Turning a Critical Eye on the History of Maya Cave Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A major reformulation of the history of Maya cave archaeology has recently been proposed for the second half of the twentieth century. Jon Spenard, in his dissertation, has suggested that modern cave archaeology began to emerge during the Post War Period (1950 – 1980) based on work carried out in Belize. This paper takes a closer look at that assertion and notes that far more significant work was actually being carried out at the time in Yucatan, which Spenard did not appear to take into consideration. Although J. Eric Thompson and Doris Heyden do propose a ritual use of caves, models of ritual cave use during this period still lack and actual field studies by Andrews and Pendergast still endorse cave habitation. A critical comparison of the Balankanche Cave monograph by Andrews with the Naj Tunich report leaves no doubt that a major shift in cave investigations occurred during the 1980s and not before.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25788