The Archaeology of YucatÁn

Edited by Travis W. Stanton

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Xcoch: Home of Ancient Maya Rain Gods and Water Managers

Nicholas P. Dunning, Eric Weaver, Michael P. Smyth, and David Ortegón Zapata

“The water was in a deep, stony basin running under a shelf of overhanging rock…the sight of it was more welcome to us than gold or rubies.” (Stephens 1843:216)

So wrote the American explorer John Lloyd Stephens surfaces and along lines of weakness created by fracturing after following local guides through a series of tortuously has created a landscape with radically varying drainage narrow and descending passageways in a cave system at and surface characteristics (Dunning et al. 1998). Drainage the ancient ruins of Xcoch, Yucatán. The deep cave at across most of the lowlands is primarily subterranean. Xcoch is clearly a place of ancient magic. Its entrance is Across the northern karst plains of the Yucatán peninsula, a hole at the bottom of a – the “Xcoch Grotto” many breach the water table () providing – that yawns like the mouth of the Witz Monster of access to perennial water. In the elevated interior areas Maya cosmology. The hole leads into a series of long, of the peninsula (from the Puuc Hills south through the narrow, descending crawls punctuated by wider, higher Central Petén Karst Plateau) the depth to the permanent chambers. In each of these chambers are the visible groundwater table ranges from 30 to 200 m and is typically remains of countless ritual offerings. In the penultimate accessible only in rare, deep cave systems. For the most room before the deep water pool at the base of the cave part, the ancient inhabitants of the interior karst uplands system broken ceramic vessels are piled knee to waist high were dependent on the capture and storage of rainwater amidst deep middens of charcoal from thousands of burnt in order to survive the dry season. The inhabitants of offerings. The long-term ritual importance of this place different regions devised a variety of water capture and speaks for itself. Less clear is the exact role that the cave storage systems ranging from large urban reservoirs to may have played in the life of the ancient city that laid small household tanks and cisterns (Dunning et al. 2012; above it, although ongoing work at Xcoch is shedding Lucero 1999; Scarborough 1993; Weiss-Krejci and Sabbas considerable light on both the nature of the cave and its 2002). relationship with cultural features on the surface. Mapping and excavations at Xcoch have revealed that the cave was In the Puuc region, only a few deep caves are known to likely a vital ritual component in an elaborate system of penetrate the permanent water table (Dunning 1992; Mercer water management that included a number of prominent 1975). The most ubiquitous system of water management reservoirs. In this paper we examine the nature of water in the region was that of household cisterns or chultuns. management at Xcoch, including its evolution over time At some sites, particularly larger urban centers, natural and in the context of environmental and historical changes karst depressions were modified into reservoirs (aguadas), in the Puuc region (Figure 4.1). After brief reviews though these sites also employed chultuns as part of their of ancient Maya urban water management, the Maya water management strategies. The majority of Puuc sites lowlands environment and patterns of climate change, and with known aguadas have only one of these features. the chronology of Maya settlement in the Puuc region, we However, two are known for Nohpat, five for Tzemez discuss our current understanding of the roles of the cave, Akal, and thirteen for Uxmal (Dunning, n.d.). There are reservoirs, and chultuns in water management at Xcoch. at least three large aguadas known at Xcoch as well as Finally we discuss Xcoch as an early and important center several smaller ones. The central and varied role that these for both the pragmatic and symbolic manipulation of water features played in the life of Xcoch will be examined in in the Puuc region. greater detail below.

Water and Maya Urbanism Paleoclimatic Context

Access to an adequate and dependable water supply played Scholarly thought has varied concerning the role of an important role in ancient Maya settlement location environmental change over the course of choice (Scarborough 1993; Winemiller 2005). Two (Dunning and Beach 2004). It is now recognized that the fundamental physical geographical factors dominate the region’s environment has been dynamic over both long hydrology of the Maya lowlands: the karstic nature of most and short time scales. In the recent geologic past, the of the region and the highly seasonal nature of rainfall. The establishment of a generally warm, humid climate about pervasive December-May dry season leaves most areas of 10,000 years ago set the stage for human settlement on the lowlands seasonally parched. The varying intensity the peninsula. Even since the onset of the Holocene, of karst processes on either raised or lowered bedrock climate conditions have displayed significant variability,

