproofed natural depressions. The main plazas were surfaced with stucco and laid at a gradient that channelled rainfall into a system of canals that fed the reservoirs.


title: Tikal

text: The residential area of Tikal covers an estimated , much of which has not yet been cleared, mapped, or excavated. The area around the site core has been intensively mapped; it may have enclosed an area of some (see below). A huge set of earthworks discovered by Dennis E. Puleston and Donald Callender in the 1960s rings Tikal with a wide trench behind a rampart. Recently, a project exploring the defensive earthworks has shown that the scale of the earthworks is highly variable and that in many places it is inconsequential as a defensive feature. In addition, some parts of the earthwork were integrated into a canal system. The earthwork of Tikal varies significantly in coverage from what was originally proposed and it is much more complex and multifaceted than originally thought.


title: Tikal

text: By the Late Classic, a network of "sacbeob" (causeways) linked various parts of the city, running for several kilometers through its urban core. These linked the Great Plaza with Temple 4 (located about to the west) and the Temple of the Inscriptions (about to the southeast). These broad causeways were built of packed and plastered limestone and have been named after early explorers and archeologists; the Maler, Maudslay, Tozzer and Méndez causeways. They assisted the passage of everyday traffic during the rain season and also served as dams.


title: Tikal

text: The Maler Causeway runs north from behind Temple I to Group H. A large bas-relief is carved onto limestone bedrock upon the course of the causeway just south of Group H. It depicts two bound captives and dates to the Late Classic.


title: Tikal

text: The Great Plaza lies at the core of the site; it is flanked on the east and west sides by two great temple-pyramids. On the north side it is bordered by the North Acropolis and on the south by the Central Acropolis.


title: Tikal

text: The North Acropolis, together with the Great Plaza immediately to the south, is one of the most studied architectural groups in the Maya area; the Tikal Project excavated a massive trench across the complex, thoroughly investigating its construction history. It is a complex group with construction beginning in the Preclassic Period, around 350 BC. It developed into a funerary complex for the ruling dynasty of the Classic Period, with each additional royal burial adding new temples on top of the older structures. After AD 400 a row of tall pyramids was added to the earlier Northern Platform, which measured , gradually hiding it from view. Eight temple pyramids were built in the 6th century AD, each of them had an elaborate roofcomb and a stairway flanked by masks of the gods. By the 9th century AD, 43 stelae and 30 altars had been erected in the North Acropolis; 18 of these monuments were carved with hieroglyphic texts and royal portraits. The North Acropolis continued to receive burials into the Postclassic Period.


title: Tikal

text: The South Acropolis is found next to Temple V. It was built upon a large basal platform that covers an area of more than .


title: Tikal

text: The Plaza of the Seven Temples is to the west of the South Acropolis. It is bordered on the east side by a row of nearly identical temples, by palaces on the south and west sides and by an unusual triple ballcourt on the north side.


title: Tikal

text: The Mundo Perdido is to the west of the Plaza of the Seven Temples. It is the largest ceremonial complex dating from the Preclassic period at Tikal. The complex was organized as a large E-Group consisting of a pyramid aligned with a platform to the east that supported three temples. The Mundo Perdido complex was rebuilt many times over the course of its history. By AD 250–300 its architectural style was influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, including the use of the "talud-tablero" form. During the Early Classic period (c. 250–600) the Mundo Perdido became one of the twin foci of the city, the other being the North Acropolis. From AD 250 to 378 it may have served as the royal necropolis. The Mundo Perdido complex was given its name by the archeologists of the University of Pennsylvania; it is centered upon the Lost World Pyramid and a small platform to the west of it. To the south of Mundo Perdido, recent 2021 excavations have revealed a one-third size replication of La Ciudadela, or The Citadel, in Teotihuacan. This area may have been used as a diplomatic headquarters and as an effort to further stamp Teotihuacan culture upon the residents of Tikal.


title: Tikal

text: Group G lies just south of the Mendez Causeway. The complex dates to the Late Classic and consists of palace-type structures and is one of the largest groups of its type at Tikal. It has two stories but most of the rooms are on the lower floor, a total of 29 vaulted chambers. The remains of two further chambers belong to the upper story. One of the entrances to the group was framed by a gigantic mask.


title: Tikal

text: Group H is centered on a large plaza to the north of the Great Plaza. It is bordered by temples dating to the Late Classic.


