Maya cave sites

Beliefs and observances connected with these cave sites persist among some contemporary Mayan communities.

For this reason, the artifacts found there, alongside the epigraphic, iconographic, and ethnographic studies, help build the modern-day understanding of the Mayan religion and society.

[1][failed verification] In works compiled for the fight against idolatry, 16th-century Spanish sources mentioned 17 Maya caves and cenotes - nine of which have been found.

[2] In 2008, archaeologists found a Mayan underground complex of 11 temples, 100-metre-long stone roads, and a flooded labyrinth of caves on the Yucatan Peninsula.

According to James Brady, a cave is represented as a "sign entry" or "impinged bone element" in the Mayan texts.

In Mayan written language, this sign is part of the verb "OCH-WITZ" ("Go inside the mountain").

[14] At Muklebal Tzul, an artificial well underneath a massive platform was made to appear like a water-bearing cave.

[15] In the Yucatan, many Late Postclassic temples had Spanish churches built on the top of them after the conquest, and caves and cenotes can still be found near these places today.

For Mesoamerican groups, including the Maya, life and death occur at liminal zones between this world and the underworld.

[27] 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.

It is noted that children had commonly been sacrificed in the Yucata,[31] child sacrifice was recorded in Highland Guatemala as well.

This belief gave caves life-giving power, as accounts from the Popul Vuh indicated 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.

Metal was a common offering during the Postclassic, with the largest collections coming from the Cenote of Sacrifice and "bell" caves in western Honduras.

Two tomb structures have been discovered in caves to date, one at Naj Tunich and the other at Quen Santo [sv],[37] both in Guatemala.