The Sinkhole as Ch'een: A Closer Look at Ancient Maya Sacred Geography

Summary

During the 2014 field season, the California State University, Los Angeles Cave Research Project focused its investigation on a sinkhole at the site of La Milpa that had been given a cursory examination by the TRAP in 2012. An initial inspection suggested that the feature might well have been considered a ch’een by the ancient Maya. Ch’een is generally translated as cave but the indigenous term includes a large number of earth openings that were recognized as sacred landmarks. Excavations along the lip on three sides of the sinkhole documented the existence of a rubble cored platform that appears to have encircled the feature. The platform formalized and bounded the space leaving no doubt of the special function of the sinkhole. Excavations around and within the sinkhole recovered a large assemblage of ceramic and other artifacts that suggested a fairly heavy utilization. At the close of the season, the excavation unit in the sinkhole was yielding Early Classic ceramics that predated the major utilization of the site. Evidence suggests that the unit may be a meter or more above bedrock so that an even earlier date of the initial utilization is likely.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Caves, Sinkholes and Chultuns: New Evidence for the Importance of Earth Openings in Ancient Mesoamerica Religion   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage