Maya cave sites
Encyclopedia
Maya cave sites are cave
s used by and associated with the Maya civilization
of pre-Columbian
Mesoamerica
. Certain beliefs and observances connected with cave sites are also maintained among some contemporary Maya communities
. These cave sites are understood to have served religious purposes rather than utilitarian ones. Accordingly, archaeological artifacts found within caves can inform interpretations of religious ritual and cave studies combined with epigraphic, iconographic, and ethnographic studies can further inform Maya religion
and society.
n settlement. Mountains and caves were important elements in Mesoamerican creation myths. Mesoamerican belief systems liken water to fertility and mountains give flowing water and rainfall through caves. Accordingly, these natural features were considered sacred and were sought out by Mesoamerican migrants looking for a new home. A cave could be considered an axis mundi
if it marked the center of a village (Brady and Ashmore 1999: 127). The Late Postclassic site of Mayapan
incorporated several cenote
s into its ceremonial groups and the Cenote Ch’en Mul is at the site core. At Dos Pilas
house platforms were often in front of cave entries and the tunnel went beneath the platform.
(this is also seen at Teotihuacan
, though somewhat different). and at Muklebal Tzul it appears that an artificial well underneath a massive platform was made to appear like a water-bearing cave.. In the Yucatán many Late Postclassic temples had Spanish churches built on top of them after the conquest and so caves and cenotes can still be found near these places today.
, the contemporary Tzotzil Maya belief that a hypersexual being lives in a cave, and the fact that sweatbaths have been places of illicit sex amongst many Maya groups. Artifacts found at a sweatbath on the periphery of Piedras Negras included a circular mirror and five marine shells, artifacts that have been associated with the watery underworld and the latter of which has been found in the artificial caves underneath the Pyramid of the Sun
at Teotihuacan.
Speleothems in caves have also been regarded as sacred and have played a role in Maya religion. Caves are considered to be "living beings with personhood and souls". and according to a 41 year old Q’eqchi’ Maya their speleothems "are also alive, they grow and sweat water; they themselves are water". People may take these rocks from the caves and put them on their altars. The Xibun
Maya incorporated speleothems into the construction of the ball court at the Hershey site. Ball courts have been associated with the underworld just as caves have been.
even believe that lightning comes from caves.. The Yukatek and Lacandon believe that caves and cenotes are where rain deities reside and the Yukatek of the sixteenth century sacrificed humans to appease these deities.
At Dos Pilas
the Cueva de Murciélagos rests beneath the royal palace platform. After it rains heavily water rushes out from this cave signaling the beginning of the rainy season and the advance of the crop cycle. This artificial landscape showed that the king had control over water, rainmaking, and fertility, thereby legitimizing his authority.
Caves in art have also been used to legitimize authority and elevate status. Individuals in the mouth of a cave for example are endowed with authority that is often associated with shamanism
. Scribal imagery is often associated with a skeletal jaw (maws are often likened to the mouths of caves), which may indicate that caves are where his craft originated. Perhaps this imagery "served to mystify and exalt the scribe's role."
transformations.
Human sacrifice to gods connected to caves was widespread. The sacrifice either occurred in the cave or the body was put there afterwards. Children were commonly sacrificed in the Yucatán
and child sacrifice was recorded in Highland Guatemala as well.
Archaeologists have found caves that have been sealed such as the Cueva de El Duende. It is possible that the desecration of caves could have been used as a symbol of conquest and political legitimacy. Another explanation could relate to termination rituals that have often been seen in architectural construction.
originated beneath the earth, an idea perhaps expressed by Classic depictions of the Maize God
emerging from the underworld. This belief gives caves life-giving power as accounts from the Popul Vuh indicate that humans were made from maize dough. Domesticated plants found in lowland caves were probably used in rituals performed for deities related to agricultural fertility. Use of agricultural products in agricultural rituals continues amongst the contemporary Maya.
Jade
is a frequent cave offering. The largest amount of jade found at one site is at the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza
. Metal was a common offering during the Postclassic, the largest collections coming from the Cenote of Sacrifice and "bell" caves in western Honduras
. It is possible that the notion of the Earth Lord having lots of wealth in his cave may have come from this tradition.
cave burial was rare, but it is possible that common people may have used caves as burial places for their dead such as at the Caves Branch Rock Shelter in Belize
. Lineage founders have also been buried in caves. Elites were able to build their own elaborate burial "caves" and by doing so reinforced their power and status. It seems elites tried to make their tombs look like natural caves. Stalactites found at Tomb 2 of Nim Li Punit
provide an example of this.
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
s used by and associated with the Maya civilization
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
of pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
. Certain beliefs and observances connected with cave sites are also maintained among some contemporary Maya communities
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
. These cave sites are understood to have served religious purposes rather than utilitarian ones. Accordingly, archaeological artifacts found within caves can inform interpretations of religious ritual and cave studies combined with epigraphic, iconographic, and ethnographic studies can further inform Maya religion
Maya religion
The traditional Maya religion of western Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico is a southeastern variant of Mesoamerican religion. As is the case with many other contemporary Mesoamerican religions, it results from centuries of symbiosis with Roman Catholicism...
and society.
Association with settlement
A desire to be near the sacred has influenced MesoamericaMesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n settlement. Mountains and caves were important elements in Mesoamerican creation myths. Mesoamerican belief systems liken water to fertility and mountains give flowing water and rainfall through caves. Accordingly, these natural features were considered sacred and were sought out by Mesoamerican migrants looking for a new home. A cave could be considered an axis mundi
Axis mundi
The axis mundi , in religion or mythology, is the world center and/or the connection between heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet...
if it marked the center of a village (Brady and Ashmore 1999: 127). The Late Postclassic site of Mayapan
Mayapan
Mayapan , is a Pre-Columbian Maya site a couple of kilometers south of the town of Telchaquillo in Municipality of Tecoh, approximately 40 km south-east of Mérida and 100 km west of Chichen Itza; in the state of Yucatán, Mexico...
incorporated several cenote
Cenote
A cenote is a deep natural pit, or sinkhole, characteristic of Mexico and Central America, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath...
s into its ceremonial groups and the Cenote Ch’en Mul is at the site core. At Dos Pilas
Dos Pilas
Dos Pilas is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization located in what is now the department of Petén, Guatemala. It dates to the Late Classic Period, being founded by an offshoot of the dynasty of the great city of Tikal in AD 629 in order to control trade routes in the Petexbatún region,...
house platforms were often in front of cave entries and the tunnel went beneath the platform.
Architectural landscapes and themes
Artificial landscapes often mimicked sacred landscapes. Doorways of temples were seen as the cave entrances to mountains. Sometimes these doorways were witz monster mouths. The same was true for the Aztecs, who at Utatlán designed an artificial cave that ends under the central plaza and is designed according to the mythical seven-chamber cave of emergence, ChicomoztocChicomoztoc
Chicomoztoc is the name for the mythical origin place of the Aztec Mexicas, Tepanecs, Acolhuas, and other Nahuatl-speaking peoples of the central Mexico region of Mesoamerica, in the Postclassic period....
(this is also seen at Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan – also written Teotihuacán, with a Spanish orthographic accent on the last syllable – is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, just 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas...
, though somewhat different). and at Muklebal Tzul it appears that an artificial well underneath a massive platform was made to appear like a water-bearing cave.. In the Yucatán many Late Postclassic temples had Spanish churches built on top of them after the conquest and so caves and cenotes can still be found near these places today.
