Exploring Maya Ritual Caves: Dark Secrets from the Maya Underworld

241 Pages·2011·19.039 MB·English

by  Stanislav Chládek

EXPLORING
MAYA RITUAL CAVES
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EXPLORING
MAYA RITUAL CAVES
Dark Secrets from the
Maya Underworld
Stanislav Chládek
A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Lanham (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
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Published by AltaMira Press
A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.altamirapress.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2011 by AltaMira Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and
retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a
reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chládek, Stanislav, 1937-
Exploring Maya ritual caves : dark secrets from the Maya underworld /
Stanislav Chládek.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7591-1987-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7591-1989-5
(electronic)
1. Mayas—Rites and ceremonies. 2. Mayas—Religion. 3. Mayas—
Antiquities. 4. Caves—Mexico—Religious aspects. 5. Caves—Central
America—Religious aspects. 6. Central America—Antiquities. 7. Mexico—
Description and travel. 8. Mexico—Description and travel. 9. Central
America—Description and travel. 10. Chládek, Stanislav, 1937—Travel.
I. Title.
F1435.3.R56C47 2011
972.8—dc22
2011001090
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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To my late parents,
who were always hoping that I would become
a little more than a bum . . .
I am sorry that it did not fully turn out that way . . .
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The cave, also means place of dead.
Our mothers, our fathers have gone;
They have gone to rest in the water, in the cave.
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún,
Florentine Codex (1578–1579)
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chronology 3
1 The Maya and Their World 5
2 Caves and the Maya 19
3 Journeys into the Underworld 101
Conclusion 189
Glossary 195
Notes 199
Bibliography 203
Index 213
About the Author 227
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Acknowledgments
I am particularly indebted to Dr. Dominique Rissolo, Waitt In-
stitute of Discovery, San Diego, California, for support and en-
couragement during my work on this project. Additionally, he
helped me arrange visits to several cave sites in Quintana Roo,
Mexico; provided me with photographs; identified several cave
ceramics mentioned in the text; and corrected the Maya orthog-
raphy in the manuscript.
In the field, my greatest help was Dr. Jamie Awe, director of
the Belize Institute of Archeology in Belmopan, who arranged
my visits to several normally inaccessible caves and ruins, and
allowed me to take photographs in the artifact collection of the
institute. Dr. Guillermo de Anda of the University of Yucatán,
Merida, was kind enough to take me to the newly discovered
Tzibichen Caves in Yucatán. Robert Schmittner of the Xibalba
Diving Center in Tulum, Quintana Roo, led me to remote ce-
notes with petroglyphs in the jungle. Dr. Karen Bassie-Sweet of
the University of Calgary, Alberta, arranged for me to visit the
otherwise closed Cueva de Jolja in Chiapas. Dr. Michael Smyth
of Rowlins College, Orlando, Florida, helped me arrange a visit
to remote Cueva Xcoch in western Yucatán and identified for
me ceramics that I found in the cave. Several colleagues, ar-
chaeologists, and friends provided me with images, and I am
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