User:Rbhusari/Maya cave sites

Maya caves are associated with the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Certain beliefs and observances connected with these caves are also maintained among some contemporary Maya peoples. These caves served religious rather than utilitarian purposes; thus, cave studies of archaeological artifacts, combined with epigraphic, iconographic, and ethnographic studies, can inform understanding of Maya religion and society.

Maya caves attracted robbers and invaders during the war, so the entrances to some of them were walled up. James Brady, widely considered to have founded the discipline of Mesoamerican cave archaeology, has lead topographic surveys of immured caves of Dos Pilas and Naj Tunich).

Study
The total number of Maya caves located in the Puuc region of Yucatan is more than 2000, most of which are not open. Of the 2000 caves in this region, more than 300 are registered by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). The INAH leads two projects to study Maya caves: Caves: Register of Prehispanic Cultures Evidence in Puuc Region established in 1997, and El Culto al Cenote en el Centro de Yucatan.

In works compiled for the fight against idolatry, 16th-century Spanish sources mentioned 17 Maya caves and cenotes, of which nine have been found. In Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, friar Diego de Landa described the Sacred Cenote.

Underground Maya archaeology began in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2008, a Mayan underground complex of eleven temples, 100-meter stone roads, and a flooded labyrinth of caves was found on the Yucatan Peninsula.

The most famous caves are Balankanche, Loltun Cave, Actun Tunichil Muknal, and Jolja'.

Associations with writing
The symbol representing a cave in Maya writing is unknown. According to James Brady, a cave is represented in the Mayan texts as "sign entry" or "impinged bone element" (see figure), and is read as CH'EN or CH'EEN. As proof of his hypothesis, James Brady cites three arguments:

1) Semantically, the sign denotes a certain place in which one can enter, sit down, or do a burial.

2) Visually, the sign shares features with symbols of death, the underworld, and bats.

3) Phonetically, the sign ends in a consonant "N". In Mayan written language, this sign is part of the verb "OCH-WITZ" ("Go inside the Mountain").

Association with settlement
A desire to be near the sacred influenced Mesoamerican settlement. In Mesoamerican creation myths, water was associated with fertility. Caves had flowing water from mountains, making these natural features sacred and were sought out by Mesoamerican migrants looking for new homes. A cave was considered an axis mundi if it was located in the centre of a village. The Late Postclassic site of Mayapan incorporated several cenotes into ceremonial groups, and the Cenote Ch’en Mul is at the heart of the site. At Dos Pilas, house platforms were often in front of cave entries and cave tunnels stretched beneath the platform.

Architectural landscapes and themes
Artificial landscapes often mimicked sacred landscapes. Doorways of temples resembled cave entrances to mountains; sometimes, they were carved to resemble monster mouths. The same was true for the Aztecs, who designed an artificial cave according to the mythical seven-chamber cave of emergence, Chicomoztoc, at Utatlán and Teotihuacan. At Muklebal Tzul, an artificial well was made to appear like a water-bearing cave.

Entrances to the Underworld
In Maya mythology, caves are gateways to the watery Maya underworld, Xibalba. For Mesoamerican groups, including the Maya, life and death occur at liminal zones between the world and the underworld. Caves are associated with life and death; emerging from the underworld is life, and descending into the underworld is death. The Maya believed that humans, the sun, and the moon were born from the underworld.