Читать книгу Miscellaneous Investigations in Central Tikal--Great Temples III, IV, V, and VI - H. Stanley Loten - Страница 11

Selected Architectural Terms

Note: These are just a few terms that occur in the description of the structures reported here. Some are new and used in this volume, others perhaps just not in general use.

Additions

The most recent additions and/or alterations are designated as “A”-level features; they abut “B”-level, which in turn abuts “C” and so on. The primary structure has a letter designation that depends on the number of demonstrably sequent additions or alterations.

Aggregate

In concrete small stones or gravel are essential as stuff that the cement can stick to. Without aggregate concrete is mere grout with little strength as a mass.

Apron

Substructure and platform faces at Tikal are often profiled with an upper part projecting over a lower part. The whole profile is called an apron but at the same time the upper part is regarded as the apron and the lower part as the subapron. Some apron profiles also have a basal molding.

Architectural Development

Structures erected on top of each other constitute an architectural development. Designation is from the surface feature, 1st, down to those below as 2nd, 3rd, etc.

Arrised Corner

A corner that is sharp rather than rounded.

Ashlar

Facing stones cut and dressed to a regular oblong or square shape are called ashlar. Veneer facings are a type of ashlar, as are block facings. Ashlar has the advantage that relatively little shape adjustment is needed on the job site; stone can be cut to shape at the quarry so that work on the job site goes faster. Nevertheless, we do see a certain amount of notching in some ashlar facings and this must have been done on the job.

Axis

The center-line of a structure, running front to rear is known as the principal axis; some structures also, have a secondary axis running from side to side but the great majority of Maya structures at Tikal have only the principal axis. Symmetry of a facade is worked around an axis, which may or may not be emphasized by a wider doorway opening or a sculptural treatment.

Balustrade

Any raised edge to a stair can be called a balustrade. Strictly speaking a balustrade should consist of balusters like miniature columns supporting a railing. The term is used very loosely in Maya architecture.

Ballast

In floors installed on platforms, a layer of relatively smaller aggregate, ballast, is needed to establish a level substrate for the final surface.

Basal Platform

A platform that sustains a single structure, usually supporting a pyramid, is a basal platform.

Batter

Non-vertical faces are battered. Leaning outward is negative batter, inward is positive.

Beam

A spanning member is a beam. Wood beams are common but stone ones are known, particularly as lintels.

Bed Joint

The more-or-less horizontal mortar layer below stones is the bed joint.

Block Facings

Facing stones proportioned so that their thickness is comparable to their height are known as block facings. Typically they are oblong on the face but less precisely shaped than veneer facings.

Bolster

A raised bench element, also called an upstand, could be called a bolster, though this is a term not generally used.

Building

The part of a structure that contains the accessible rooms is the building. Accessible rooms installed at substructure or roof level generally are not considered as building elements, though upper stories certainly are buildings.

Building Platform

Platforms that directly sustain the walls of buildings are building platforms. Some apparent building platforms are actually fakes, mere moldings at the base of walls, and not the outer faces of actual platforms. Fake building platforms imply existence of platform units sustaining walls when in fact such units had no place in the construction process.

Butt

The parts of beams that bear on their supports are their butts. Some butts are concealed, others exposed.

Capstone

Stones bridging the gap between half-vaults are capstones. Wood members bridging half-vault gaps are known and may be described as wooden capstones.

Cement

The ancient Maya made an adhesive or bonding agent from limestone. The best lime cement was probably made by burning limestone to get lime, which was then mixed with water and fine aggregate or sand to make mortar or plaster.

Cobble

Small stones, about fist sized or slightly bigger and not squared or shaped but just broken to size are cobbles. Walls of Str. 5D-46-C and 46-B1 (second story) employ cobbles as facing stones and also in the hearting.

Concrete

A mixture of cement and aggregate is concrete. As the aggregate gets smaller the cement may be called mortar.

Construction Stage

Major works of architecture at Tikal display a standard set of the following features: basal platform, pyramid, lower substructure platform, supplementary platform, building platform, building, and roofcomb. Building and building platform appear most frequently, and others appear on different structures in various combinations. They are numbered from topmost to basal, but described in reverse order, that is, basal to topmost. Although the terms imply distinct stages of construction, this is not always the case. For example, some building platforms are not stages of construction at all, and many buildings present walls, vaults, and upper zones as distinct constructional modules that perhaps might best be designated as substages, though this has not been formalized.

