cf-apps786
I introduce a lecture while working on my current video. Audio is not perfect. Holley Moyes from UC Merced talks about her over 2 decade research on Maya cave sites in the Belize region including the remains known as the "Crystal Maiden". The sites of Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) and Chechem Ha Cave are featured. Links below. RITUAL CAVES OF THE ANCIENT MAYA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4NwA... European Association of Archaeologists channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIW... https://belizing.com/ATM-Cave-Belize/ https://twitter.com/ucmerced/status/6... Throughout ancient Mesoamerica the natural landscape played a prominent part in religious thought and action. Mountains, caves, waterholes, ravines, boulders, and trees were fundamental in shaping ancient cosmologies, grounding supernatural realms in real-world environments, and linking mythic realms to natural features. Research based on ethnography, ethnohistory, and ancient iconography demonstrates that both natural and man-made caves, particularly those that contain life-giving water, were thought of as sacred cosmological features. They were considered to be entrances to the underworld and the home of deities associated with fertility, rain, and the sacred earth. This helps explain why natural caves were and continue to be used exclusively as ritual spaces among indigenous people today. Cave sites provide archaeologists with an unambiguous context to study ritual and religion in the deep past. Archaeological work in Belize sheds light on how these sites were employed in ritual practice by ancient Maya people. My work over the last 20 years demonstrates that caves were used as a path to power by ancient Maya leaders to link themselves to cosmological forces, ideologically (or quite literally) by coopting the natural landscape via cave ritual or by creating artificial caves in their architectural constructions. In this paper I will demonstrate that cave rites proliferated in the turbulent Late Classic period as a megadrought descended on the lowlands destabilizing the local political systems. I argue that this ritual response not only served as a ritual technology to inducerain, but also as a stabilizing force to promote social solidarity in a time of duress. #ancienthistory #archaeology #Maya #Caves #ritual #RainGod #ancientAmcierica #history #lecture #HooleyMoyes #UCMerced #artifacts #pyramids #underworld #Belize #CrystalMaiden