Chen K’u: The Ceramic of the Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá
Study of the Ceramic Fragments of the Explorations Conducted in the 60’s

The Hocabá and Tases Horizons (1150 - 1450 CE)

In view of the difficulty in establishing a distinction between the unslipped wares of the Middle and Late Postclassic periods (Hocabá and Tases Complexes), the endless repetition of forms during both periods and the absence of stratigraphy in the materials recovered by E. Thompson, Ball (1992) proposes to consider both Complexes as a Chen K’u Sub-complex, with unslipped cajetes frequently covered with Maya blue paint, as well as anthropomorphic censers with pedestals, all of which served an eminently ritual function: that of burning incense. Occasionally, shell and jade beads were inlaid in this incense or copal, a custom that originated at least with the Sotuta Complex, as evidenced in Sacbé 1.

On the other hand, the abundance of this Postclassic ceramic induces Coggins to suggest a Postclassical Cult of the Cenote where these cajetes and censers would have been cast as offerings.

In our analysis we have attempted to make the best possible distinction between the Hocabá and the Tases complexes, although in the unslipped ware most sherds are assumed to correspond to the latter, for which, Tases is probably over-represented.

Hocabá Ceramics

6,050 sherds were assigned to the Hocabá Horizon, representing 8.4% of the total collection, a percentage that is consistent with the average of this complex at the site.

Unslipped wares include pitchers of the Yacman Striated type. The percentage of this unslipped ware is low because, as previously mentioned above, given the impossibility of distinguishing between them, all the unslipped cajetes were included in the next period.

The Mama Red ware with 4,098 sherds is the most significant of this complex, and it primarily appears in the form of small tripod cajetes, with solid supports, as well as middle-sized cajetes with solid or hollow supports.

Regarding the Peto Cream group, which was considered to be absent from the Cenote (Coggins, 1992), is well represented with 1,867 sherds, mostly in the form of pitchers of the Xcanchakán Black-on-Cream type.

In sum, the Middle Postclassic reveals, as its major forms, the pitchers for carrying water, the tripod cajetes and the incense burners for copal offerings. The Hocabá era would witness the transition from an institutionalized cult at the Cenote, with the use of fine and imported wares, to a more popular cult characterized by coarse wares.

Tases Ceramics

Eleven ceramic types of the Tases Horizon have been identified, amounting to a total of 37,871 fragments which comprise 53.1% of the collection. If we add to this the 8.4% from Hocabá, the percentage obtained is 61.5%, for Ball’s Chen K’u sub-complex. In Tases, the major group is formed by the unslipped Panabá ware, which is mostly present in the form of tripod cajetes for copal offerings, with a variety of a similar shape that shows a brown wash. The Huhí Impressed and Thul Appliqué censers are common. The anthropomorphic Chen Mul censers are under-represented, possibly as a result of having been pre-selected by the cataloguers. Photos of vessels of this type have been published, as shown in the figure below, but their actual origin is unknown.

Click on image to enlarge

The Panabchén group includes mostly tripod cajetes of the Mama type in the variety that shows no exterior slip. Lastly, the Tecoh Red-on-Bay (Rojo sobre Bayo) type is represented by 43 sherds.

The Functionality of the Sacred Cenote during the Middle and Late Postclassic Periods

The abundance of Postclassic ceramics and other objects considered of late origin, has led Coggins to posit a Postclassic Cult for the Cenote where these cajetes and censers were cast inside as offerings. However, it is highly probable that the vessels of the Middle and Late Postclassic periods were cast into the Cenote by Diego de Landa and not by the prehispanic Maya, and therefore this "cult" would be, actually, Landa’s act of destruction (Pérez de Heredia and Victoria, 1995).

Friar Diego de Landa, in his Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán, describes the masonry structure built at the edge of the Cenote (known today as the Steam Bath), as a "small building where I found idols to honor all the major gods of the earth, almost like in the Roman Pantheon. I do not know whether this was an ancient invention or whether it came from the modern people, to see their idols when they went to that well with offerings. I have found full-figure carved lions, pitchers and other things…" (1986: 114).

The friar refrained from mentioning that he cast the idols, vessels and sculptures into the Cenote during the purifying act he conducted probably in 1558, when during a visit he made to the villages located in the vicinities of Valladolid, he discovered huge "trickeries and idolatries", and severely admonished the most important Indian lords of those places. It is rather logical to assume that seeing such a degree of idolatry displayed at the Cenote of Chichén Itzá, Diego de Landa destroyed this "Maya Pantheon" through the most simple and expeditious way: by casting all those "evil" objects to the bottom of the well. This destruction of idols at the Sacred Cenote took place four years before the famous ’Auto da Fe’ (Act of Faith) of Maní. Diego de Landa’s visit to the Sacred Cenote was not accidental but a part of a plan designed to destroy the major centers of the ancient religion. Landa was aware of the fact that the indigenous felt for Chichén Itzá and its Sacred Well "a veneration just like ours for the pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome" (1986: 48), and could therefore anticipate the effect that such a blow would have on the morale of the pagan, bellicose and rebel Mayas from Northern Yucatán.

The huge amount of Postclassic ceramic fragments should not be overlooked. We have at least one hundred and fifty vessels of the Middle and Late Postclassic periods, plus 33,900 fragments from the same time frame. If all this evidence was present around the area of the Steam Bath, then this building and the adjacent platform must have been virtually covered with pieces, and therefore the description of the Pantheon by Landa would gain veracity. This is true even leaving aside the fact that the fragments Thompson excavated must have been mostly from the Postclassic period.

How many vessels could 33,900 sherds represent? If we accept an average of 100 sherds per vessel we obtain 330, which, together with the complete vessels, would yield a number close to the 500 vessels. And should Thompson have excavated a similar amount of sherds, we would be talking of some 800 vessels. This would be the approximate number Landa observed at the edge of the Cenote.

The Steam Bath, as well as the adjacent platform, were excavated during the explorations conducted in the 60’s. The materials found there were scarce and do not reflect the Pantheon described by Landa. Later, someone, between Landa’s visits and the excavations of the XX century, must have cast them into the Cenote, and the most obvious suspect in this case would be precisely, Landa.

Moreover, a similar action of throwing idols away into the Cenote is documented. This was made by Bishop Gregorio Montalvo, Landa’s successor, in 1583 in the village of Tizminac. Sánchez de Aguilar, an agent and witness of this destruction admits that "… with my own hands I broke the idols, I trampled on them, and following his orders (the bishop’s) the remains were cast into the lake" (Destruction of idols by the Bishop, in Sánchez de Aguilar, 1987:32). Therefore, the Postclassic vessels from the Cenote were not cast there by the Maya. This does not deny that during the Middle and Late Postclassic periods there was a cult going on at the Cenote, given that all those ceremonial vessels were located at the edge of the Cenote.

The question then is whether the Middle and Late Postclassic cult is similar to the cult to the Cenote during the Sotuta horizon, when as we have seen, Quetzalcóatl was the venerated deity. The Hocabá and Tases ceramic and the non-ceramic materials from those times do not show representations of the feathered serpent. Furthermore, at the beginning of the XIX century the local inhabitants thought that the Cenote was propitious for presenting offerings to Chaac, the rain god. Therefore, the Postclassic cult of the Cenote may have been related to rain petitioning ceremonies or simply to the veneration of ancestors. In those ceremonies, vessels were not cast to the depths of the Cenote, but instead, offerings were deposited on its margins.

Click on image to enlarge

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