Corbel

A stone projecting in the manner of a cantilever is a corbel. Some Maya vaults are corbelled, many, particularly “late” vaults, are not corbelled. True corbels do not depend on mortar. Corbels in Tikal architecture are most common as vault springs, medial moldings, and apron springs.

Cord Holder

Interior and occasionally exterior building walls present recessed features with rods or pegs that could be used to secure ties or cords.

Core

The hearting of platforms, walls, and vaults is called core. In very low platforms—those less than a meter high—hearting may be loose material placed by dumping and may be called fill, retained by masonry at the edges. In higher platforms builders were careful to assemble cores so that they would be internally stable and would not require retention at the edges.

Double-vault Mass

Vaults bearing on spine walls have two soffit faces and constitute double-vault masses. Often there is a more-or-less vertical joint at the center indicating that one half-vault was followed by the other, in order of assembly.

End Joint

In masonry the roughly vertical mortar applications between stones are end joints. Staggering end joints improves stability but most Maya facings were not regarded as load bearing so end joints are often not consistently staggered.

End-vault

Most vaulted rooms at Tikal have four vault facets, two half-vaults, and two end-vaults. The half-vaults do not touch but the end-vaults bond to the halfvaults so as to prevent them from tumbling into the room space.

Epicentral Tikal

This term refers to the parts of the city center that are interconnected by continuous plaster paving. The four structures of this volume are all in the city center, and individual location maps for each one depict part of it. By means of the causeway system the epicenter extends from the Great Plaza to the North Group and to Great Temple VI. Since plaster paving is inherently fragile, maintaining such an extensive paving must have been important and meaningful.

Eyebrow

A roughly horizontal projecting ledge over some feature, usually an inset panel in a facing, may be termed an eyebrow.

Facade Sculpture

Sculptural treatment, usually in relief but sometimes almost full round, in the facade of a building, or anywhere on a structure, can be designated as a facade sculpture and numbered for reference.

Face Surface

The surface of facing stones that remains exposed after setting is the face surface.

Facing Masonry

Outer surfaces of platforms, walls, and vaults, that is, facing masonry, normally have little or no capacity to retain unstable hearting. Facing masonry provides a base for plaster and sets the final form of features such as platforms.

Fake Building Platform

In some “late” work at Tikal we see moldings at the base of exterior walls, usually with shallow projection, that either do not correspond in height to the wall base level, or are not part of any platform installed as a base for wall construction; such features may be called fake building platforms.

Falsework

In preparation for masonry work a system of poles, called a falsework, may be erected to establish angles and heights for the guidance of workers. In vaulting, the practice of leaving a gap between half-vaults may have allowed for projection of falsework members.

Fill

Hearting of low platforms, using loose material such as gravel, and needing retention at the edges, can be called fill.

Floor

A floor may be merely an activity surface flattened by walking, or a distinct constructional element with a thickness, a topping, and a ballast layer.

Floor Pad

A layer of concrete installed to raise the level of a floor may be called a floor pad.

Formwork

Members of a timber falsework intended to actually retain masonry immediately after installation until mortar has reached final set is called a formwork.

Frontality

Tikal structures often have features on the frontal facade that do not appear on the sides or rear. For example, upper zones at the front may have sculptural treatment while those at the rear are plain. On the Great Temples projecting stairs form distinctive frontal features. Emphasis on frontality may have encouraged a sense that the structures, when occupied by non-material forces, could be sentient witnesses to ceremonial performances and sacrifices.

Grading Floor

An application of flooring material that runs part way across some space and feathers out onto a pre-existing floor surface is called a grading floor.

Half-vault

From Intermediate through the Late Classic at Tikal vaults were installed by halves, first on one side of a room and then for completion, on the other side. The two half-vaults do not touch or lean against each other; each is independently stable. Short end-vault units prevent the long half-vaults from rolling into the room space.

Header

A facing stone set with its length projecting into the hearting of the wall or other feature.

Hip Molding

On some upper zones medial and superior moldings are joined at the corners by diagonal hip moldings to create a framed effect.

Inset Corner

Platform terraces at Tikal often have corner elements inset from other face elements. None of these occur in the Central Acropolis.

Jamb

The sides of doorway openings are called jambs.

Lintel

A beam over a doorway, window, or niche is a lintel beam. Most lintels at Tikal employ a number of beams, many seemingly much too small in diameter for the load imposed by the vault mass and they must have been braced until vault mortar had reached full set.

Lintel Bed

Lintels over doorways are normally set some way below wall-top level and support a layer of supra-lintel masonry forming a fair surface on which to install vault spring and medial molding corbels.