title: Tikal

text: There are nine Twin-Pyramid Complexes at Tikal, one of which was completely dismantled in ancient times and some others were partly destroyed. They vary in size but consist of two pyramids facing each other on an east–west axis. These pyramids are flat-topped and have stairways on all four sides. A row of plain stelae is placed immediately to the west of the eastern pyramid and to the north of the pyramids. Lying roughly equidistant from them, there is usually a sculpted stela and altar pair. On the south side of these complexes there is a long vaulted building containing a single room with nine doorways. The entire complex was built at once and these complexes were built at 20-year (or "k'atun") intervals during the Late Classic. The first twin pyramid complex was built in the early 6th century in the East Plaza. It was once thought that these complexes were unique to Tikal but rare examples have now been found at other sites, such as Yaxha and Ixlu, and they may reflect the extent of Tikal's political dominance in the Late Classic.


title: Tikal

text: Group Q is a twin-pyramid complex, and is one of the largest at Tikal. It was built by Yax Nuun Ayiin II in 771 in order to mark the end of the 17th K'atun. Most of it has been restored and its monuments have been re-erected.


title: Tikal

text: There are thousands of ancient structures at Tikal and only a fraction of these have been excavated, after decades of archeological work. The most prominent surviving buildings include six very large pyramids, labelled Temples I – VI, each of which support a temple structure on their summits. Some of these pyramids are over high. They were numbered sequentially during the early survey of the site. It is estimated that each of these major temples could have been built in as little as two years.


title: Tikal

text: Temple I (also known as the "Temple of Ah Cacao" or "Temple of the Great Jaguar") is a funerary pyramid dedicated to Jasaw Chan K'awil, who was entombed in the structure in AD 734, the pyramid was completed around 740–750. The temple rises high. The massive roofcomb that topped the temple was originally decorated with a giant sculpture of the enthroned king, although little of this decoration survives. The tomb of the king was discovered by Aubrey Trik of the University of Pennsylvania in 1962. Among items recovered from the Late Classic tomb were a large collection of inscribed human and animal bone tubes and strips with sophisticated scenes depicting deities and people, finely carved and rubbed with vermilion, as well as jade and shell ornaments and ceramic vessels filled with offerings of food and drink. The shrine at the summit of the pyramid has three chambers, each behind the next, with the doorways spanned by wooden lintels fashioned from multiple beams. The outermost lintel is plain but the two inner lintels were carved, some of the beams were removed in the 19th century and their location is unknown, while others were taken to museums in Europe.


title: Tikal

text: Temple II (also known as the "Temple of the Mask") it was built around AD 700 and stands high. Like other major temples at Tikal, the summit shrine had three consecutive chambers with the doorways spanned by wooden lintels, only the middle of which was carved. The temple was dedicated to the wife of Jasaw Chan K'awil, although no tomb was found. The queen's portrait was carved into the lintel spanning the doorway of the summit shrine. One of the beams from this lintel is now in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.


title: Tikal

text: Temple III (also known as the "Temple of the Jaguar Priest") was the last of the great pyramids to be built at Tikal. It stood tall and contained an elaborately sculpted but damaged roof lintel, possibly showing Dark Sun engaged in a ritual dance around AD 810. The temple shrine possesses two chambers.


title: Tikal

text: Temple IV is the tallest temple-pyramid at Tikal, measuring from the plaza floor level to the top of its roof comb. Temple IV marks the reign of Yik’in Chan Kawil (Ruler B, the son of Ruler A or Jasaw Chan K'awiil I) and two carved wooden lintels over the doorway that leads into the temple on the pyramid's summit record a long count date (9.15.10.0.0) that corresponds to CE 741 (Sharer 1994:169). Temple IV is the largest pyramid built anywhere in the Maya region in the 8th century, and as it currently stands is the tallest pre-Columbian structure in the Americas although the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan may originally have been taller, as may have been one of the structures at El Mirador.


title: Tikal

text: Temple V stands south of the Central Acropolis and is the mortuary pyramid of an as yet unidentified ruler. The temple stands high, making it the second tallest structure at Tikal – only Temple IV is taller. The temple has been dated to about AD 700, in the Late Classic period, via radiocarbon analysis and the dating of ceramics associated with the structure places its construction during the reign of Nun Bak Chak in the second half of the 7th century.


title: Tikal

text: Temple VI is also known as the "Temple of the Inscriptions" and was dedicated in AD 766. It is notable for its high roof-comb. Panels of hieroglyphs cover the back and sides of the roof-comb. The temple faces onto a plaza to the west and its front is unrestored.