Entrances to the Underworld
Caves are often described as entries into the watery Maya underworld. For Mesoamerican groups, including the Maya, life and death occur at liminal zones between this world and the otherworld. Caves then are both associated with life and death; when something emerges from the underworld, that something lives, and when something descends into the underworld, that something dies. Caves are seen as birthplaces where humans and group ancestors were born (and live) and the Maya of the Yucatán even thought that the sun and moon were born out of the underworld.Associations with sex and fertility
There appears to be a strong association (and perhaps conflation) between caves and sweatbaths. Caves are often perceived as female and are likened to the womb and vagina. Hence they are a symbol of fertility.. Like caves, sweatbaths have also been associated with human fertility and both have strong sexual connotations. Examples of these sexual connotations include the painting of a couple engaged in intercourse at the cave site of Naj TunichNaj Tunich
Naj Tunich is a natural cave and an important archaeological site in Guatemala.The discovery of the Naj Tunich caves, in Poptún southern Peten, Guatemala, in 1979 initiated the interest for Cave Archeology among Mayanists...
, the contemporary Tzotzil Maya belief that a hypersexual being lives in a cave, and the fact that sweatbaths have been places of illicit sex amongst many Maya groups. Artifacts found at a sweatbath on the periphery of Piedras Negras included a circular mirror and five marine shells, artifacts that have been associated with the watery underworld and the latter of which has been found in the artificial caves underneath the Pyramid of the Sun
Pyramid of the Sun
The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest building in Teotihuacan and one of the largest in Mesoamerica. Found along the Avenue of the Dead, in between the Pyramid of the Moon and the Ciudadela, and in the shadow of the massive mountain Cerro Gordo, the pyramid is part of a large complex in the heart...
at Teotihuacan.
Speleothems in caves have also been regarded as sacred and have played a role in Maya religion. Caves are considered to be "living beings with personhood and souls". and according to a 41 year old Q’eqchi’ Maya their speleothems "are also alive, they grow and sweat water; they themselves are water". People may take these rocks from the caves and put them on their altars. The Xibun
Xibun
Xibun is an alternate Mayan spelling of Sibun that appears on some Spanish colonial-period maps of the region, and is sometimes used to refer to:*the Sibun River located in central Belize*ancient or historic Maya settlers in the Sibun River valley...
Maya incorporated speleothems into the construction of the ball court at the Hershey site. Ball courts have been associated with the underworld just as caves have been.
Associations with natural forces
Caves are linked with wind, rain, and clouds. The Zinacantecos of the Chiapas highlandsChiapas highlands
The region of the Chiapas Highlands is located in Chiapas, the southern-most state of Mexico.Many pre-Columbian Maya civilization sites are located in these highlands....
even believe that lightning comes from caves.. The Yukatek and Lacandon believe that caves and cenotes are where rain deities reside and the Yukatek of the sixteenth century sacrificed humans to appease these deities.
At Dos Pilas
Dos Pilas
Dos Pilas is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization located in what is now the department of Petén, Guatemala. It dates to the Late Classic Period, being founded by an offshoot of the dynasty of the great city of Tikal in AD 629 in order to control trade routes in the Petexbatún region,...
the Cueva de Murciélagos rests beneath the royal palace platform. After it rains heavily water rushes out from this cave signaling the beginning of the rainy season and the advance of the crop cycle. This artificial landscape showed that the king had control over water, rainmaking, and fertility, thereby legitimizing his authority.
Caves in art have also been used to legitimize authority and elevate status. Individuals in the mouth of a cave for example are endowed with authority that is often associated with shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
. Scribal imagery is often associated with a skeletal jaw (maws are often likened to the mouths of caves), which may indicate that caves are where his craft originated. Perhaps this imagery "served to mystify and exalt the scribe's role."
Associations of art and ritual
Caves are often associated with transformation. One artifact in the Cenote X-Coton is a human stone figure that is making an offering and wearing a (possible) jaguar skin with the human's face coming out of its mouth. It appears that in addition to water and sacrifice rituals the cenote may have been used for wayWay
Way may refer to:* Wayob, plural form , spirit companions appearing in mythology and folklore of Maya peoples of the Yucatan Peninsula*WAY-FM, a radio station*a road, path or pathway...
transformations.
