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387 During the 1953 field season, test excavations by Pollock had indicated the presence of murals in a buried room in Str. Q-80 (150 S, 260 W). Consequently, it was decided the following year to undertake excavation for the purpose of exposing the murals and gaining information on architectural details of the structure. The building is interesting in that there is no comparable structure at Mayapán. It is also difficult to find examples elsewhere in Yucatán which combine the architectural features present in Str. Q-80. The Temple of the Frescoes at Tulum (Lothrop 1924) does have the upper story, vaulted room, and side galleries characteristic of the Mayapán temple, but differs in so many other respects that it is hardly a comparable example. Rooms 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 were completely excavated , and Room 5 was partially excavated (Fig. 30.1). Room 4, which is only partly filled with debris, was left unexcavated. In addition, numerous minor excavations were made around the temple and its platform wherever structural details were obscure. The only major architectural feature left uninvestigated was the stairway on the north side of the basal platform. The later stages of construction were worked out quite satisfactorily, but the early stages still present problems of interpretation. Accordingly, for early construction phases alternative explanations have been presented in the following report, with indication of the interpretation which seems most probable. Str. Q-80 is on the north side of the north court of the Castillo. Directly to the south is the colonnaded hall Str. Q-81, separated from the temple by a narrow passage (Fig. 30.2a). Within the small area of the passage which was excavated was found the skeleton of a young adolescent. The skeleton lay on the surface of the debris which originally filled the passage and under a great pile of fallen masonry. Whether the C u r r e n t R e p o r t s Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Archaeology No. 30 December 1955 A V aulted T emple at Ma yapán Howard d. winters Howard d. winters 388 youth was killed by falling masonry or met death by other means must remain a moot point. Before excavation Str. Q-80 was a high mound with little structural detail showing on its south side, but with a partially filled, vaulted room and a small end room exposed on its north side. The slope of the debris on the south side ran smoothly over the remains of the adjacent colonnaded hall. The temple as it stands today consists of two vaulted rooms running east and west, with two small rooms on the west side and three small rooms on the east side (Fig. 30.1). These rooms rest on a low platform, the walls of which serve as a plinth for much of the building. Quite inexplicably, this building platform is placed well off center toward the west and south on the large platform which serves as the base for the structure. No other construction could be seen on unexcavated areas of the substructure platform, nor do there seem to be any requirements of perspective in the area which would lead to such a placement of the temple and its platform. Access to the structure is provided by a stairway on the north side of the basal platform. The masonry is of the usual crude type found in other ceremonial structures at Mayapán. A few well cut, re-used stones are incorporated with the rough limestone slabs forming the bulk of the stone used in the construction of the building (Fig. 30.2h). The well cut stones, many of which are very similar to the well dressed or carved stones of Puuc type found frequently in Mayapán construction, are usually in the doorjambs and vaulting, but occasionally appear in the walls of rooms (Figs. 30.2h; 30.3a,c,e). The mortar appears to be of slightly better quality than that used elsewhere in construction. The fill in the platform and in BlocksAand B (Fig. 30.1) consists of fairly large rocks, among which a small amount of earth and a few sherds are intermingled. Apparently wood lintels were used throughout, since no stone lintels were found. Large areas of plaster still cover the walls in parts of the temple, but, other than the murals in Room 1, no decoration or paint was noted on the plaster, even where it was...

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