[Aztlan] Bajos and Sailing - Celestun, Muyil, & Xcaret

[Clifford T. Brown]

If I'm not mistaken, Walter Witschey investigated the canal connecting the
Muyil to the Chunyaxche lagoon pretty closely (including scuba diving) but
was unable to prove that it was artificial.

He also showed that the main sacbe at the site led to the edge of the
nearest lagoon, where I think there was a temple. I don't recall a dock
facility, but you can check his web site where you will find parts of his
dissertation posted.

http://muyil.smv.org/

Cliff

Clifford T. Brown
Assistant Professor
Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431
(561) 297-3232
ctbrown at fau.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
On Behalf Of Bruce Rogers
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 3:37 PM
To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Subject: [Aztlan] Bajos and Sailing - Celestun, Muyil, & Xcaret

Listeros,

I have a small comment in addition to Ron Cantor's post about the 
western edge of the Yukatan and nautical features found there.  Last 
year we went on a day-long boating venture in the Celestun Flamingo 
National Park area.

Near the southeast edge of the Bay of Campeche mouth of the inlet, we 
were shown the remains of a very badly washed limestone block boat 
dock.  The Park guide opted that it was very old and was one of a 
series of docks and such used for ancient Maya boat trade along the 
coast.

At an adjacent stop in a section of coast side forest now killed by 
rising sea water in the same area we found scads of pottery shards 
and such.  At this site we also found what looked like a badly washed 
and disrupted stone quay extending from beneath the inlet's waters 
that extended inland to what appeared to be remnants of a stone 
walkway(?) extending into the mangrove swamps.

FYI, the local usage of the term "peten" means a clump of taller 
trees in the under 10 m-high coastal mangrove forest and generally 
indicated a slightly higher land site.  The higher land would act as 
an island and would concentrate fresh water and allow taller, 
non-salt water tolerant trees a foothold.

In  addition to the well-known salt "shipping" artificial islands at 
Rio Lagartos, I also vaguely remember seeing what appeared to be 
collapsed remnants of limestone block docks(?) in the Muyil and 
Xcaret  caleta areas at the Carib coast on trips there in the early 
1990's.

Cheers,
Bryue Rogers, earth scientist on a good day
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