title: Tikal

text: Temple 33 was a funerary pyramid erected over the tomb of Siyaj Chan K'awiil I (known as Burial 48) in the North Acropolis. It started life in the Early Classic as a wide basal platform decorated with large stucco masks that flanked the stairway. Later in the Early Classic a new superstructure was added, with its own masks and decorated panels. During the Hiatus a third stage was built over the earlier constructions, the stairway was demolished and another royal burial, of an unidentified ruler, was set into the structure (Burial 23). While the new pyramid was being built another high ranking tomb (Burial 24) was inserted into the rubble core of the building. The pyramid was then completed, standing tall. The final version of Temple 33 was completely dismantled by archeologists in 1965 in order to arrive at the earlier stages of construction.


title: Tikal

text: Structure 34 is a pyramid in the North Acropolis that was built by Siyaj Chan K'awiil II over the tomb of his father, Yax Nuun Ayiin I. The pyramid was topped by a three chambered shrine, the rooms situated one behind the other.


title: Tikal

text: Structure 5D-43 is an unusual radial temple in the East Plaza, built over a pre-existing twin pyramid complex. It is built into the end of the East Plaza Ballcourt and possessed four entry doorways and three stairways, the fourth (south) side was too close to the Central Acropolis for a stairway on that side. The building has a "talud-tablero" platform profile, modified from the original style found at Teotihuacan. In fact, it has been suggested that the style of the building has closer affinities with El Tajin and Xochicalco than with Teotihuacan itself. The vertical "tablero" panels are set between sloping "talud" panels and are decorated with paired disc symbols. Large flower symbols are set into the sloping "talud" panels, related to the Venus and star symbols used at Teotihuacan. The roof of the structure was decorated with friezes although only fragments now remain, showing a monstrous face, perhaps that of a jaguar, with another head emerging from the mouth. The second head possesses a bifurcated tongue but is probably not that of a snake. The temple, and its associated ballcourt, probably date to the reign of Nuun Ujol Chaak or that of his son Jasaw Chan K'awiil I, in the later part of the 7th century.


title: Tikal

text: Structure 5C-49 possesses a clear Teotihuacan-linked architectural style; it has balustrades, an architectural feature that is very rare in the Maya region, and a "talud-tablero" façade; it dates to the 4th century AD. It is located near to the Lost World pyramid.


title: Tikal

text: Structure 5C-53 is a small Teotihuacan-style platform that dates to about AD 600. It had stairways on all four sides and did not possess a superstructure.


title: Tikal

text: The Lost World Pyramid (Structure 5C-54) is the largest structure in the Mundo Perdido complex. It lies in the southwest portion of Tikal's central core, south of Temple III and west of Temple V. It was decorated with stucco masks of the sun god and dates to the Late Preclassic; this pyramid is part of an enclosed complex of structures that remained intact and un-impacted by later building activity at Tikal. By the end of the Late Preclassic this pyramid was one of the largest structures in the Maya region. It attained its final form during the reign of Chak Tok Ich'aak in the 4th century AD, in the Early Classic, standing more than high with stairways on all four sides and a flat top that possibly supported a superstructure built from perishable materials. Although the plaza later suffered significant alteration, the organization of a group of temples on the east side of this complex adheres to the layout that defines the so-called E-Groups, identified as solar observatories.


title: Tikal

text: Structure 5D-96 is the central temple on the east side of the Plaza of the Seven Temples. It has been restored and its rear outer wall is decorated with skull-and-crossbones motifs.


title: Tikal

text: Group 6C-16 is an elite residential complex that has been thoroughly excavated. It lies a few hundred m south of the Lost World Complex and the excavations have revealed elaborate stucco masks, ballplayer murals, relief sculptures and buildings with Teotihuacan characteristics.


title: Tikal

text: The Bat Palace is also known as the Palace of Windows and lies to the west of Temple III. It has two storeys, with a double range of chambers on the lower storey and a single range in the upper storey, which has been restored. The palace has ancient graffiti and possesses low windows.


title: Tikal

text: In 2018, 60,000 uncharted structures were revealed by archeologists with help of Lidar. Thanks to the new findings, some archeologists believe that 7-11 million Maya people inhabited in the northern Guatemala during the late classical period from 650 to 800 A.D. Lidar digitally removed the tree canopy to reveal ancient remains and showed that Maya cities like Tikal were bigger than previously thought. The project was mapped near the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén region of Guatemala.


title: Tikal

text: Altar 5 is carved with two nobles, one of whom is probably Jasaw Chan K'awiil I. They are performing a ritual using the bones of an important woman. Altar 5 was found in Complex N, which lies to the west of Temple III.


