Just for the Celt of It: Investigations and Discoveries Beneath the Petroglyph Panels of Aktun Kuruxtun, Yucatan

Summary

During 2011 excavations deep beneath the petroglyph panels in Aktun Kuruxtun, Mexico, members of the Central Yucatan Archaeological Cave Project (CYAC) uncovered a small tunnel leading into a previously unknown chamber of the cavern. The discovery came in the final days of the field season, however, and the chamber was too choked with flood sediments to be methodologically investigated. As a result, the passage was reburied. Last summer, CYAC returned to the cave and successfully explored the tunnel and the small chamber to which it led. In the process, the team discovered an altar just outside of the tunnel, and also unearthed a cache of two ceremonial greenstone celts at the threshold of the interior chamber. These finds, and associated organic material, have allowed for a more nuanced interpretation of the ancient usage and chronology of the Petroglyph Chamber in Aktun Kuruxtun. Further, the raw material used in the production of the celts, and their axial positioning within the cave, situates the deposit within wider cultural contexts in Central Yucatan and more broadly across the Maya region.

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): 21168