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TIKAL. 45 



and Temples C and E in the distance; (b) was taken from the doorway of Temple E 

 and shows the hack of Temple C, and on the right, in the distance, the Temples B 

 and A. All around the dense forest extends as far as the eye can reach. 



The Carved Lixtels. 



Both the outer and inner doorways of the Temples were covered with lintels formed 

 of a number of beams of hard wood, probably the wood of the Chico Sapote tree. 

 Some of these lintels are beautifully carved. 



After his visit to Tikal in 1877, Dr. Bernoulli induced a party of Indians to return 

 to the ruins and cut out and bring to him the carved beams which were in the best 

 state of preservation. These beams were forwarded to the Museum at Basle, but no 

 notes accompanied them, and Dr. Bernoulli died soon afterwards in North America. 



At the time of my visit to Tikal I had not seen the lintels preserved at Basle. A 

 few years later I was able to purchase plaster casts of the carvings, made at Basle by 

 M. Desire Charnay, and quite recently I have been able to obtain good photographs of 

 the originals. 



The lintel figured on Plate LXXVII. was so far complete that the Director of the 

 Basle Museum had been able to exhibit the carved beams pieced together in their 

 proper order. This lintel I have ascribed to the inner doorway of Temple C, but am 

 by no means sure that this location is correct. The dimensions agree fairly well, but 

 on my original plan of the building there is written across this doorway " Carved 

 beams much destroyed"; this note may, however, have been written on observing 

 some small fragment of carving on one of the ends of the beams left embedded in the 

 wall. On the other hand, the lintel may have been removed from the inner doorway 

 of Temple D, and its removal may have caused the fall of masonry which prevented me 

 from measuring the chambers of that Temple. I greatly regret that my memory fails 

 me in this matter, as the proper location of the carving is of great importance ; and I 

 trust that the next visitor to the ruins will take careful measurements of all the 

 temple doorways and make moulds of all the carved beams which still remain in place, 

 however dilapidated their condition may be. 



The fragments of the beams which I believe to have been taken from Temple A 

 have not hitherto been joined together, and it is only after a long study of the casts 

 and photographs that I venture to figure them as arranged on Plates LXXI. and LXXII. 

 My notes record that " two beams of the middle lintel (of Temple A) remain in place, 

 well carved in medium relief, but much decayed." It will be seen from the plan that 

 the three lintels must have varied both in length and breadth. I am inclined to think 



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