Tikal \te-'kal\ Ancient Maya city, northern Guatemala. First occupied as a small village in a tropical rainforest (c. 900-300 bc), it grew into an important ceremonial centre. It flourished c. ad 600-900, when its great
WILLIAM E. FERGUSON
Tiglath-pileser III, relief from Calah (Nimrud), 8th century bc; in the British Museum.
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1910 I Tikhomirov ► Tilsit
plazas, pyramids, and palaces were built and when Maya art flowered in monumental sculpture. At its height it was the largest urban centre in the southern Maya lowlands; the core city had a population of perhaps 10,000 residents with an outlying population of about 50,000. Its main structures covered about 1 sq mi (2.5 sq km). It was abandoned by the 10th cen¬ tury. Major excavation began in 1956; it is now a central part of Tikal National Park, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in
Tikhomirov Uik-om-'yir-eA, Vasily (Dmitrievich) (b. March 30, 1876, Moscow, Russia—d. June 20, 1956, Moscow) Russian ballet dancer and teacher. After training at the Bolshoi school, he joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1893. He soon became its principal dancer and created roles in a vigorous, athletic style that he later taught to students at the Bolshoi school. He was influential there as a teacher (from 1896) and as director (1924-37). With his wife, Yekaterina Geltzer, he helped preserve the clas¬ sic ballets and techniques after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Tikunas See Tucunas
Tilak Vte-lak\, Bal Gangadhar (b. July 23, 1856, Ratnagiri, India—d. Aug. 1, 1920, Bombay) Indian scholar and nationalist. Born to a middle-class Brahman family, Tilak taught mathematics and in 1884 founded the Deccan Education Society to help educate the masses. Through two weekly newspapers, he voiced his criticisms of British rule in India, hoping to widen the popularity of the nationalist movement beyond the upper classes. In response to the Partition of Bengal (1905) he initiated a boycott of British goods and passive resistance, two forms of protest later adopted by Mohandas K. Gandhi. He left the Indian National Congress in 1907 when he was deported for sedition but rejoined in 1916, in time to sign a Hindu-Muslim accord with Mohammed Ali Jin- nah. Though militant in his opposition to foreign rule, late in life Tilak advocated a measure of cooperation with the British in order to achieve reforms.
tilapia Uo-'la-pe-oX Any of numerous, mostly freshwater, fish species (genus Tilapia, family Cichlidae), native to Africa. They resemble North American sunfishes; one species grows to 20 lbs (9 kg). Tilapia species are easy to raise and harvest for food; they grow rapidly, resist disease, and eat readily abundant algae and zooplankton. They have been used in warm-water aquaculture systems since the early Egyptian civilization and have been introduced into many freshwater habitats. See also CICHUD.
Tilden, Bill in full William Tatem Tilden (b. Feb. 20, 1893, Phila¬ delphia, Pa., U.S.—d. June 5, 1953,
Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. tennis player. The dominant player of the 1920s, he won seven U.S. men’s singles championships (1920-25,
1929), three Wimbledon singles championships (1920-21, 1930), and two professional titles. He also won many doubles and mixed-doubles titles and 21 of 28 Davis Cup matches. His overpowering play and temperamental personality made him one of the most colourful sports fig¬ ures of his time.
Tilden, Samuel J(ones) (b. Feb.
9, 1814, New Lebanon, N.Y.,
U.S.—d. Aug. 4, 1886, Greystone, N.Y.) U.S. politician. He was a leader of New York’s Democratic Party, and, as state party chairman (1865-75), he effected the overthrow of the Tammany Hall boss William Marcy Tweed. As governor (1875-76) he continued his reforms, exposing the Canal Ring, a group of politicians and contractors who had defrauded the state. In 1876 he was the Democratic nominee for president. The bitterly fought campaign ended in a popular-vote victory for Tilden, but Republicans contested the results in four states. To settle the controversy. Congress appointed the Electoral Commission, which decided in favour of the Repub¬ lican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes (see also electoral college). Unwilling to cause further conflict, Tilden accepted the decision and returned to his prosperous law practice. On his death he left his large fortune to estab¬ lish a free public library for New York City.
tile Thin, flat slab or block used structurally or decoratively in building. Tiles traditionally have been made of glazed or unglazed fired clay, but
modern tiles are also made of plastic, glass, asphalt, and even cork. Ceramic tiles, used for walls, floors, and countertops, are usually machine- pressed, made of fine clays, and very hard. Quarry tiles (used for flooring) and terra-cotta, made of natural clays, are less hard and more porous but very popular for economic and aesthetic reasons. Structural tile, made of fired clay, is a hollow tile containing parallel cells or cores and is used for building partitions. Roof tiles of baked clay and of marble were used in ancient Greece. Tiles came to be widely used in Islamic architecture. Mul¬ ticoloured, glazed tiles were common in Spain from an early period (see azulejo), and from there spread to Portugal and Latin America. By the 15th century, tile work was used widely in northern Europe; blue-painted tiles from Delft, Holland, were especially renowned. Modern clay roofing tiles may be flat or curved; in the Mediterranean countries, S-shaped tiles (pant¬ iles), laid with alternate convex and concave surfaces uppermost, are com¬ mon. Modem wall tiles may be highly glazed and semivitreous.
tilefish or blanquillo \blaq-'ke-,yo\ Any of 24 species (family Bran- chiostegidae, or Malacanthidae) of slender marine fishes found in shallow tropical and warm temperate seas. Tilefish are used as food, especially the large Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps, a deepwater fish of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico with a fleshy appendage on the head and yellow spots on its upper body and some of its fins. Tilefish have a large oblique mouth with strong canines and one rather long dorsal fin with weak spines.
till In geology, the unsorted material deposited directly by glacial ice and showing no stratification. Till is sometimes called boulder clay because it is composed of clay, boulders of intermediate size, or both. The rock fragments are usually angular and sharp rather than rounded, because they are deposited from ice and have undergone little water transport. The pebbles and boulders may be faceted and striated from grinding while lodged in the glacier.
till-less agriculture See no-till farming
Tillich \'ti-lik,\ English \'ti-lik\, Paul (Johannes) (b. Aug. 20, 1886, Starzeddel, Brandenburg, Ger.—d. Oct. 22, 1965, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) German-bom U.S. Protestant theologian. He studied at Berlin, Tubingen, and Halle and was a chaplain with the German army during World War I. He taught successively at Marburg, Dresden, and Frankfurt am Main. In 1933 the Nazi takeover prompted him to immigrate to the U.S. With the aid of Reinhold Niebuhr, he joined the faculty of New York’s Union Theological Seminary. He became respected for his lucid preaching and his Systematic Theology, 3 vol. (1951-63). He moved to Harvard Uni¬ versity in 1955 and to the University of Chicago in 1962. His theological system was an unusual combination of biblical, existentialist, and meta¬ physical elements, and he attempted to convey an understanding of God that depended neither on revelation nor on science. His other works include The Courage to Be (1952) and Dynamics of Faith (1957).
Tillman, Benjamin R(yan) (b. Aug. 11,1847, Edgefield county, S.C., U.S.—d. July 3, 1918, Washington, D.C.) U.S. politician. He worked as a farmer and in the 1880s was a spokesman for poor rural whites. As gov¬ ernor (1890-94), he introduced populist reforms that expanded public education, shifted the tax burden to the wealthy, and regulated the rail¬ roads. He also supported enactment of Jim Crow laws and considered lynching an acceptable law-enforcement measure. In the U.S. Senate (1895-1918), he pressed for agrarian reform. His attacks on his oppo¬ nents earned him the nickname “Pitchfork Ben.”