65 The Archaeology of Yucatán

Figure 4.1: Map showing the location of Xcoch within the Puuc region. particularly with respect to effective rainfall (Brenner et al. as the “megadrought period” at the end of the Classic period. 2000; Hodell et al. 2005a). Evidence indicates that wetter Our own preliminary analysis of speleothems collected conditions in the mid-Holocene gave way to a general, from Vaca Perdida Cave in the Puuc region in 2010 (to be progressive drying trend beginning about 4,000 years ago reported on elsewhere) indicate that this region experienced (Mueller et al. 2009). For the latter Holocene, there are patterns of episodic aridity similar to other parts of the Maya indications that shorter-term fluctuations in rainfall may lowlands and pan-Caribbean region. have been driven by the 208-year cycle of solar output (Hodell et al. 2001; Wahl et al. 2006). These cycles could Even today, modern records from the Maya lowlands account for droughts in some areas of the lowlands, and indicate the region is characterized by large variations could have had devastating results on Maya populations in rainfall from year-to-year and place-to-place. Inter- (Gill 2000; Haug et al. 2003; Hodell et al. 2005a). annual variation in rainfall can be large, typically 30–40%, Mounting paleoenvironmental data indicate that periods of and this spatial and temporal variability in precipitation particularly intense drought may have afflicted wide areas undoubtedly played an important role in Maya agricultural of the Maya lowlands in the fourth century B.C., and the and water management strategies over time (Dunning et second, ninth, eleventh, and fifteenth centuries A.D. These al. 1998). were not single “megadroughts,” but generally a series of intense droughts within relatively short periods of time. Chronology of Puuc Settlement

Medina-Eliade and colleagues (2010) provide a more The general chronological model for the Puuc region that detailed picture of paleorainfall patterns in the north through has prevailed for much of the past several decades saw the high temporal resolution analysis of a speleothem settlement as very sparse until well into the Late Classic (ca. (dubbed Chaac) from Tzab Nah cave near Tecoh, Yucatán. A.D. 700), with population growing very rapidly for 200 Using U/Th dating, this stalagmite was determined to or so years, then crashing fairly abruptly (e.g., Tourtellot have formed from A.D. 478 to 2004 Medina-Eliade and et al. 1990). However, there is a growing body of evidence colleagues were able to identify eight severe drought that population build-up may have been at least somewhat episodes during the 150-year-long period sometimes known more gradual, and certainly occurred over a longer time

66 Xcoch: Home of Ancient Maya Rain Gods and Water Managers span. Excavations have revealed that there were sizeable around the site core and the intrusion of late C-shaped Formative occupations at Xocnaceh, and to a much lesser structures into formerly restricted spaces. Throughout the extent at Oxkintok, along the northern edge of the Puuc Santa Elena Valley the end of the Classic and the onset region (Gallareta Negrón and Ringle 2004; Rivera Dorado of the Postclassic was a bellicose time. At Xkipché, many 1996), smaller occupations at Paso de Macho and Kiuic buildings were left unfinished and others were mined for in the Bolonchen Hills (Bey and May Ciau 2005), and stone to build small Early Postclassic structures (Prem a sizeable community at Xcoch in the heart of the Santa 2003; Reindel 2003). No sites in the Puuc show evidence Elena Valley (Smyth and Ortegón Zapata 2008), and may of major construction in the Postclassic, but a few sites have been more widespread (corresponding to the presence may have at least enjoyed some life for a while in the of megalithic-style architecture; Dunning 1992). Early Postclassic. Northwest of Uxmal at Tzemez Akal surface Classic communities are known for Chac II (adjacent to ceramic collections (Williams-Beck 2007) and modest ) in the Bolonchen Hills (Smyth 1998), at Oxkintok construction suggest some continuity of population. (Rivera Dorado 1996), and were probably more widespread Notably, the toponym Tzemez Akal, or “Centipede in the Puuc region (corresponding to the presence of Proto- Aguada” refers to the inter-linked chain of five sizeable Puuc style architecture; Dunning 1992). Nevertheless, it aguadas found there. The presence of these aguadas may still seems clear that the Puuc in general experienced an help explain the survival of the Tzemez Akal community explosive growth in population and settlement expansion into the Postclassic period and explain why it continued to in the Late Classic and into the Terminal Classic periods be a significant place into the Colonial era. (ca. A.D. 700-900). A detailed overview of the chronology of settlement and The timing of population decline and site abandonment in construction of monumental architecture at Xcoch is the Puuc remains far from being well understood. However, provided elsewhere in this volume in the chapter by Smyth there are many indications that beginning around A.D. and colleagues. Suffice it to say here that there is clear 870 many communities around the Puuc region went into evidence that the construction of monumental architecture steep decline (Carmean et al. 2004; Prem 2003; Prem and began at Xcoch at least as early as the seventh century Dunning 2004). A notable exception to this pattern was B.C. in the Middle Formative and the site grew into one Uxmal, which embarked on an unprecedented program of of the largest Formative centers known for the northern monumental architecture construction lasting to around Maya lowlands. Evidence collected to date indicates A.D. 910 and proclaiming through potent symbolism a significant decline in activity at Xcoch, and possible the role of Uxmal as a regional capital (Dunning, n.d.; abandonment, towards the end of the Late Formative. Kowalski and Dunning 1999). The internal organization However, by the fifth century A.D. in the Early Classic, of central Uxmal at this time has been interpreted as construction activities had resumed and the site developed representative of a kúuchkabal (paramount town) in the into a prominent Late Classic center before being eclipsed regional political hierarchy (Ringle and Bey 2001). There by Uxmal in the ninth century A.D. While there has been are at least 13 aguadas located within the urban zone of no evidence found to date for a Postclassic occupation at Uxmal, more than double that known for any other Puuc Xcoch, there is clear evidence for continued ritual activity site, a fact that likely reflects a natural abundance of karst in and near the Xcoch cave for both the Postclassic and depressions concentrated along two prominent bedrock Colonial periods. fractures, as well as a huge investment in labor in their modification into reservoirs. Xcoch Cave: Home of the Rain Gods

