Rites in the Underworld: Caves as Sacred Space in Mesoamerica

Much of Mesoamerica sits on Cretaceous limestone that was once underwater. Both large and small holes are created in this relatively soft limestone by underground rivers or dissolution cavities that are uncovered as the water table falls revealing literally thousands of caves in this area. When we think of caves, most westerners immediately conjure images of the cave man living in his cozy stone house, but archaeological research shows that ancient people never lived in dark caves, but instead inhabited rock shelters or camped in cave entrances (Moyes 2013). Deep dark caves have always been reserved as sacred precincts for special rites and rituals, or as places to bury the honored dead. Nowhere is this better demonstrated that in the cultures of Mesoamerica where caves play important roles in both religious rites and political ceremonies (Moyes and Brady 2013).

Pic 1: In Mexica legend, after leaving Aztlán, the face of Huitizilopochtli appears (right) inside a hummingbird mask, surrounded by spruce tree branches, within a sacred cave at the heart of Colhuacan mountain - ‘place of ancestors’

Research over the last 40 years has provided insights as to how ancient people used caves and the role they played in ancient societies. The earliest known depiction of a cave comes from the El Rey monument located at Chalcatzingo, an Olmec-related site north of what is now Mexico City. The monument is a huge bas-relief design carved into a large boulder situated on a mountainside. In the carving, a personage, possibly a religious leader, ruler, or ancestor wearing an elaborate headdress is shown sitting inside of a cave on a throne or bench that has a symbol for a cloud inscribed on it. In his arms is an object resembling a ceremonial bar that is also marked with a cloud symbol. Mist or smoke emanates from the cave, as plants and vegetation spring up around the entrance and clouds rain on the scene (Angulo 1987:133-158; Grove and Gillespie 1984:32-33; Reilly 1994:78-79, 1995) (pic 3). This rich image suggests that important leaders go to caves to create clouds that provide rain necessary for agricultural fertility. In other words, these leaders are rain makers and cave rites are an important part of this enterprise.

Pic 3: Illustration from a painted Late Classic vase depicting Chac, the rain god sitting in his cave/house drawn like a building in profile. (After Stone 1995: Fig. 3-1, adapted from Coe 1978:78, no.11)

It is therefore not surprising to find that throughout Mesoamerica rain deities such the Zapotec Cocijo, the Central Mexican Tlaloc (Miller and Taube 1997:184), and the Maya rain deity Chac are thought to dwell in caves (Bassie-Sweet 1991, 1996; Brady 1989; Stone 1995). We see this in ancient Maya depictions such as that on a Late Classic period vessel (AD 700-900) that illustrates Chac sitting in his cave house (pic 5).

Pic 5: El Rey monument is a bas relief illustrating an important person sitting within a cave. Clouds rain on top of the cave and plants are shown growing on the surface (after Reilly 1994:85)

The traditional underworld was considered a fearsome and dreaded place named Mictlan by the Aztec, and Xibalba or “place of fright” by the K’iche’ Maya, and was the place through which all souls, save those killed violently (for example victims of warfare), were required to journey after death. At the time of the Spanish conquest, most Central Mexican people conceived of the underworld as consisting of nine levels (Miller and Taube 1997:177). The most detailed pictographic description of the underworld is in the Aztec Codex Vaticanus A in which the first layer is part of the inhabitable earth. Layers continue downward, descending into the passage of waters, followed by the entrance to mountains, hill of obsidian knives, place of frozen winds, place where the flags tremble, place where people are flayed, place where the hearts of people are devoured, and finally to the ninth layer, referred to as Mictlan Opochcalocan, where the dead lie in eternal darkness (Aguilar-Moreno 2007:139; See also Berdan 2005:130) (pic 7). As Miller and Taube noted (1997:177), these layers are reminiscent of the torture “houses” that the Hero Twins must endure in the Maya Popol Vuh story, an ethnohistoric account of the Maya creation myth (See Christenson 2007; Tedlock 1996). In the story, the underworld was inhabited by the Lords of the Underworld, who were denizens of death, disease, and violence that prayed on human frailty. In the story, pairs of Hero Twins traveled deep into the underworld to encounter the evil lords, navigating the rivers and trails that lead to the lowest levels. Journeys to caves likely to have mimicked those of the mythological Hero Twins and were considered transformative rites of passage.

Pic 7: (L) The nine underworlds, based on the Codex Vaticanus A and (R) Mictecacíhuatl (Lady of the Underworld) based on the Codex Fejérvary-Mayer: illustrations by Miguel Covarrubias

Archaeologists find evidence of ancient ritual use in caves throughout Mesoamerica (Brady and Peterson 2005). Cave sites contain pottery, groundstone artifacts such as manos, metates, and celts, marine and freshwater shell, lithics, animal bone, plant remains, copal incense, personal ornaments such as jewelry, and in some cases well-preserved cloth (Schwaben et al. 2004). Most Maya cave artifacts are broken objects that are smashed or “killed” by making a hole or breaking off a piece. Breakage may occur either inside or outside of caves. Studies show that when objects are broken inside of caves, pieces are carried out and possibly employed in other ceremonies or curated (pic 9; Brady 1989:86; Moyes 2006:73-75). Some light may be shed on this practice by turning to the Maya creation myth as told in the Popol Vuh. At the end of the story, the triumphant Hero Twins threaten to kill the people of the underworld, but instead decide to spare their lives and chastise them by limiting the offerings that were able to receive from humans. The punishment was that offerings could only consist of “... scabrous nodules of sap ...; just griddles, just gourds, just brittle things broken to pieces” (Tedlock 1996:138). Bearing these words in mind, it should come as no surprise that offerings left for deities in an underworld setting such as a cave, should be fragmentary.

Pic 9: Broken pottery from Cormorant Cave, Belize (photo by author, courtesy of the Belize Cave Research Project)

While the Las Cuevas site was built over a natural cave, man-made ones were sometimes constructed in their absence. This is particularly common in highland Guatemala where one of the best examples is at the site of Utatlan, where three constructed caves run beneath the ancient city (Brady and Veni 1992). At the site of Teotihuacan in central Mexico, a cave was constructed beneath the massive Pyramid of the Sun (Heyden 1975) (pic 11). The construction contained lobes that resembled the seven-lobed cave of Chicomostoc, the mythological place of human emergence of the Aztec, who believed that each lobe of the cave gave rise to a different ethnic group.

Pic 11: Schematic drawing (after Doris Heyden, 1975) illustrates the placement of the cave beneath the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico (Moyes and Brady 2005)

In conclusion, research on ancient Mesoamerican caves has demonstrated that they were important sacred spaces that housed powerful deities that could help or hinder human enterprise. Their associations with the sacred earth as well as the underworld made them important places to conduct rituals associated with rainmaking and agricultural fertility. They contained life-giving powers and were considered to be mythological places of origin that gave rise to both humans and their sustenance. Caves were also a vital component of sacred geography consisting of a mountain/cave/water complex. Those containing water were especially favored because cave water was considered pure and untouched. As places of power, it is no surprise that rites conducted within caves were used to sanction place and legitimate the power of elites. Rituals conducted in caves were particularly powerful because they invoked the power of the earth and underworld (pic 13).

Pic 13: Watery entrance of Actun Tunichil Muknal (Cave of the Crystal Sepulcher), Cayo District, Belize