Lower Substructure Platform (LSP)

A platform sustaining a building platform is a lower substructure platform unless there is an even lower platform sustaining it, in which case it is a supplementary platform.

Major Substructure Platform (MSP)

This term is introduced as a label for substructure units that cannot be called either pyramids or building platforms.

Masonry

Construction in stone is called masonry whether well-cut and bedded or simply rubble. The core material of substantial platforms at Tikal is masonry, whether bedded or not. (See also Facing Masonry.)

Medial Molding

At wall-top level a corbel course projecting out over the exterior wall surface is known as a medial molding.

Mortar

The adhesive element in concrete is cement, which the ancient Maya made from limestone. When used in masonry as a binder it is called mortar and usually is not as fine grained or pure as plaster. Mortar is usually gray or brown while plaster is white. Ancient Maya builders varied the quality of their mortars using relatively fine mortars for facings and less fine ones for heartings or cores.

Niche

A recess in a wall surface is called a niche. Usually niches are set well up in walls but there are, also, full-height niches that run from floor to vault spring.

Outset

Terraces, walls, and roofcombs, often have elements of surface projected out from other elements. Some may have iconographic significance, particularly rear axial outsets and stair-side outsets. Even side outsets might have carried meanings that would have been known to the people using the structures.

Patch

Deposits intruded into floors are sealed by floor material called patches. This is common in the North Acropolis but rare in the Central Acropolis.

Parging

Finishing a surface with mortar rather than plaster is called parging.

Partition

A non-load-bearing wall dividing a room into two smaller spaces is a partition. Some partitions have upper parts shaped like vaults but are clearly secondary and not load-bearing.

Planing

For application of a thin plaster coat, wall, vault, or terrace facings were often planed smooth after installation by the use of rubbing stones so that the plaster coat could be rendered even while remaining thin.

Plaster

A mixture of lime and finely divided very small aggregate is known as plaster. At Tikal workers hardened the plaster by pounding on it after it had reached initial set. Stress marks can be seen in sections of plaster coats caused by pounding and rubbing. The final finish produced by these processes, where preserved, is usually very smooth, planar, and free of wrinkles. Lime plaster can be burnished and polished to high degrees of luster and even to a mirror finish. Tikal workers certainly burnished plaster surfaces; whether they worked them up to a glossy, reflective state is uncertain.

Platform

An architectural entity built up to provide an essentially horizontal surface is called a platform. Some are free-standing structures, others are parts of structures, and some serve as sustaining surfaces for structures.

Precinct Wall

A wall that encloses an exterior area such as a plaza or patio is here referred to as a precinct wall.

Preplastered

If plaster is applied to a unit of construction before that unit is installed it may be said to be preplastered. So far this is only known to occur at Tikal in capstones of vaults.

Range

Rooms of a building arranged with their length perpendicular to the structure axis constitute a “range.” This is the basis of the term “range-type structure.” Some range-type structures have more than one range set one in front of the other.

Rear Axial Outset

An outset on the axis at the rear is a rear axial outset. These occur in temples at Tikal and although Str. 5D-66 may be a sort of temple it does not have a rear axial outset. Str. 5D-62, a range-type structure, does have a rear axial outset, though only on the lower substructure platform.

Return Face

This term applies to facets of exterior surface that run perpendicular to the general orientation of facades—for example, end elements of outsets.

Riser

The vertical interval from tread to tread on a stair is a riser.

Rod Row

A series of small holes usually found immediately below a medial molding or a vault spring is known as a rod row. These holes are castes left by dowels only a few centimeters in diameter.

Roof

The layer of hard plaster that provides a seal over the vaulting is the roof of a building.

Roofcomb

A construction standing on a roof surface, usually containing inaccessible interior chambers and exterior sculptural treatment is known as a roofcomb. Str. 5D-63 is the only Central Acropolis structure known to present this feature and it has, or had prior to collapse, no less than sixteen of them.

Roof Structure

A construction standing on a roof surface but not identifiable as a roofcomb may be designated as a roof structure.

Room Floor

A hard plaster application within a room and turning up to the wall plaster is a room floor. In some cases, the plastered top of a building platform serves as a room floor; it passes under the walls rather than turning up to them.

Rope Anchor

A feature similar to a cord holder but very much larger and with a stouter peg is known as a rope anchor.

Run-under

A plastered floor or top surface that extends beneath some other feature is noted as a “run-under.”

