The Jolja’ Cave Project

The 2001 Jolja’ Cave Project Field Season

In January of 2001, Karen Bassie met with Antrop. Héctor Álvarez Santiago (the Director del Centro INAH-Chiapas) to discuss the goals of the project. Other subjects that were addressed were Joloniel community concerns about development, conservation issues and future archaeological work at Jolja’.

Through the assistance of Susanna Ekholm (a Na Bolom board member), the Jolja’ negatives made by Blom were examined, and reprints of the suitable negatives were subsequently ordered from the museum. Two of the Jolja’ paintings photographed by Blom have been destroyed by humans, and Blom’s negatives are the only known records of these texts. An important future project should be to digitize and enhance the Blom negatives.

Fieldwork was conducted in January and March of 2001 by Karen Bassie, Robert Laughlin, Christina Halperin, Ausencio Cruz Guzmán and Jorge Pérez de Lara at Jolja’, Joloniel, Tumbalá, Actiepa Yochib, Mariscal Subikuski, the Tulijá Valley and the north and west slopes of Cerro Norte.

INAH archaeologist Andrés Brizuela Casimir and the project members met several times with the Joloniel community to explain our project and answer any community questions or concerns. While working in the caves, community members accompanied project members at all times in order to keep the community fully informed.

GPS readings could only be obtained for Cave #2 because of the steep nature and heavy foliage of the river gorge (N 17 20.916’ W92 19.509’). Cave #1 is located approximately 30 m to the east.

To document the context of the paintings, the main passageway of Cave #1 was mapped with a tape and transit compass at a 1:500 m scale.

The walls of Cave #1 were examined for evidence of additional paintings. The project located, measured and photographed a total of seven groups of paintings, including three previously unpublished paintings. Preliminary, composite drawings have been made from the various images that were produced.

Interviews with Ch’ol Maya on the history, mythology and use of the caves were recorded on both digital audio disks and video tape. Interview tapes were translated from Ch’ol Maya into Spanish and English.

A planned trip to the Cerro Norte Cave was postponed after several members of the Actiepa Yochib community expressed concerns over allowing outsiders to visit the cave. Two incidents that occurred over fifty years ago have made the community of Actiepa Yochib reluctant to grant outsiders permission to visit the cave. The oral traditions about these events are not completely consistent but the general consensus is that several individuals from the La Trinidad area in the extreme east end of El Limar Valley visited the Cerro Norte Cave sometime during the mid-fifties. These men removed several idols that the locals believed were capable of producing rain. Some time later, Protestant villagers from the Tulijá Valley poured gasoline in the mouth of the cave and set it on fire in an attempt to stop what they considered pagan practices. It is the belief of the Actiepa Yochib community that the direct result of these actions was a marked reduction in the local harvests. Fear of further desecration of their ritual site is a valid concern for the community. Although we were unable to visit the cave, we were able to obtain significant data about its location and the rituals performed there. While investigating the Ch’ol communities on the north and west slopes of Cerro Norte, the project also encountered the pre-Columbian site of Miraflores, and subsequently escorted INAH regional director Juan Antonio Ferrer to this location.

In May 2001, Karen Bassie, Ausencio Cruz Guzmán and Alonso Méndez attended the Day of the Cross ceremonies at Jolja’. The event was recorded using digital audio disks and video tape. Further interviews on the history and mythology of Jolja’ were also conducted.

In April 2001, our preliminary project findings were presented at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in New Orleans (Zender, Bassie and Pérez de Lara 2001). In November, Laughlin and Bassie (2001) presented a paper on the sacred nature of Jolja’ at the Thirty-fourth Annual Chac Mool Conference held at the University of Calgary.

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