The peak of construction at Uxmal is marked by modest In Maya cosmology, the surface of the earth is conceived continued growth at the allied sites of Nohpat and Kabah, as the back of an enormous turtle that is surrounded by but a suppression of construction at many surrounding sites the waters of the ocean, water that also flows through the including Xcoch, Xkipché, and Hunto Chac suggesting earth/turtle and is exposed in caves and cenotes. Taube that Uxmal siphoned away labor, land, and other resources (2010:209) quotes a Yukatek Maya shaman from Tepich: formerly bound to these other communities (Carrasco Vargas 1993; Dunning 1992; Prem and Dunning 2004). The adoption “The water in the earth is like the blood in your veins… of increasingly martial themes in the later dynastic art of It is said that water is the blood of the earth. When you Uxmal suggests that the expansion of the dominion of Uxmal want to make a well, you must dig a well to reach the was achieved at least in part by preying on neighboring water inside the earth. Thus you reach the veins of the polities, perhaps already under stress from drought and crop earth. It is like our body: the earth has a lot of veins failure in an already over-taxed regional agricultural system. where there is water, the blood of the earth.” Grube (2003) has noted that the hieroglyphic platforms of the Cemetery Group at Uxmal appear to be war memorials, In Maya belief systems the earth is typically animate, though notable for their war emblem iconography and inscriptions often with aspects of multiple animals, generally reptilian including toponyms, personal names, and “star wars” glyphs. in nature. One manifestation is the so-called Earth, Kawak, or Witz Monster, an animate form of a witz or mountain, the Uxmal’s regional prominence seems to have come to mouth of which is a cave. Within the earth reside multiple a violent end as seen in the hasty construction of a wall forces and beings, including the Chaaks (rain gods), and

67 The Archaeology of Yucatán

Figure 4.2: The location of Gruta Xcoch in relation to surface architecture. Only cave passages mapped through the end of 2009 are shown.

among the Yukatek Maya (Freidel et al. 1993; Hanks 1990: 308; Tec Chí et al. 1992). This sacred water (zuhuy ha or zuyha) is typically collected below dripping stalactites or, where possible, from deep, perennial pools like that in Gruta Xcoch. Artifacts found within many caves in the Maya lowlands indicate that zuhuy ha has been collected in some of these caves for thousands of years (Rissolo 2005; Thompson 1959, 1975).

