New Developments in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jon Spenard.

This presentation offers an analysis of the architectural modifications made to the limestone karst landscape in the Classic period Maya polity of Pacbitun in the Cayo District, Belize. The Maya concepts ch’een (hole in the ground for communication with the supernatural world), and k’aax (wilderness) provide the overall framework for this paper. Through two case studies, I explore the range of karst features the Pacbitun Maya used as ch’een, the variety of ways the landmarks were modified for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Holley Moyes. Laura Kosakowsky. Jaime Awe. Erin Ray.

The prevalence of Late Classic cultural material in ancient Maya ritual cave sites has led both researchers and lay people to characterize cave use as a Late Classic phenomenon; yet, data collected by the Belize Cave Research Project under the direction of Holley Moyes and Jaime Awe demonstrates that many if not most caves were initially used during earlier temporal periods and many sites demonstrate continued use beginning in the Preclassic period. From 2011 to 2015, the regional project has...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Claudia Camacho-Trejo.

In prehispanic times, caves signified the place of origin, the underworld, or where Tlacamecayotl kingship was claimed. Cincalco, a cave located on Chapoltepēc Mountain, was first recorded in the 16th century Historia Toltec-Chichimeca (1550-1560) as being appropriated during 1156 or 1168 after the fall of Tollan. Toltec legend tells that the last king of Tollan, Huemac (Big Hand), committed suicide at the cave after failing to receive help from the gods. At the approach of the Spanish,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marieka Arksey.

Over the past three years, investigations of over fifty ritual cave sites across the country of Belize by the Las Cuevas Archaeological Reconnaissance Project and the Belize Cave Research Project have yielded surprising findings: at least nine of the caves have modifications or construction directly outside of the entrances. These modifications took place for the first and only time during the Late Classic, a centuries-long period characterized by droughts, overpopulation, the failure of Maya...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Melanie Saldana. Samantha Lorenz. Brandon Lewis. Mario Giron-Abrego. James E Brady.

In 2014, the California State University, Los Angeles Sacred Landscapes Archaeology Project took over the investigation of what appeared to be a sinkhole with a small cave chamber at its northern end. In 2015, excavation was continued to bedrock. Lying on bedrock, was a chultun capstone and examination of the ceiling directly above it disclosed the remains of what had been the entry tube into the feature. The lack of deposition between the ceiling collapse and the floor suggests that the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sara Dalton.

During the 2014 and 2015 field season excavations were carried out on a chultun at the ancient Maya site of El Mirador, Petén, Guatemala. This chultun was situated near the Grán Acrópolis, with a 10-meter pyramid located directly to the north and a large L-shaped structure directly to the east, in an elite district. Over the course of excavations the site was found to contain both Middle and Late Preclassic ceramics, including fragments of an elaborate incensario in the shape of an...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Samantha Lorenz. Naomi Marks. James Brady.

Midnight Terror Cave, located in the Cayo district in Belize, has produced the largest skeletal assemblage reported from a Maya cave. Large-scale modification of the cave for public gatherings indicates that the space was used ritualistically; most of the individuals recovered are believed to be human sacrifices. The assemblage size permitted us to select a relatively large sample of permanent lower first molars from juveniles for radiogenic strontium isotope analyses. Juveniles were the only...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Donald Slater.

During reconnaissance in a dry cenote at the small site of Ceh’ Yax, Mexico, members of the Central Yucatan Archaeological Cave Project discovered an in-situ monument incised with a petroglyphic scene depicting a dignitary seated within a litter. Although litters are not commonly shown in Mesoamerican imagery, they do appear on lintels, wall graffiti, codex-style Maya vases, and as ceramic effigies. This paper will present an analysis of Mesoamerican litter iconography which will demonstrate...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christophe Helmke. Ismael Arturo Montero García.

El ritual calendárico conocido como la ceremonia del Fuego Nuevo era en muchos sentidos el rito fundamental de las culturas del altiplano central de México. Aquí, examinamos este ritual y su conexión a las cuevas, como se manifiesta en el Cerro de la Estrella, donde la última ceremonia del Fuego Nuevo fue celebrada por los mexicas en el año 1507. Sobre la base de las continuidades en el arte rupestre y las evidencias arqueológicas sugerimos que ceremonias del Fuego Nuevo ya se celebraban en el...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dominique Rissolo.

Like the subterranean construction and use of ancient Maya shrines and altars, the presence of incense burners in caves provides unequivocal evidence of ritual practice. Effigy censers, particularly those of the Chen Mul Modeled ceramic type, were locally produced and widely used across the northern lowlands and have been reported in contexts within architectural precincts at a number of Postclassic Maya centers. The use of such censers in ceremonies involving deity veneration was most likely,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only James Brady. Yoav Me-Bar. Fred ValdeZ.

Dos Hombres, a Maya site in the Programme for Belize (PfB) conservation area of northern Belize, consists of three large architectural groups aligned in a north-south direction along a series of knolls. Where the southern end of Group C meets the surrounding bajo, a depression in small knoll protruding from the bajo yielded evidence of Maya utilization from the Late Preclassic through the Late Classic. The underlying bedrock was modified to create an amphitheater shape focused on a small cave at...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Sload.

Reverential termination is hypothesized for the human-made cave beneath the Sun Pyramid. While the idea of a mid-third century A.D. termination is not new and is based on radiocarbon dating and construction of blockages in the rear section of the cave and use of concrete, qualifying the termination as reverential is a refinement. The most direct information comes from examination of blockage construction, which is supported by two other lines of evidence. One also lays within the cave and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Guillermo De Anda Alaniz.

Saving our past with the technology of the future. The Yucatan Peninsula has become one of the most important areas of the world for underwater archaeology research. New discoveries go from extinct mega fauna and ancient human remains from the ice age, to bones of the ancient Maya and artifacts, all in a great state of preservation. Our team has developed a new non-intrusive survey methodology, which uses photography to document artifacts and bones. Photographs are then processed by custom made...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carlos Rincon Mautner.

Numerous caves in the Southern Mexican Highlands are found in remote locations far from settlements and presumably along boundaries between what were once Classic and/or Late Post-Classic period polities. These caves were recognized as unique features of the ritual landscape and differed in terms of location, difficulty of access, and entity venerated. While some caves seem to have had a more local, even domestic use, others were of inter-regional renown. Influenced by socioeconomic and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cameron Griffith. Nikolai Grube.

In this paper we present recent analyses conducted on the elaborate artwork in Actun Halal, an important ancient Maya cave site in western Belize. Actun Halal contains a wide variety of art forms, ranging from monumental modified speleothem sculptures four meters in height to small, detailed bas-relief sculptural works executed in layers of travertine only millimeters thick. Akin to the elegant scenes rendered in murals and on polychrome pottery vessels, the sculptural works in Actun Halal tell...