The Subterranean in MesoAmerican Sacred Landscapes: A Multidisciplinary Assessment

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Subterranean in MesoAmerican Sacred Landscapes: A Multidisciplinary Assessment" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Because of the centrality of the sacred, animate Earth in Amerindian indigenous cosmology, subterranean landscape features are magnets that attract people to them and structure activities around themselves. Their importance is reflected in the increasing numbers of natural and constructed subterranean features incorporated into site cores. Many constructed spaces were produced through extractive activities that are only understandable as projects designed to create subterranean features. 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 outside of their natural context. Additionally, subterranean features are particularly significant in holding purely ritual assemblages that represent the field’s best context for studying the archaeology of religion. This session brings together the most recent studies and approaches to the Mesoamerican subterranean.