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INTRODUCTION
Chultunes (underground pits carved into bedrock; Figures 1a-1b) are relatively simple creations when compared to the plethora of majestic monumental architecture created by the ancient Maya. However, these ubiquitous subterranean constructed features remain a mystery and have long fascinated archaeologists. Chultunes were used from the Middle Preclassic into the Late Classic period, between 1000 b.c. and a.d. 850, and are most common in the Yucatán peninsula (northern Maya lowlands). They are also present in the southern Maya lowlands in the region of Petén, Guatemala, and Belize (Calderon and Hermes 2005; Dunning 1992; Scarborough et al. 1995; Smyth et al. 1998). Although subterranean chambers (known as botellones or bell-shaped pits) have also been reported in the Maya highlands, El Salvador, and highland Mexico (Marroquin 2006; Winter 1976), the focus here is on chultunes identified in the southern Maya lowlands.
Figure 1.
(a) Mouth of the chultun; (b) view from inside a one-chambered chultun, looking towards the entrance. Photographs by the author taken at El Perú.
[Figure Omitted; See PDF]What makes these features appealing is their functional, not architectural, complexity and their possible meaning to the ancient inhabitants of this region. As modern-day Maya do not use chultunes (Puleston 1965), archaeologists have to rely on excavations and historic records to piece together possible functions and meaning. Archaeologically speaking, hundreds of chultunes have been located but not all have been excavated. The debate on their principal use continues to this day, with a range of hypotheses proposed since their discovery. Due to the lack of solid data to support one hypothesis versus another, scholars have reached a point where it has become simpler to argue that they were multi-purpose (Pinto and Acevedo 1993) with their function changing through time (Clark and Bryant 1997). Thus, no real consensus on the primary function of chultunes exists. In turn, because chultunes have not yielded solid data to answer the questions posed by Maya archeologists, they are not always excavated or reported in detail (Aylesworth 1993). Yet, the variability in their shape, size, associated cultural materials, and their frequency on the landscape justifies further in-depth investigations.
This article presents new data on chultunes from excavations at La Corona...