Cenote Xtoloc: Paying Attention to the Ignored Cenote

Summary

A truism was established very early in Maya studies that the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza had a religious function while the nearby Cenote Xtoloc was the source for domestic drinking water. Part of the attraction of this idea was no doubt its close paralleling of the popular Western dichotomy, sacred vs. profane. The problem with truisms, statements so obviously true that they say nothing new or interesting, is that they direct attention elsewhere. This is probably why the Temple of Xtoloc was never placed on the Carnegie map of Chichen Itza even though Ann Axtell Morris excavated there in the 1920s. When a truism is not true the impact can be disastrous for our understanding of the subject.

The Gran Aquífero Maya undertook a reexamination of the area surrounding the cenote as part of its assessment of all water sources at the site. The project found architectural enhancements that included stairways leading from sacbe to the water and constructed masonry platforms formalized this space. In addition, three caves in the northwest wall of the cenote were documented and mapped.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20674