Caves were also of critical importance in Mesoamerican cosmology because of their association with origin myths: the origins or the cosmos itself but also of specific lineages and other cultural groups (Bassie-Sweet 2008; Brady and Prufer 2005). Caves were often the symbolic focal points in community identity and sacred geographies. Hence, the investment in repeated ritual activity that is evident in Figure 4.3: The junction of the A and E passages in many caves in the Maya lowlands is not surprising. Xcoch cave: this “crossroad” was marked in antiquity with a small, inverted conical altar (photo by Beth As noted at the outset of this chapter, the Xcoch cave was Cortright). the center of intense and prolonged ritual activity. Detailed descriptions of the cave and its investigation will be serpent-like deities manifest as rivers or currents of water provided in forthcoming reports and only a brief overview and wind, the most potent and capricious being the chan is provided here. Artifacts in the cave indicate that ritual ik: the malevolent sparking serpent or hurricane (Dunning use began at least as early as the early Middle Formative and Houston 2011). As noted by Hanks (1990:305-306), (by at least the seventh century B.C.) and continued into the concerning the belief system of contemporary Yukatek modern era. Ceramics found in the cave include examples Maya: “Below the earth…is a huge body of water which of Yotolin Patterned Burnished (associated with the Early supports the ground and courses through it in the great Nabanché phase at Komchen) through Colonial era water underground rivers called saáyab’óob’. Driven by earthly vessels. Numerous other artifacts are found throughout winds, these feed the wells and cenotes, providing the the cave including thousands of torch fragments. Human water that is ultimately sucked up into the sky in a vortex remains are also fairly common, though it is unclear at this of celestial winds, to then be cast down to earth as rain point whether these individuals represent sacrifice victims by the chaák rain spirits and their helpers.” In this belief or interments. system, the natural place to seek to communicate with and influence the rain gods was in caves and cenotes. As of the end of 2009, the total length of measured passages in the Xcoch cave was 641.8 m (Figure 4.2). An additional Water collected from certain caves is considered an 565.2 m were added to the map in 2010. The cave is essential part of ch’a’ah-chaák or rain-bringing rituals composed of four principal chambers that trend from the

68 Xcoch: Home of Ancient Maya Rain Gods and Water Managers

Figure 4.4: Map of central Xcoch showing the location of Aguada La Gondola, East Aguada, and chultuns (black dots). southwest to the northeast and which are interconnected 42.7 m above the surrounding landscape. The precise by generally low, narrow passages (Figure 4.3). Numerous meaning and function of many Maya pyramid temples side passages branch off and often reconnect with the main remains unclear, but at least some of these buildings were trunk, giving the entire system a labyrinthine feel. The clearly manifestations of the pan-Mesoamerican concept average inclination in the cave is 9.8 degrees, but the rate of of a “water mountain” (Lucero 2007). Conceptually tied drop is highly uneven, ranging from nearly level in places to caves and springs, the creation of such symbolically to near vertical in others. Air quality decreases markedly potent architecture was a proclamation of the cosmically- in the lower reaches of the cave (where oxygen levels are referenced endowed authority of rulers. A repeated set of too low to light a match) so that those who laboriously imagery in Maya art is the Witz Monster, the being thought descend into the lowest chambers are gasping for breath. to be manifest in many pyramids. This entity is frequently It is in the two lowermost chambers, including the small associated with water symbolism, particularly in its form chamber surrounding the water pool, that the evidence for as a zoomorphic head with cleft or “fontanel” – indicative ritual activity is most pronounced with thousands of broken of a connection or opening to the underworld. On Classic ceramic vessels and other artifacts, and thick deposits of stelae, including many in the Puuc region, rulers stand atop charcoal we dubbed “fire pits.” One can only imagine how this earth/water entity “providing the symbolic support of many generations of Maya shamans and other supplicants the ‘earth or ancestral abode’ in legitimizing sovereignty.” journeyed into this deep recess to commune with the rain (Scarborough 1998:152) On other Puuc stelae, rulers are gods, venerated ancestors, and other spirits. shown as intimately related to the rain gods or chaákob (Ringle et al. 2009). As noted by Brown (2006:180-181) On the surface, the central plaza of monumental in discussing the construction of the principal pyramid architecture at Xcoch lies directly above the honeycomb temple of Mayapán over a cave: “It incarnates the link of cave passages. This plaza is bounded on the east, south, between the cave, the water, and the pyramid-mountain, and west by pyramid temples and on the north by the which in Mesoamerican thought was a single idea – altepl massive platform of the Xcoch Great Pyramid, towering – of community or town.” As discussed in the chapter by

69 The Archaeology of Yucatán

dissolution and collapse manifest in multiple surface depressions as well as likely contributing to the formation of the Xcoch cave. Evidence in the form of apparent quarry scars on the western flank of the East Aguada as well as truncation scars revealed in the bottom of our excavations indicate that substantial quarrying contributed to the creation of this depression before it was modified into a reservoir. It is also possible that quarrying contributed to the creation of Aguada La Gondola though we have yet to recover evidence of this activity there.