title: Tikal

text: Altar 8 is sculpted with a bound captive. It was found within Complex P in Group H and is now in the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología in Guatemala City.


title: Tikal

text: Altar 9 is associated with Stela 21 and bears the sculpture of a bound captive. It is located in front of Temple VI.


title: Tikal

text: Altar 10 is carved with a captive tied to a scaffold. It is in the northern enclosure of Group Q, a twin-pyramid complex and has suffered from erosion.


title: Tikal

text: Altar 35 is a plain monument associated with Stela 43. The stela-altar pair is centrally located at the base of the stairway of Temple IV.


title: Tikal

text: At Tikal, beams of sapodilla wood were placed as lintels spanning the inner doorways of temples. These are the most elaborately carved wooden lintels to have survived anywhere in the Maya region.


title: Tikal

text: Lintel 3 from Temple IV was taken to Basel in Switzerland in the 19th century. It was in almost perfect condition and depicts Yik'in Chan K'awiil seated on a palanquin.


title: Tikal

text: Stelae are carved stone shafts, often sculpted with figures and hieroglyphs. A selection of the most notable stelae at Tikal follows:


title: Tikal

text: Stela 4 is dated to AD 396, during the reign of Yax Nuun Ayiin after the intrusion of Teotihuacan in the Maya area. The stela displays a mix of Maya and Teotihuacan qualities, and deities from both cultures. It has a portrait of the king with the Underworld Jaguar God under one arm and the Mexican Tlaloc under the other. His helmet is a simplified version of the Teotihuacan War Serpent. Unusually for Maya sculpture, but typically for Teotihuacan, Yax Nuun Ayiin is depicted with a frontal face, rather than in profile.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 6 is a badly damaged monument dating to 514 and bears the name of the "Lady of Tikal" who celebrated the end of the 4th K'atun in that year.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 10 is twinned with Stela 12 but is badly damaged. It described the accession of Kaloomte' B'alam in the early 6th century and earlier events in his career, including the capture of a prisoner depicted on the monument.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 11 was the last monument ever erected at Tikal; it was dedicated in 869 by Jasaw Chan K'awiil II.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 12 is linked to the queen known as the "Lady of Tikal" and king Kaloomte' B'alam. The queen is described as performing the year-ending rituals but the monument was dedicated in honor of the king.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 16 was dedicated in 711, during the reign of Jasaw Chan K'awiil I. The sculpture, including a portrait of the king and a hieroglyphic text, are limited to the front face of the monument. It was found in Complex N, west of Temple III.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 18 was one of two stelae erected by Yax Nuun Ayiin I to celebrate the "k'atun"-ending of AD 396. It was re-erected at the base of Temple 34, his funerary shrine.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 20 was found in Complex P, in Group H, and was moved to the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología in Guatemala City.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 21 was dedicated in 736 by Yik'in Chan K'awiil. Only the bottom of the stela is intact, the rest having been mutilated in ancient times. The surviving sculpture is of fine quality, consisting of the feet of a figure and of accompanying hieroglyphic text. The stela is associated with Altar 9 and is located in front of Temple VI.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 22 was dedicated in 771 by Yax Nuun Ayiin II in the northern enclosure of Group Q, a twin-pyramid complex. The face of the figure on the stela has been mutilated.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 23 was broken in antiquity and was re-erected in a residential complex. The defaced portrait on the monument is that of the so-called "Lady of Tikal", a daughter of Chak Tok Ich'aak II who became queen at the age of six but never ruled in her own right, being paired with male co-rulers. It dates to the early 6th century.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 24 was erected at the foot of Temple 3 in 810, accompanied by Altar 7. Both were broken into fragments in ancient times, although the name of Dark Sun survives on three fragments.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 26 was found in the summit shrine of Temple 34, underneath a broken masonry altar. The monument had originally been erected at the base of the temple during the Early Classic period and was later broken, probably at the beginning of the Late Classic. Its remains were then interred within the temple shrine.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 29 bears a Long Count (8.12.14.8.15) date equivalent to AD 292, the earliest surviving Long Count date from the Maya lowlands. The stela is also the earliest monument to bear the Tikal emblem glyph. It bears a sculpture of the king facing to the right, holding the head of an underworld jaguar god, one of the patron deities of the city. The stela was deliberately smashed during the 6th century or some time later, the upper portion was dragged away and dumped in a rubbish tip close to Temple III, to be uncovered by archeologists in 1959.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 30 is the first surviving monument to be erected after the Hiatus. Its style and iconography is similar to that of Caracol, one of the more important of Tikal's enemies.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 31 is the accession monument of Siyaj Chan K'awiil II, also bearing two portraits of his father, Yax Nuun Ayiin, as a youth dressed as a Teotihuacan warrior. He carries a spearthrower in one hand and bears a shield decorated with the face of Tlaloc, the Teotihuacan war god. In ancient times the sculpture was broken and the upper portion was moved to the summit of Temple 33 and ritually buried. Stela 31 has been described as the greatest Early Classic sculpture to survive at Tikal. A long hieroglyphic text is carved onto the back of the monument, the longest to survive from the Early Classic, which describes the arrival of Siyah K'ak' at El Peru and Tikal in January 378. It was also the first stela at Tikal to be carved on all four faces.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 32 is a fragmented monument with a foreign Teotihuacan-style sculpture apparently depicting the lord of that city with the attributes of the central Mexican storm god Tlaloc, including his goggle eyes and tasselled headdress.


