The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
This session attempts to bring together the most recent studies and approaches to the Mesoamerican subterranean. The importance of the subterranean in Mesoamerican cultural landscapes is now well documented in the form of both natural caves and artificial, constructed chambers. The power attributed to the subterranean in native cosmology means that these landmarks are magnets that draw activities and settlement to themselves and thus become the focus of elaboration. Additionally, those elements closely associated with the sacred earth, such as cave formations, draw on that same power and thus are intrinsically significant artifacts that require greater interpretive attention when recovered in surface contexts
Other Keywords
Caves and Rockshelters •
Maya: Classic •
Geoarchaeology •
Survey •
Ritual Activity •
Ceramic Analysis •
Ancestral Pueblo •
heritage •
cultural transformation •
Maya: Preclassic
Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) •
United Mexican States (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
Peten (State / Territory) •
Republic of El Salvador (Country) •
Republic of Guatemala (Country) •
Cayo (State / Territory) •
Stann Creek (State / Territory) •
Toledo (State / Territory) •
Mesoamerica
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)
- Documents (8)
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Additional Insights into the Significance of Cave Formations: The Case of Balamkú (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As part of its investigation of subterranean Chichén Itzá, the Gran Acuífero Maya (GAM) unsealed the entrance to Balamkú Cave in 2018. The entrance, located in a sinkhole, had been sealed and buried in an apparent act of deliberate termination. In addition, the entire first chamber of the cave including a staircase was buried with...
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The Cave and the Cross: Agricultural Subsistence, Rainfall Prediction, and Ritual in the Sixteenth-Century Mixteca-Puebla Region (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The inhabitants across the Northern Mixteca and the drier sectors of the Tehuacan Valley developed technological innovations to counter the effects of recurrent drought on subsistence. Among measures implemented to conserve soil and water there are terraces, dams, reservoirs, and canals, as well as seed selection and cultivation...
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The Cave-Pyramid Complex: An Assessment of Its Impact after 25 Years (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the 25 years since the publication of “Settlement Configuration and Cosmology: The Role of Caves at Dos Pilas,” a number of significant discoveries of architecture constructed in relation to caves have been made. The discovery of the man-made cave constructed beneath the Pyramid of the Plumed Serpent at Teotihuacan is perhaps the...
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Cenote Xbis: The House of Rain (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Gran Acuífero Maya discovered an important archaeological feature constructed within a cenote in Hoctún, Yucatán, Mexico. Cenote Xbis contains a well-built sacbe 3.5 m wide and more than 60 m long that leads to a large pool of water at the back of the cave. Two speleothem columns appear to have been significant in the layout of...
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Patterns of Precontact Lava Tube Cave Use at El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the field seasons of 2020 and 2021, the Cultural Resources Branch at El Malpais National Monument undertook an inventory of archaeological sites located within some of the monument’s more than 400 lava tube caves. While scores of caves containing cultural resources have been identified through an ongoing mapping initiative, few...
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Preliminary Observations on the Nature of the Balamkú Ceramic Assemblage (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Gran Acuífero Maya conducted preliminary excavations in the entrance chamber of Balamkú yielding a small but interesting ceramic assemblage containing sherds of large incensarios and large numbers of miniature vessels that generally parallel the material documented at Balankanche cave. The high incidence of both incensarios and...
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A Season after Covid: Investigating Las Monjas Sascabera 2 (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In June 2022, the Gran Acuífero Maya resumed investigations initiated in 2018 of Las Monjas Sascabera 2 (LMS2), one of 11 sascaberas located south and west of the Las Monjas complex at Chichén Itzá. In the intervening years, rain washed out accumulated soil that had blocked access to the circular, constructed entrance and exposed...
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Slam Dunk: 3D Imaging in Belizean Cave Sites Using Hovermap System (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mapping is one of the most fundamental and important enterprises for cave archaeologists not only for research but also integral to cave management and heritage preservation. Using traditional cartography techniques is often a tedious and long-term project involving numerous field seasons and thousands of measurements. Capturing 3D...