Xcoch East Aguada

The Xcoch East Aguada is a rather circular depression (more aptly a square with rounded corners) with a diameter of about 65 m situated a short distance east of the monumental structures of the elevated Xcoch central plaza. The aguada is currently a very shallow depression just over a meter deep in its center relative to surrounding terrain. Vegetation in the depression indicates that it occasionally retains surface water. The aguada is bounded by clear artificial berms on its north and south sides. On Figure 4.5: Map of showing surface flow into the the west side the aguada abuts outcopping limestone that East Aguada. gives the appearance of having been quarried in ancient times. On the east and north sides, the aguada is flanked by elevated plazas surmounted by vaulted and unvaulted Smyth and colleagues in this volume, the central platforms stone architecture. Several of these plazas appear to and pyramids at Xcoch were massive constructions built be interconnected and canted so that they would funnel and added to over many hundreds of years as the Maya rainwater into a walled stone sluiceway and thence into the continued to invest in this sacred place. reservoir (Figure 4.5).

From the western edge of the central plaza and the sinkhole The East Aguada exhibits an apparently simple construction mouth of the cave, a sacbé (stone roadway) runs about 100 history with only one floor revealed at a depth of about m due west terminating in a group of low platforms and 155 cm. Sierra Red ceramic sherds recovered above the buildings on the edge of the large Aguada La Gondola. floor suggest a Formative origin for the reservoir. Cehpech Sacbeob in Maya centers were often directionally aligned sherds found in the sediments immediately above suggest like the east-west sacbé at Xcoch and were sometimes that the reservoir was periodically cleaned out until late used to connect sacred spaces (Ashmore 1991; Stanton in its use history. The current surface of the aguada is and Freidel 2005). One meaning of these roadways may approximately one meter lower than the surrounding have been as kusansuum: cosmic ropes or umbilical cords ground surface. Given the aguada’s approximate diameter (Dunning 1992). of 65 m and an approximate total depth of 2.5 m, a very rough approximation of the reservoir’s ancient water The Xcoch Reservoirs storage capacity is about: 8,300 m3 or 8,300,000 liters. This capacity assumes that the reservoir was routinely There are two large aguadas (ponds) within the central cleaned of accumulating sediment. Elevated phosphate zone of Xcoch (Figure 4.4). At least one sizeable aguada levels and Cehpech ceramic sherds indicate that for at least and several small aguadas have been located within the the waning years of its use, maintenance of the reservoir site’s sprawling residential zone. As of the summer of in terms of cleaning was allowed to lapse and sediment 2010, we had conducted excavations in both of the central accumulated within the tank. reservoirs (Aguada La Gondola and Xcoch East Aguada) and a large aguada near the southern periphery of the site Aguada La Gondola (Xcoch South Aguada 1). Aguada La Gondola is a roughly rectangular depression Both of the central aguadas clearly functioned as urban about 110 m on its east-west axis, 80 m on its north- reservoirs, with plaza pavement areas used to funnel south axis, though there is an embayment (not shown in rainwater into these depressions. The origins of the Figure 4.3) along the south side of the aguada making it aguadas remain somewhat unclear. Either or both may somewhat pentagonal in shape. The aguada is currently have begun as natural karst depressions. Inspection of air about six meters deep. There are sluiceways leading into photos indicates linear bedrock fractures running through the aguada at its NE and NW corners. Mapping and the Xcoch area which may have concentrated limestone excavations in 2010 revealed two shallow canals leading