Scratch Coat

A substrate for plaster prepared using either mortar or a low grade of plaster and deliberately roughened is called a scratch coat.

Sett

Small, roughly squared stones may be called setts. Several Central Acropolis structures, 5D-49, 51 and 55, employ setts as facing stones for the walls of the building.

Side Inset

A recess separating front building parts from rear building parts externally is a side inset; none are known in the Central Acropolis.

Sill

The bottom surface of a doorway, niche, or window is a sill.

Socket

The hole left by a rotted out beam is a socket.

Soffit

The under-surface of a projecting member is its soffit. Vault surfaces over a room are soffit surfaces.

Spall

Small stones that occur in masonry joints and beds are spalls. Some may have been placed so as to provide a correct setting for the blocks, others may have been included in the mortar.

Staggered Joints

Masons often take care not to align the end joints in adjacent courses. Joints are staggered to increase strength. Masons at Tikal did not do this because their facings were seen as skins rather than retentive elements. They took pains to ensure that core masses did not exert outward pressure on facings.

Stair

A flight of steps is known as a stair. A series of aligned stairs could be called a stairway.

Stair-side Outset

Terrace outsets flanking stairs are known as stair-side outsets. They do not occur in the Central Acropolis.

Stair-side Ramp

Some outset stairs present sheer edges, while others have a slightly raised ramp-like edge, also known by the terms “alfarda” and balustrade.

Standing Architecture

Tikal ruins include many architectural structures only partially collapsed. Project operations cleared debris away from many of these, but others were left as originally found. These are known as examples of standing architecture and were recorded without removal of collapsed material or vegetation.

Stretcher

A facing stone set with its length running in the plane of the surface.

Subapron

Apron profiles at Tikal are of two main types: two-element aprons and three-element aprons. The two-element type typifies Early Classic work and consists of an upper part projecting over a lower part; the lower part is the subapron. This implies that the upper part is the apron, although the term “apron” is also applied to the whole feature whether two element or three element. In three-element aprons the subapron is the middle part.

Subspring Beam

Beams spanning rooms and set below vault spring height are subspring beams.

Substructure

The parts below the building are known collectively as the substructure.

Subwall

This term was invented for use here to describe a wall-like feature, below floor level, within buildings where they act as footings for walls. Great Temple IV provides the only known example at Tikal.

Superior Molding

A molding at the top of an upper zone is a superior molding.

Supplementary Platform

A platform that intervenes between a building platform and a lower substructure platform is a supplementary platform.

Supra-lintel Masonry

On top of most lintels, there is a layer of masonry filling the gap between the tops of the lintel beams and the wall top.

Surface Dressing

The practice of planing face surfaces of facing stones to provide a fair substrate for plaster is known as face dressing. This is usually done after the facings have been installed.

Tandem Room

A room set in range fashion behind another room is a tandem room. Such rooms are described as set in tandem.

Thick Wall

A wall of a building so thick that its thickness approximates its height is known as a thick wall. None occur in the Central Acropolis.

Thin Wall

Walls of buildings proportioned such that their height is much greater than their thickness are thin walls. All building walls in the Central Acropolis are thin as compared with the thick walls of the Great Temples.

Transverse Room

A room set with its length parallel to the structure axis is a transverse room.

Tread

The horizontal part of a stair between risers is a tread.

Upper Zone

The exterior element corresponding to the vaults and overhanging exterior wall faces is the upper zone.

Upstand

A raised element on a bench is an upstand; alternatively, it can be called a bolster.

Vault

Masonry constructions that span over rooms or chambers are vaults. The vaults at Tikal are unlike arches in that one side does not depend on the other, they do not exert lateral thrusts, and do not require buttresses.

Vault-back

Some vaults have outer surfaces underlying upper zone material; these are known as vault-back surfaces. Some vaults at Tikal do not have vault-backs but most do.

Vault Beam

All known vaults at Tikal contain either wood beams, beam butts, or beam sockets. The beams are known as vault beams and in many cases were installed prior to masonry work as part of falsework and/or formwork. The way that vault soffit stones were cut around beams shows that the beams were in place first.

Veneer Facings

Facing stones proportioned so that their height is distinctly greater than their thickness are known as veneer stones.

Wall

In Tikal Project terminology, a “wall” is an element enclosing a room or dividing rooms. Surfaces of platforms are described as faces not walls.

Wall Top

The top surface of a wall is its wall top. In some cases, these are plastered over, in others, not.

Wing

A part of a building projecting out from the central range of rooms is known as a wing.