Editing Tikal (section)

====Tikal hiatus====
[[File:Tikal-Plaza-And-North-Acropolis.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The main plaza during winter solstice celebrations]]
In the mid 6th century, Caracol seems to have allied with Calakmul and defeated Tikal, closing the Early Classic.<ref name=m89>Miller 1999, p.89.</ref> 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.<ref name=c94/> This hiatus in activity at Tikal was long unexplained until later [[Epigraphy|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 [[Human sacrifice|sacrifice]] of the king of Tikal.<ref name=w262>Webster 2002, p.262.</ref> The badly eroded [[Caracol#Altar21|Altar 21]] at Caracol described how Tikal suffered this disastrous defeat in a major war in April 562.<ref>Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica by Walter Robert Thurmond Witschey and Clifford T. Brown, p. 313.</ref> 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.<ref name=w192/> Tikal was not sacked but its power and influence were broken.<ref>Webster 2002, pp.192-3.</ref> 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 [[Janaabʼ Pakal]] of [[Palenque]], another of Calakmul's victims.<ref name=w193/> Calakmul itself thrived during Tikal's long hiatus period.<ref>Webster 2002, p.194.</ref>

The beginning of the Tikal hiatus has served as a marker by which [[archeologist|archaeologist]]s commonly subdivide the Classic period of [[Mesoamerican chronology]] into the Early and Late Classic.<ref>Miller and Taube 1993, p.20.</ref>