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CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



but certain interesting architectural features were uncovered, perhaps 

 not the least of which was the discovery that the old builders had 

 begun to distrust their own handiwork, even in ancient times. Both 

 temples, it was clear from the excavations, had begun to fail struc- 

 turally before the city was abandoned, particularly at the corners, 

 which had been prevented from sagging only by the erection of heavy 

 buttresses built against the outer walls. 



Fig. 1.— Plan of the Temple Plaza and associated structures, Quirigua. Guatemala. 



Temple 3 is the better preserved, due to the fact that the level of the 

 terrace upon which it was originally built was subsequently raised at 

 the back and sides to the level of the medial cornice, thus half burying 

 the temple, all save the front, in a solid mass of stone and red clay, the 

 only bonding material used in the Quirigua masonry (see figure 2). 

 This resulted in its being better preserved than Temple 4, as already 

 noted, and permits the establishment of one important architectural 

 fact, namely, that the upper zone above the medial cornice, in this 

 building at least, was vertical and not sloping as in the Palenque temples 

 and the second story of the Monjas at Chichen Itza. Temple 2 nearby 

 has this same feature, and in the restoration in figure 2 all the temples 

 except No. 1 are shown with a vertical wall above the medial cornice. 



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