70 Xcoch: Home of Ancient Maya Rain Gods and Water Managers

Figure 4.6: Cross section of the north side of Aguada La Gondola based on profiles revealed in three 2010 excavation units (2010 Ops. 1 and 3, 2009 Op. 1). from the platform of the Great Pyramid and the Xcoch m3 or 79,200,000 liters. Using an average volume of central plaza into the northeast sluiceway (Zubrow et al. 30,000 liters for the typical Puuc region chultun, the water 2010). Low berms are visible around much of the outer storage capacity of the La Gondola Reservoir would have rim of the aguada. Excavations have been carried out in been equal to about 2,640 chultuns. the floor of the aguada, across the berm on the north side of the aguada, and across a stone terrace or bench about The lowermost floor (310 cm) of the reservoir produced midway up the north wall of the reservoir. a charcoal-based AMS date of 2040 +/-25 B.P. (1 sigma calibrated range of 89 B.C. – A.D. 1), that is in the Late Aguada La Gondola exhibits a more complex history than Formative, a finding consistent with weathered Sierra Red the East Aguada with three episodes of floor construction ceramics lying within and above the floor. The Middle (Figure 4.6). These floors or linings were constructed Formative dates associated with the sacbé connecting the principally of a densely packed mixture of clay and reservoir with the Xcoch Grotto (see chapter by Smyth and – a practice still in use in Yucatán today. The linings colleagues, this volume) suggest that this location may extended up the sides of the reservoir as revealed in our have had ritual significance even before the first known excavations in the berm along the northern flank of the floor was laid, perhaps as a natural sinkhole or pond. The aguada where stone retaining walls were anchored in the floor at 230 cm depth produced a charcoal-based AMS floors and used to build up the berm. On the north side of date of 1750 +/- 45 B.P. (1 sigma calibrated range of A.D. the aguada the lining also extends beyond the berm and 235 – 377), or Early Classic. The accumulation of 70-80 incorporates an enormous low platform that was apparently cm of sediment in the reservoir between these two floors constructed solely to collect rain water to funnel into the show signs of a period of abandonment for which there reservoir (Figure 4.4). Although the maximum depth of the are also indications elsewhere in the site (see Smyth and reservoir varied over time as floor and berm levels were colleagues, this volume). The exact dating of this apparent raised over time, the average depth of the reservoir was site abandonment is far from clear, but appears to have approximately nine meters. Given the roughly 80 x 110 occurred towards the end of the Late Formative. The m horizontal dimensions of the reservoir, an approximate second century A.D. was a time of environmental stress, estimation of its volume would be on the order of 79,200 including drought episodes across the Maya lowlands and

71 The Archaeology of Yucatán witnessed site abandonments in many regions (Dunning et have only been examined in cursory fashion during al. 2012, n.d.; Glover and Stanton 2010). reconnaissance surveys, the largest known peripheral aguada, Xcoch Aguada South 1, was subject to survey and Ceramic sherds recovered above the Late Formative and excavation in 2009. Early Classic floors in Aguada La Gondola included pieces of several varieties of water jars and many styles also found Xcoch South Aguada 1 is a somewhat irregularly-shaped in the Xcoch cave, notably including Early Classic Dos depression located about 1.2 km south of the Xcoch site Arroyos Polychrome, a ware closely associated with another center. The aguada lies within an extensive low-lying type of ceramic found in the cave: Chac Polychrome, a rare, area with deep kancab soils (kankabal), pockets of land specialized ware linked with caves and rain god rituals long favored for intensive agriculture (Dunning 1992; in the northern Maya lowlands (Andrews 1965; Barrera Smyth et al. 1995). In recent years, the surface form of the and Peraza 1999; Smyth 1999). Given the presence of the aguada has been significantly altered by forest clearance sacbé linking the Xcoch Grotto with the eastern edge of the and mechanized plowing associated with the development reservoir, it is easy to imagine zuhuy ha being brought forth of modern irrigation agriculture. The original form of from the deep pool at the base of the cave and carried to the the aguada was either roughly circular or a square with reservoir to symbolically renew the filling of the reservoir rounded corners. As a rough circle, the aguada has a by the perceived combined actions of the shaman/ruler and diameter of about 60 m. Local informants report that the the rain gods being called forth from the cave and sky. aguada no longer holds significant quantities of water, but did so within recent memory. Plowing has also all but A third floor, now badly decomposed, was uncovered in obliterated what may have been stone and plaster sluices Aguada La Gondola at a depth of 160 cm. Although not and associated canals at the northwest and southwest radiocarbon dated, this floor was clearly associated with corners of the aguada. Cehpech ceramics and likely dates to the Late Classic. This lining and the two earlier ones were also exposed Xcoch Aguada South 1 was encircled by prominent clay in excavations in the northern berm of the aguada. berms, though these have been damaged considerably in Cumulative evidence suggests that Aguada La Gondola many places by plowing. Excavations on a section of the represents a significant investment in human labor in its berm on the north side of the aguada revealed two floors construction and maintenance and it obviously played or lining composed of compact clay and sascab (like those an important role throughout much of the long history of in the central reservoirs, though not as thick). Excavation urban Xcoch. This role clearly included an enduring ritual in the center of the aguada exposed only one badly function as an element in water rituals that also involved decomposed floor, probably corresponding to the lower of the Xcoch cave, as well as a highly pragmatic function in the two floors exposed in the berm. Charcoal associated the collection and storage of a large quantity of water in with this floor at a depth of nearly two meters produced an the seasonally arid Puuc region. AMS date of 1460 +/- 25 with a 2 sigma calibrated range of A.D. 560-646, which is near the beginning of the Late Terraces or benches are evident along the interior slopes of Classic. Most of the sediments accumulated above the the aguada. These benches are set at different elevations floor are indicative of water-laid deposition, though one on each side of the aguada: the highest is on the west wall, stratum shows indications of desiccation, possibly brought the next on the north, the next on the south, and the lowest about by drought. on the east. Our excavation of a section of the bench on the north side of the aguada in 2009 revealed that it was Site name Number of Number of Ratio of constructed of roughly dressed stone, rubble and plaster. residential chultuns residential These terraces likely functioned to allow access to water in structures structures to the reservoir as levels dropped during the course of the dry chultuns season each year. Knowing the relation of these benches to Chac II 125 77 1.62 the floor of the reservoir would also have allowed a water Hunto Chac 144 47 3.0 “manager” to monitor the rate of drop within the reservoir Sayil 576 310 1.85 during the course of the dry season. Xcoch 78 41 1.9 Xculoc 353 152 2.32 Aguada La Gondola is situated immediately north of a Xkipché 217 115 1.88 large, mostly vacant, low-lying area of fertile kancab Xuch 550 238 2.31 soils. Although we have no direct evidence for the use of reservoir water for localized irrigation, the proximity of Table 4.1. Number of chultuns and number of this open area of high quality soil to the aguada is highly presumed residential structures at several Puuc sites. suggestive. The completeness of mapping varies significantly among the sites. Xcoch South Aguada 1 We suspect that Xcoch Aguada South 1 was at least in Several smaller aguadas are known from the outlying part used for localized irrigation of crops, based on its residential areas of Xcoch. While most of these features spatial association with a large kancabal and the presence