title: Tikal

text: Stela 39 is a broken monument that was erected in the Lost World complex. The upper portion of the stela is missing but the lower portion shows the lower body and legs of Chak Tok Ich'aak, holding a flint axe in his left hand. He is trampling the figure of a bound, richly dressed captive. The monument is dated to AD 376. The text on the back of the monument describes a bloodletting ritual to celebrate a Katun-ending. The stela also names Chak Tok Ich'aak I's father as K'inich Muwaan Jol.


title: Tikal

text: Burial 1 is a tomb in the Lost World complex. A fine ceramic bowl was recovered from the tomb, with the handle formed from three-dimensional head and neck of a bird emerging from the two-dimensional body painted on the lid.


title: Tikal

text: Burial 10 is the tomb of Yax Nuun Ayiin. It is located beneath Structure 34 in the North Acropolis. The tomb contained a rich array of offerings, including ceramic vessels and food, and nine youths were sacrificed to accompany the dead king. A dog was also entombed with the deceased king. Pots in the tomb were stuccoed and painted and many demonstrated a blend of Maya and Teotihuacan styles. Among the offerings was an incense-burner in the shape of an elderly underworld god, sitting on a stool made of human bones and holding a severed head in his hands. The tomb was sealed with a corbel vault, then the pyramid was built on top.


title: Tikal

text: Burial 48 is generally accepted as the tomb of Sihyaj Chan Kʼawiil II. It is located beneath Temple 33 in the North Acropolis. The chamber of the tomb was cut from the bedrock and contained the remains of the king himself together with those of two adolescents who had been sacrificed in order to accompany the deceased ruler. The walls of the tomb were covered with white stucco painted with hieroglyphs that included the Long Count date equivalent to 20 March 457, probably the date of either the death or interment of the king. The king's skeleton was missing its skull, its femurs and one of its hands while the skeletons of the sacrificial victims were intact.


title: Tikal

text: Burial 85 dates to the Late Preclassic and was enclosed by a platform, with a primitive corbel vault. The tomb contained a single male skeleton, which lacked a skull and its thighbones. The dynastic founder of Tikal, Yax Ehb' Xook, has been linked to this tomb, which lies deep in the heart of the North Acropolis. The deceased had probably died in battle with his body being mutilated by his enemies before being recovered and interred by his followers. The bones were wrapped carefully in textiles to form an upright bundle. The missing head was replaced by a small greenstone mask with shell-inlaid teeth and eyes and bearing a three-pointed royal headband. This head wears an emblem of rulership on its forehead and is a rare Preclassic lowland Maya portrait of a king. Among the contents of the tomb were a stingray spine, a spondylus shell and twenty-six ceramic vessels.


title: Tikal

text: Burial 116 is the tomb of Jasaw Chan K'awiil I. It is a large vaulted chamber deep within the pyramid, below the level of the Great Plaza. The tomb contained rich offerings of jadeite, ceramics, shell and works of art. The body of the king was covered with large quantities of jade ornaments including an enormous necklace with especially large beads, as depicted in sculpted portraits of the king. One of the outstanding pieces recovered from the tomb was an ornate jade mosaic vessel with the lid bearing a sculpted portrait of the king himself.


title: Tikal

text: Burial 195 was flooded with mud in antiquity. This flood had covered wooden objects that had completely rotted away by the time the tomb was excavated, leaving hollows in the dried mud. Archeologists filled these hollows with stucco and thus excavated four effigies of the god K'awiil, the wooden originals long gone.


title: Tikal

text: Burial 196 is a Late Classic royal tomb that contained a jade mosaic vessel topped with the head of the Maize God.


