Caves in Maya Cosmology (Other Keyword)
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Caves, Ancestors, and the Underworld: Bedrock Manipulation as a Strategy in the Development of Middle Formative Period Maya Socio-Political Complexity, Based on Evidence from Ka’Kabish, Northern Belize (2018)
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Growing evidence suggests the ancient Maya conceptualized caves, as well as small crevices in the karstic bedrock (both natural and artificial), as sacred ch’een – portals of shamanic communication, which existed in a liminal realm between the physical world and the ancestral powers of the cave-riddled Underworld. Ch’een represented important ritual foci for the ancient Maya, as well as receptacles for sacred offerings. The interment of prominent ancestors and symbolically valuable materials...