Rio Amarillo’s Temazcal: Fertility, Toads, and Childbirth in the Copan Valley, Honduras

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2014, rescue excavations in a residential group on the outskirts of Río Amarillo, 20 km from the ancient center of Copan, revealed the presence of a Pib Naah (temazcal/sweat bath), with clear ties to women’s rituals and Maya concepts of fertility. This evidence led the author to name this structure and the three associated with it “The Midwives’ Group.” This group contained a large number of manos and metates (more than found elsewhere in PARAC’s excavations) suggesting that women ground maize while waiting for the birth of children. Several artifacts were found with clear associations to fertility and women, including a Copador vessel in the form of a toad, a second toad carved from stone, and a figurine of a goddess holding a child, or a small spirit being. Structure 3, the only one without female-associated artifacts, may have been a shrine. Shattered figurines were found off its corner, one of which may have been from a censer lid in the form of K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36423.0