Keeping it Natural: Ancient Maya Modifications of the Ritual Landscape Outside of Caves

Summary

From as early as 1000 B.C., the Maya considered caves to be sacred features of the landscape and used them as ritual spaces. Performances associated with caves served not only the ruling elite in reaffirming their right to rule, but the entire community’s confidence in their rulers. These performances became increasingly important in times of crisis, such as during the Late Classic Maya ‘collapse’ when a series of droughts aggravated the overcrowded, over-farmed, and deforested localities which grew increasingly dissatisfied with their rulers. While we know that modern Maya use the spaces outside of caves for rituals, no one has yet investigated how these spaces functioned for ancient people. Using a combination of both cognitive methods and traditional excavation techniques, I compare the modifications to the landscape outside of several different caves in Belize. These investigations have revealed that the spaces outside cave entrances were modified for the first time during the Late Classic period, providing an ideal paradigm to begin to address how these ritual spaces were used to reinforce social rules and norms during a time period associated with the rising political complexity and the subsequent failure of Maya kingship and social hierarchy in the Maya Lowlands.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Interpreting Changes in Ancient Maya Society: From Landscape and Architecture to Everything in Between

Keywords

Spatial Coverage