title: Peace Corps

text: The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. Kennedy and authorized by Congress the following September by the Peace Corps Act.


title: Peace Corps

text: Kennedy first publicly proposed the Peace Corps during his 1960 presidential campaign as a means to improve America's global image and leadership in the Cold War; he cited the Soviet Union's deployment of skilled citizens "abroad in the service of world communism" and argued the U.S. must do the same to advance values such as democracy and liberty. The Peace Corps was formally established within three months of Kennedy's presidency, garnering both bipartisan congressional support and popular support, particularly among recent university graduates.


title: Peace Corps

text: The official goal of the Peace Corps is to assist developing countries by providing skilled workers in fields such as education, health, entrepreneurship, women's empowerment, and community development. Volunteers are American citizens, typically with a college degree, who are assigned to specific projects in certain countries based on their qualifications and experience; they often work with other stakeholders, governments, schools, non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations, and entrepreneurs. Following three months of technical training, Peace Corps members are expected to serve at least two years in the host country, after which they may request an extension of service. Volunteers are strongly encouraged to respect local customs, learn the prevailing language, and live in comparable conditions.


title: Peace Corps

text: In addition to its technical mission, the Peace Corps is intended to promote mutual understanding between Americans and foreign peoples, and by extension improve the international standing of the U.S.


title: Peace Corps

text: In its inaugural year, the Peace Corps had 900 volunteers serving 16 countries, reaching its peak in 1966 with 15,556 volunteers in 52 countries. Following budget cuts in 1989, the number of volunteers declined to 5,100, though subsequent increases in funding led to renewed growth into the 21st century; by its 50th anniversary in 2011, there were over 8,500 volunteers serving in 77 countries. Since its inception, more than 240,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps and served in 142 countries.


title: Peace Corps

text: In 1950, Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, proposed, in an article titled, "A Proposal for a Total Peace Offensive," that the United States establish a voluntary agency for young Americans to be sent around the world to fulfill humanitarian and development objectives. Subsequently, throughout the 1950s, Reuther gave speeches to the following effect:I have been saying for a long time that I believe the more young Americans who are trained to join with other young people in the world to be sent abroad with slide rule, textbook, and medical kit to help people help themselves with the tools of peace, the fewer young people will need to be sent with guns and weapons of war.In addition, following the end of World War II, various members of the United States Congress proposed bills to establish volunteer organizations in developing countries. In December 1951, Representative John F. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) suggested to a group that "young college graduates would find a full life in bringing technical advice and assistance to the underprivileged and backward Middle East ... In that calling, these men would follow the constructive work done by the religious missionaries in these countries over the past 100 years." In 1952 Senator Brien McMahon (D-Connecticut) proposed an "army" of young Americans to act as "missionaries of democracy". Privately funded nonreligious organizations began sending volunteers overseas during the 1950s. While Kennedy is credited with the creation of the Peace Corps as president, the first initiative came from Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (D-Minnesota), who introduced the first bill to create the Peace Corps in 1957—three years before Kennedy, as a presidential candidate, would raise the idea during a campaign speech at the University of Michigan. In his autobiography "The Education of a Public Man", Humphrey wrote,


title: Peace Corps

text: Only in 1959, however, did the idea receive serious attention in Washington when Congressman Henry S. Reuss of Wisconsin proposed a "Point Four Youth Corps". In 1960, he and Senator Richard L. Neuberger of Oregon introduced identical measures calling for a nongovernmental study of the idea's "advisability and practicability". Both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee endorsed the study, the latter writing the Reuss proposal into the pending Mutual Security legislation. In this form it became law in June 1960. In August the Mutual Security Appropriations Act was enacted, making available US$10,000 for the study, and in November ICA contracted with Maurice Albertson, Andrew E. Rice, and Pauline E. Birky of Colorado State University Research Foundation for the study.


title: Peace Corps

text: In August 1960, following the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Walter Reuther visited John F. Kennedy at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport to discuss Kennedy's platform and staffing of a future administration. It was there that Reuther got Kennedy to commit to creating the executive agency that would become the Peace Corps. Under Reuther's leadership, the United Auto Workers had earlier that summer put together a policy platform that included a "youth peace corps" to be sent to developing nations. Subsequently, at the urging of Reuther, John F. Kennedy announced the idea for such an organization on October 14, 1960, at a late-night campaign speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on the steps of the Michigan Union. He later dubbed the proposed organization the "Peace Corps." A brass marker commemorates the place where Kennedy stood. In the weeks after the 1960 election, the study group at Colorado State University released their feasibility a few days before Kennedy's Presidential Inauguration in January 1961.