Human sacrifice to gods connected to caves was widespread. The sacrifice either occurred in the cave or the body was put there afterwards. Children were commonly sacrificed in the Yucatán
Yucatán
Yucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida....
and child sacrifice was recorded in Highland Guatemala as well.
Archaeologists have found caves that have been sealed such as the Cueva de El Duende. It is possible that the desecration of caves could have been used as a symbol of conquest and political legitimacy. Another explanation could relate to termination rituals that have often been seen in architectural construction.
Offerings
Agricultural products are common offerings in caves. Modern Maya believe that maizeMaize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
originated beneath the earth, an idea perhaps expressed by Classic depictions of the Maize God
Maya maize god
Like other Mesoamerican peoples, the traditional Mayas recognize in their staple crop, the maize, a vital force with which they strongly identify. This is clearly shown by their mythological traditions. According to the 16th-century Popol Vuh, the Hero Twins have maize plants for alter egos and man...
emerging from the underworld. This belief gives caves life-giving power as accounts from the Popul Vuh indicate that humans were made from maize dough. Domesticated plants found in lowland caves were probably used in rituals performed for deities related to agricultural fertility. Use of agricultural products in agricultural rituals continues amongst the contemporary Maya.
Jade
Jade use in Mesoamerica
Jade use in Mesoamerica was largely influenced by the conceptualization of the material as a rare and valued commodity among pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Olmec, the Maya, and the various groups in the Valley of Mexico. The only source from which the indigenous cultures could...
is a frequent cave offering. The largest amount of jade found at one site is at the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Municipality of Tinúm, Yucatán state, present-day Mexico....
. Metal was a common offering during the Postclassic, the largest collections coming from the Cenote of Sacrifice and "bell" caves in western Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. It is possible that the notion of the Earth Lord having lots of wealth in his cave may have come from this tradition.
Burials
It appears that eliteElite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
cave burial was rare, but it is possible that common people may have used caves as burial places for their dead such as at the Caves Branch Rock Shelter in Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
. Lineage founders have also been buried in caves. Elites were able to build their own elaborate burial "caves" and by doing so reinforced their power and status. It seems elites tried to make their tombs look like natural caves. Stalactites found at Tomb 2 of Nim Li Punit
Nim Li Punit
Nim Li Punit, is a Maya Classic Period site in the Toledo District of the nation of Belize, located 40 kilometres north of the town of Punta Gorda, at 16° 19' N, 88° 47' 60W...
provide an example of this.
See also
Some Maya cave sites:- Actun Tunichil MuknalActun Tunichil Muknalthumb|200px|The Crystal Maiden.Actun Tunichil Muknal is a cave in Belize, near San Ignacio, Cayo District, notable as a Maya archaeological site that includes skeletons, ceramics, and stoneware. There are several areas of skeletal remains in the main chamber...
- Jolja'Jolja'Jolja is an archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in the Chiapas highlands of central southern Mexico. Also known as Cueva de Jolja' in Spanish, the site is a cave which contains a painted mural and a number of inscriptions in the Maya script which date back to the...
- JuxtlahuacaJuxtlahuacaJuxtlahuaca is a cave and archaeological site in the Mexican state of Guerrero containing murals linked to the Olmec motifs and iconography. Along with the nearby Oxtotitlán cave, Juxtlahuaca walls contain the earliest sophisticated painted art known in Mesoamerica, and only known example of...
- Loltun CaveLoltun CaveLoltun Cave is a cave in the Yucatán, approximately south of Oxkutzcab. The cave contains paintings attributed to the Maya civilization from the Late Preclassic Era or even older...
- Ndaxagua
- OxtotitlánOxtotitlánOxtotitlán is the name of a natural rock shelter and archaeological site in Chilapa de Álvarez, Mexican state of Guerrero that contains murals linked to the Olmec motifs and iconography. Along with the nearby Juxtlahuaca cave, the Oxtotitlán rock paintings represent the "earliest sophisticated...