A New Study of the Gruta de Chac, Yucatán, México

Conclusions

The excavation, survey, and related analyses at Chac now provide enough information to draw a number of preliminary conclusions regarding the relative importance of the cave and its surrounding settlement for understanding Puuc region prehistory. First, it is clear form our settlement data that the sites of Chac I and Chac II are one and the same. Chac II was one of the major early centers in the eastern Puuc sub-region dating to the Early and Middle Classic periods. Ceramic and radiocarbon dating indicate that the Gruta de Chac was contemporary with Chac II and that the cave was integral both substantively and symbolically to settlement buildup and evolving complexity in the Puuc region.

Many of the earliest settlements within the Puuc region are associated with permanent water sources. Of these sources in the region most are deep caves reaching the subterranean water table that in some cases exceed 100 m below solid limestone bedrock. It is interesting to find that other sites in the Puuc zone and beyond have yielded Chac Polychrome and to a lesser extant Chemax Slateware. Besides the Gruta de Chac, the caves at Kiuic and X-Kukican and the site of Oxkintoc of the Puuc zone as well as the cenote-cave at Maní and the Cenote Xlacah at Dzibilchaltún of northwestern Yucatán have all produced Chac Polychrome pottery. These places appear to have been the foci of a powerful water cult worshiping the ancient Maya rain gods (Chacs), a cult that must have evolved early in the settlement history of the Puuc region. In fact, during the Early Classic period, the Gruta de Chac may have been one of the most sacred places in Northern Yucatán, the abode of the powerful gods of life sustaining rainwater.

As Eric Thompson points out in his introduction to Mercer’s Hill Caves of Yucatán (1975:xli):

"….in ancient times this cave was primarily devoted to worship of the rain gods (Chacs), as its name implies: that it was chosen for that cult because the difficult approach would keep out women and other intruders; that these handsome and probably imported polychrome jars were for use in the cult and were replaced by less ostentatious jars at a later date; that at the end of given periods, the jars were ritually broken and their fragments piled up; and that if water for ordinary drinking purposes was taken from the pool, then it was probably brought up, as in Stephens’ day, in gourds, not in jars."

Thompson was challenging Andrews IV’s argument that the formation of the refuse heaps in the cave was produced by the accidental breakage of polychrome vessels transporting water out of the cave. This situation, Andrews IV (1965) argues, changed when someone about a thousand years ago had the bright idea of substituting heavy, breakable pottery with lighter, more portable gourds. Our conclusion follows Thompson’s interpretation which proposes that these beautiful polychrome jars were broken within the water cave as part of rituals related to the worship of the Maya rain gods. The fact that no Chac Polychrome has been found nearby the cave may be a product of limited sampling. The more likely scenario, however, is that these vessels were produced exclusively for cave ceremonies and that these elaborately painted water jars once brought into the cave were rarely removed; that is, offered ceremonially or ritually broken. This behavior better explains why there is so much broken pottery near the water source and why the Maya did nothing to prevent the buildup of refuse heaps in what was clearly one of their most sacred and holy places. In addition, the presence of substantial nonresidential architecture such as a plaza group, stone stelae, and a possible dance platform immediately adjacent to the cave entrance strongly support the sacrilized nature of the Gruta.

The specialized architecture around the cave including the large bare platform and open plaza area indicate that large numbers of people were accommodated. These observations support the idea that the cave site was a place for religious gatherings and may have been a site for pilgrimages, perhaps functioning not unlike the Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itzá during the Postclassic period. Indeed, the Gruta de Chac must have contributed significantly to the initial population buildup in this part of the Puuc region by supplying a secure water supply for pioneering settlers. During the Early-Middle Classic periods, large settlements appeared at Chac II and at about the same time ceremonial architecture grows up around the Gruta itself. These patterns suggest that access to the cave’s water supply became much more restricted and strictly controlled. The use of chultuns at Chac II beginning by the 4^th century A.D. (Table 1, Beta-98319), however, enabled widespread settlement away from permanent water sources making it possible to exploit the vicinity’s rich agricultural soils. It was at this time, we argue, that the Gruta became highly sacrilized and associated with a water cult worshiping the Chacs. This cult provided a powerful symbolic and perhaps institutional means for attracting settlers to the agricultural rich yet water-poor Puuc hills region.

Some of these early settlers must have become the founders of an emerging elite class whose substantive and symbolic control of a critical resource like water provided a politico-economic foundation for social stratification. The less fortunate settlers, of course, eventually became subjects under the political sway of an elite class. These and other conditions and circumstances such as foreign influence from as far way as Central México set into motion a complex process that would eventually lead to explosive Late-Terminal Classic growth and produce the region’s famous Maya cultural florescence. Whether this scenario will hold true in the future, of course, will require continued research and analysis at Gruta de Chac, Chac II, and vicinity.

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