title: Peace Corps

text: Critics opposed the program. Kennedy's opponent, Richard M. Nixon, predicted it would become a "cult of escapism" and "a haven for draft dodgers."


title: Peace Corps

text: Others doubted whether recent graduates had the necessary skills and maturity for such a task. The idea was popular among students, however, and Kennedy pursued it, asking respected academics such as Max Millikan and Chester Bowles to help him outline the organization and its goals. During his inaugural address, Kennedy again promised to create the program: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country". President Kennedy in a speech at the White House on June 22, 1962, "Remarks to Student Volunteers Participating in Operation Crossroads Africa", acknowledged that Operation Crossroads for Africa was the basis for the development of the Peace Corps. "This group and this effort really were the progenitors of the Peace Corps and what this organization has been doing for a number of years led to the establishment of what I consider to be the most encouraging indication of the desire for service not only in this country but all around the world that we have seen in recent years". The Peace Corps website answered the question "Who Inspired the Creation of the Peace Corps?", acknowledging that the Peace Corps were based on Operation Crossroads Africa founded by Rev. James H. Robinson.


title: Peace Corps

text: On March 1, 1961, Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924 that officially started the Peace Corps. Concerned with the growing tide of revolutionary sentiment in the Third World, Kennedy saw the Peace Corps as a means of countering the stereotype of the "Ugly American" and "Yankee imperialism," especially in the emerging nations of post-colonial Africa and Asia. Kennedy appointed his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, to be the program's first director. Shriver fleshed out the organization and his think tank outlined the organization's goals and set the initial number of volunteers. The Peace Corps began recruiting in July 1962; Bob Hope recorded radio and television announcements hailing the program.


title: Peace Corps

text: A leading Peace Corps critic was U.S. Representative Otto Passman of Louisiana's 5th congressional district, based about Monroe. Critics called Passman "Otto the Terrible" for trying to thwart the program by reducing its funding to minimal levels. Ultimately, it would be President Nixon, who despite his previous skepticism rescued the Peace Corps after 1969 from Passman's congressional knife.


title: Peace Corps

text: Until about 1967, applicants had to pass a placement test of "general aptitude" (knowledge of various skills needed for Peace Corps assignments) and language aptitude. After an address from Kennedy, who was introduced by Rev. Russell Fuller of Memorial Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, on August 28, 1961, the first group of volunteers left for Ghana and Tanzania, known as Tanganyika at the time. The program was formally authorized by Congress on September 22, 1961, and within two years over 7,300 volunteers were serving in 44 countries. This number increased to 15,000 in June 1966, the largest number in the organization's history.


title: Peace Corps

text: The organization experienced controversy in its first year of operation. On October 13, 1961, a postcard from a volunteer named Margery Jane Michelmore in Nigeria to a friend in the U.S. described her situation in Nigeria as "squalor and absolutely primitive living conditions." However, this postcard never made it out of the country. The University of Ibadan College Students Union demanded deportation and accused the volunteers of being "America's international spies" and the project as "a scheme designed to foster neocolonialism." Soon the international press picked up the story, leading several people in the U.S. administration to question the program. Nigerian students protested the program, while the American volunteers sequestered themselves and eventually began a hunger strike. After several days, the Nigerian students agreed to open a dialogue with the Americans.


title: Peace Corps

text: The theme of enabling Americans to volunteer in poor countries appealed to Kennedy because it fit in with his campaign themes of self-sacrifice and volunteerism, while also providing a way to redefine American relations with the Third World. Upon taking office, Kennedy issued an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. Shriver, not Kennedy, energetically lobbied Congress for approval. Kennedy proudly took the credit, and ensured that it remained free of CIA influence. He largely left its administration to Shriver. To avoid the appearance of favoritism to the Catholic Church, the Corps did not place its volunteers with any religious agencies. In the first twenty-five years, more than 100,000 Americans served in 44 countries as part of the program. Most volunteers taught English in local schools, but many became involved in activities like construction and food delivery. Shriver practiced affirmative action, and women comprised about 40 percent of the first 7000 volunteers. However given the paucity of black college graduates, racial minorities never reached five percent. The Corps developed its own training program, based on nine weeks at an American university, with a focus on conversational language, world affairs, and desired job skills. That was followed by three weeks at a Peace Corps camp in Puerto Rico, and week or two of orientation the home and the host country.


