Spindle Whorls and World Creation at Balankanche' Caverns, Yucatan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster examines the implications of imagery identified as relating to Mesaomerican “Flower Worlds” on spindle whorls left in situ in Balankanche’ Caverns by actors who used the caverns in the Terminal Classic period (ninth and tenth centuries) to invoke ritual-mythic time within this underworld space that was seen as the place of human creation and emergence. The spinning of fibers into thread is an act perceived by contemporary Maya people inhabiting the highlands of Guatemala and of Chiapas, Mexico as one linked to fertility – both human fertility and fertility in the form of vegetation and rain clouds. The spindle whorls include depictions of birds, solar symbolism, and flowers, suggestive of the fertile, flowery world where the male and female rain/water deities reside and the sun is reborn each day. Paired with censers depicting the Highland Mexican rain deity Tlaloc and miniature manos and metates for grinding, the space within the caverns can clearly be identified as a place where the (re)birth of the world and the human and non-human beings that inhabit it was enacted on a periodic (perhaps annual) basis.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37614.0