Contributions of Belize Cave Research to Ancient Maya Studies

Summary

This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Throughout the Maya area, caves are recognized as unambiguous ritual contexts that provide scholars with a glimpse into the ritual life of ancient people. Religious ritual was not epiphenomenal as some theoretical stances would argue, but was intertwined with the social and political fabric of ancient Maya society. Therefore, cave archaeology is in a privileged position to comment on many aspects of Maya studies from politics to poetics. Caves figured prominently in sacred geography, providing powerful venues for leaders to propitiate earth and underworld deities and to establish relationships with them that underpinned political power and helped to establish and maintain rights to rule. Caves were considered to be entrances into the earth as well as conduits to the underworld; the stone houses of deities and ancestors; and as living, breathing, entities themselves possessing life-force. From cave deposits we can infer relationships between socio/political and environmental stresses and ritual transformations. We can locate political maneuverings, understand differences in ritual practice among communities, and understand Maya aesthetics. Cave chronologies provide information about settlement and abandonment of a region, and help document of war events. Here, we review significant contributions of previous and ongoing cave research in Belize to ancient Maya studies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• “The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38659.0