72 Xcoch: Home of Ancient Maya Rain Gods and Water Managers of channels leading into or out of the aguada, but we 4. a supply of water that could be traded with other cannot demonstrate this use. If Xcoch Aguada South 1 centers or surrounding populations. is representative of the aguadas in the outlying parts of Xcoch, this system of reservoirs may date to a considerably The settlement survey at Xcoch is far from complete (see later period than those in the site center. The presence chapter by Smyth and colleagues, this volume). Hence, at of aguadas dispersed amongst the outlying residential this point in time we cannot accurately assess the degree groups at Xcoch is suggestive of political organization to which the chultuns and reservoirs at Xcoch may have like that documented in the Copán Valley where “water exceeded the water consumption needs of its population hole groups” were the foci of administrative districts during “normal” years (cf., Becquelin and Michelet 1994), likely associated with lineage-based organization (Fash thus allowing for use of surplus water for other purposes. and Davis-Salazar 2006). These groups likely owed fealty and tribute to the central ruler, but also likely exercised Discussion considerable autonomy with regard to the control of their own land and water. At Copán, the water group lineages The close association of monumental architecture, are represented by glyphic inscriptions recorded in the rulership, and water symbolism in ancient popal na or council house where the heads of these groups extends as far back in time as the Early Formative among likely met with the Copán king. There is an apparent elite the Olmecs: “Planned architectural complexes were the residential group dominated by a modest pyramid temple locus of specific behaviors in the Mesoamerican past located in the vicinity of Xcoch South Aguada 1 which and their analysis can lead to better a understanding of may have administered this reservoir (Smyth and Ortegón practices and beliefs relating to ceremonies, political 2008). and religious administration, and social identification and differentiation. In particular, Formative architectural Chultuns settings are imbued with symbolism relating to origin myths, water, fertility, and the underworld.” (Cyphers et As noted earlier, chultuns were the most common means al. 2006:17) for capturing and storing rain water in the Puuc region. These cisterns are found in the majority of residential patio It is therefore not surprising that Xcoch, among the earliest groups within Puuc communities. The presence or absence known centers of monumental architecture in the northern of chultuns can be used to help distinguish architectural Maya lowlands, has a close association with a quintessential groups with non-residential functions. Most notably plaza sacred place: the Xcoch cave and its perennial pool of groups dominated by prominent pyramids typically lack water deep beneath the surface of the earth. The erection chultuns, an association consistent with a non-residential of the Great Pyramid and associated architecture above the function. Chultuns are found in a relatively consistent ratio cave and pool in essence created a geomantically centered in relation to the number of presumed residential structures water mountain. Such a relationship is portrayed in scenes in ancient Puuc communities (Table 4.1). of creation in the Late Formative murals of San Bartolo, Guatemala, including the bloody birth of the bacabs, or While the numbers shown in Table 1 must be treated with a “world bearers,” from a cosmic womb or cave atop a temple great deal of caution because the manner and completeness mountain (Saturno et al. 2005; van Akkeren 2006). These of mapping varies greatly between the sites, it is clear that early murals also include scenes of the establishment of chultuns were a common feature at these sites and that cosmic order, including the setting of the world trees, the from somewhere between every 1.6 and 3 residences a birth of the young Maize God, and the crowning of the chultun was to be found. Although only a comparatively first king: an explicit statement of the close relationship small portion of the residential zone of Xcoch has been between royal authority, cosmic order, and agricultural mapped to date, the ratio of 1.9 residential structures per productivity. chultun clearly falls within the norm for Puuc region sites. This information indicates that despite the presence of Cultural geographers and archaeologists, among other sizeable reservoirs at Xcoch, residential compounds by scholars, argue that landscapes are created by the and large expected to meet their own water needs. manipulation of nature and the construction of architecture and other symbol systems that have shared meaning for If residential water needs at Xcoch were largely being members of a society. As ordered assemblages of objects, met by chultuns, it raises the question of how the water landscapes act as signifying systems through which social collected in the reservoirs was being used. We suggest systems are communicated, reproduced, and experienced. several possible uses: “The translation of cultural beliefs into the visible motifs of landscape exteriorizes that which was hitherto internal 1. a reserve supply of water in order to survive drier vision and thus helps to shape, control, and reinforce years; the internalization of vision. It is through tropes such as 2. a reserve supply of water used to refill chultuns these...that landscapes do much of their ideological work.” during drier years; (Duncan 1990) In the ancient Puuc world the built forms 3. a supply of water for localized irrigation of gardens of cities were constructed and manipulated by rulers to or fields; and/or express narratives of shared cosmology and mythology in

