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FAMSI © 2008: Eduardo J. Pérez de Heredia Puente |
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Chen K’u: The Ceramic of the Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá A Brief History of the Explorations at the Cenote
The history of the explorations at the Cenote began very far from Yucatán, with the discovery of a copy of Diego de Landa’s manuscript by Brasseur de Bourbourg in 1862 in Madrid, who publishes it in 1883. This publication was of crucial importance for the future development of Maya archaeology, while it simultaneously drew the attention of scholars to Chichén Itzá. Written around 1560 in Spain by the man who would become bishop of Yucatán, the document refers to the possibility that the Sacred Cenote could contain valuable treasures:
This paragraph excited the imagination of adventurers. The first one to attempt the removal of objects from the Cenote was the Frenchman Desiré Charnay (1887: 358), who apparently explored the bottom in 1882 using two automatic probing Toselli machines, but abandoned his effort without having obtained any results (see Folan, 1968). Edward Thompson was the first to pull out (literally) objects from the Cenote. After a twelve-year long stay in Yucatán, he had been appointed General Consul of the United States in Yucatán, and in 1894 he bought a rural Chichén farm owned by Delio Moreno Cantón, Leopoldo Cantón Freixas and Emilio García Fajardo, which included a large part of the archaeological site of Chichén Itzá, for an amount of 200 pesos. To explore the Cenote, he used the dredging technique from 1904 to 1907, with Stephen Salisbury and Charles P. Bodwitch as its major promoters. According to Tozzer, a pole crane 20 feet high was erected together with a 30 feet long crane boom at the east of the Steam Bath, while the dredge was a Harwood 1 with the shape of an orange skin (1957:195). This is still stored at the Site Museum in Chichén Itzá. Likewise, a small platform was built at the edge of the water surface, and one raft.
Later, in 1909, he began to conduct underwater explorations with diving suits, for which purpose he hired a Greek diver. In 1911 he abandoned the exploration. Some of his materials were sent to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, and to the Field Museum in Chicago. The material sent included a significant number of complete vessels. Another portion was left behind at the Hacienda Chichén, and was irreparablely lost during a fire that took place sometime in the twenties. Among the lost materials was the collection of ceramic fragments.
The German archaeologist Teobert Mahler filed a charge against Thompson before the Department of Public Education, initiating a lawsuit for theft against the nation. Following a legal battle with the authorities, México’s Supreme Court of Justice ruled in 1944 in favor of Edward Thompson. Once the legality of the collections was established, specialized studies of some of the materials began to be published, and finally, in 1992, the complete catalog of Thompson’s "treasures" was published (Coggins, comp. 1992). After several decades during which no further attempts were made to continue exploring the Sacred Cenote, with the exception of the excavation plans designed by Cirerol Sansores (1935), Acosta (1954), and Espejo Evia (1954), which never took place, in 1954 the Frogman Club of Mexico organized an expedition that yielded almost no results due to the poor visibility of its waters. In short, Thompson’s exploration, besides proving that the Sacred Cenote contained valuable pre-Hispanic objects, generated a heated controversy and major criticisms regarding the method used for extraction, and the destination of some pieces outside México created a feeling among many Mexicans of having their heritage plundered. Even in current times, many Mexicans remember with animosity the explorations conducted by Thompson. In December, 1959, and on the occasion of the 58th Congress of American Anthropologists, the Peabody Museum returned to the Mexican State ninety-four gold pieces as a subsequent gesture of good will. Exploration by Piña Chan and Folan Early in the decade of the 1960’s the exploration by the National Institute of Anthropology and History was initiated under the direction of archaeologist Román Piña Chan. It was comprised of two different phases. During the first phase, from January 12 to March 31, 1961, the dredging by suction ("air lift") technique was implemented and diving. The air lift, overseen by Norman Scott, consisted of a compressor placed on a floating platform, with a suction tube measuring 24 cm in diameter and a hose through which the compressor injected air at the bottom of the Cenote. A vacuum is created through the mouth of the tube and forces everything it finds upwards. The contents were deposited on the raft at the surface to be further analyzed.
This technique was put aside because the stones that covered the bottom of the Cenote limited its efficacy as well as that of the divers, and because the fragile objects and the human bones broke as they passed through the tube (Folan, 1967: 42). However, the experience gained allowed Folan (1967) to delineate a plan to desiccate the Cenote, which was to be undertaken later on. The second phase, when the water level was lowered by nearly four meters, was conducted from September 1967 to April 1968 (Piña Chan, 1970). Given the complexity of this project, the archaeologists Román Piña Chan and William Folan, among others, worked in collaboration with different institutions, technicians, businessmen, divers and adventurers, particularly Pablo Bush Romero and the Exploration and Aquatic Sports Club of México (CEDAM - Club de Exploraciones y Deportes Acuáticos de México), Norman Scott, Kirk Johnson, and companies such as Dow Chemical, Purex Corporation, the Mayaland Hotel, Barbachano Tours, etc. Piña Chan states that "when the water level was lowered, a large portion of the lime contour of the Cenote became visible, particularly on its west side, where Thompson had created a small peninsula from where to work, and this portion was explored by using the same techniques used in an excavation on plain land" (Piña Chan, 1970: 25, 28).
However, the information obtained from this area was poor, as it was mainly the product of the mud discarded by Thompson. Air lift and divers were used again to stratigraphically explore the area below the steam bath (sections S11 to S16). The water, having recovered its usual level once pumping had ceased, was clarified with a variety of substances and provided a visibility of nearly 10 meters down.
As to the technique applied, Piña Chan stated that: "because the collapsed area affected the shape of a half sloping mound, we planned to gradually cut it in horizontal sections" (ibid. 1970: 28). Three layers were described by this archaeologist:
Upon reaching this layer, and as a consequence of budgetary restraints, it was decided to conclude the exploration, even though the next deposit had been probed, where similar materials were rescued corresponding mostly to the late Classic Horizon (Piña Chan 1970: 38). The building of the steam bath and the adjacent platform on the south side of the Cenote were also excavated and restored during this exploration. After these works, no further attempts of archaeological survey were undertaken in this Cenote. Even though some studies of materials have been published, the set remains mainly unstudied. The present study represents an attempt to correct this situation.
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