title: Peace Corps

text: In July 1971, President Richard Nixon, an opponent of the program, brought the Peace Corps under the umbrella agency ACTION. President Jimmy Carter, an advocate of the program, said that his mother, who had served as a nurse in the program, had "one of the most glorious experiences of her life" in the Peace Corps. In 1979, he made it fully autonomous in an executive order. This independent status was further secured by 1981 legislation making the organization an independent federal agency.


title: Peace Corps

text: In 1976, Deborah Gardner was found murdered in her home in Tonga, where she was serving in the Peace Corps. Dennis Priven, a fellow Peace Corps worker, was later charged with the murder by the Tonga government. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was sentenced to serve time in a mental institution in Washington D.C. Priven was never admitted to any institution, and the handling of the case has been heavily criticized. The main criticism has been that the Peace Corps seemingly worked to keep one of its volunteers from being found guilty of murder, due to the reflection it would have on the organization.


title: Peace Corps

text: Although the earliest volunteers were typically thought of as generalists, the Peace Corps had requests for technical personnel from the start. For example, geologists were among the first volunteers requested by Ghana, an early volunteer host. An article in "Geotimes" (a trade publication) in 1963, reviewed the program, with a follow-up history of Peace Corps geoscientists appearing in that publication in 2004. During the Nixon Administration the Peace Corps included foresters, computer scientists, and small business advisers among its volunteers.


title: Peace Corps

text: In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed director Loret Miller Ruppe, who initiated business-related programs. For the first time, a significant number of conservative and Republican volunteers joined the Corps, as the organization continued to reflect the evolving political and social conditions in the United States. Funding cuts during the early 1980s reduced the number of volunteers to 5,380, its lowest level since the early years. Funding increased in 1985, when Congress began raising the number of volunteers, reaching 10,000 in 1992.


title: Peace Corps

text: After the 2001 September 11 attacks, which alerted the U.S. to growing anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East, President George W. Bush pledged to double the size of the organization within five years as a part of the War on Terrorism. For the 2004 fiscal year, Congress increased the budget to US$325 million, US$30 million above that of 2003 but US$30 million below the President's request.


title: Peace Corps

text: As part of an economic stimulus package in 2008, President Barack Obama proposed to double the size of the Peace Corps. However, , the amount requested was insufficient to reach this goal by 2011. In fact, the number of applicants to the Peace Corps declined steadily from a high of 15,384 in 2009 to 10,118 in 2013. Congress raised the 2010 appropriation from the US$373 million requested by the President to US$400 million, and proposed bills would raise this further for 2011 and 2012. According to former director Gaddi Vasquez, the Peace Corps is trying to recruit more diverse volunteers of different ages and make it look "more like America". A "Harvard International Review" article from 2007 proposed to expand the Peace Corps, revisit its mission, and equip it with new technology. In 1961 only 1% of volunteers were over 50, compared with 5% today. Ethnic minorities currently comprise 34% of volunteers, compared to around 35% of the U.S. population.


title: Peace Corps

text: In 2009, Casey Frazee, who was sexually assaulted while serving in South Africa, created First Response Action, an advocacy group for a stronger Peace Corps response for volunteers who are survivors or victims of physical and sexual violence. In 2010, concerns about the safety of volunteers were illustrated by a report, compiled from official public documents, listing hundreds of violent crimes against volunteers since 1989. In 2011, a "20/20" investigation found that "more than 1,000 young American women have been raped or sexually assaulted in the last decade while serving as Peace Corps volunteers in foreign countries."


title: Peace Corps

text: In a historic first, all Peace Corps volunteers worldwide were withdrawn from their host countries on March 15, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteers were not eligible for unemployment or health benefits, although some Members of Congress said they should be. Legislators also called upon FEMA to hire Peace Corps volunteers until the end of their service.


title: Peace Corps

text: Peace Corps activities were suspended and all volunteers worldwide were evacuated on March 15, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Peace Corps

text: The application for the Peace Corps takes up to one hour, unless one talks to a recruiter. The applicant must be at least 18 years old and a U.S. citizen and, according to a 2018 document, they should apply 6 to 9 months before they want to leave. They must go through an interview.


title: Peace Corps

text: Applicants can apply to only one placement every year. Placements can be sorted through the Peace Corps six project sectors: Agriculture, Environment, Community Economic Development, Health, Education, and Youth in Development. Applicants may also narrow down their application of choice by country they want to serve in various regions of the world.


title: Peace Corps

text: Peace Corps volunteers are expected to serve for 2 years in the foreign country, with 3 months of training before swearing in to service. This occurs in country with host country national trainers in language and assignment skills.