73 The Archaeology of Yucatán ways designed to speak of the power and legitimacy of the chultuns or to enhance urban gardening and farming. Puuc rulers and to visually define and reinforce community and Maya rulers may also have attempted to control population territorial identity (Dunning, n.d.). distribution by restricting the constructions of chultuns – the water catching/storing cisterns vital to the domestic life The construction of the massive architectural complex of the region’s residents. Notably, many “rural” (intersite) above the Xcoch cave over many centuries is indicative hamlets and farmsteads lack chultuns suggesting that these of a long-term investment in this sacred place, but also places were only seasonally occupied and that the rulers in the formation of a complex urban society. While the of Maya communities may have attempted to control architecture and other symbols manipulated by the rulers population dispersion by dictating that chultuns could only of Xcoch were based in the intricate world of Maya be constructed in controlled community space (Dunning cosmology, they reflect the paramount need of political 2003b, 2004). The later expansion of reservoirs into control in an agrarian society: the real or perceived control the outlying portions of Xcoch would have allowed the of land and water (Dunning et al. 1999). extension of water-based social control more effectively into the site’s hinterland, perhaps analogous to the system Dunning (2003a) has argued that there is a remarkable of “water hole group” political control apparent in the correspondence between Maya conceptions of the flow of Copán Valley. itz (or life force) and the scientific model of the hydrologic cycle. In their roles as shamans Maya rulers were in essence Despite the great lengths the rulers and people of Xcoch “itz-ers” – or those who could manipulate itz: in this case, went to in their attempts to control water, it is evident the symbolic facilitators of the hydrologic cycle and the that many decades of success were likely punctuated by “keepers” and “movers” of water. Within this belief system, episodes of failure. The possible abandonment of Xcoch proper alignment with the cosmos is vital. Within the Maya towards the end of the Late Formative may be related lowlands, caves and cenotes were natural axes mundi, to the droughts which plagued the Maya lowlands in the centers of creation and transition connecting cosmic planes second century A.D. And the final abandonment of Xcoch and serving as centering points for horizontal, terrestrial as an urban community near the beginning of the Terminal space. Xcoch was clearly such a place. Classic may also be related to repeated episodes of severe drought during that time. Nevertheless, even after the The material remains within Xcoch cave indicate that the abandonment of the ancient city, the Xcoch cave continued rulers of the overlying ancient city, or ritual specialists to be an important place of ritual activity either for a acting on their behalf, participated in and manipulated a greatly reduced population resident in the area or for more belief system that highlighted their special relationship occasional visitors as seen in the presence of Postclassic with the rain gods. Through ritual this power would have and Colonial era artifacts within and near the cave. Perhaps been publicly expressed as zuhuy ha, likely brought forth particularly telling is a radiocarbon date obtained from a annually from the home of the rain gods and poured into deep charcoal midden in the chamber just before the deep the great western reservoir (Aguada La Gondola) helping water pool. That date, 525 +/- 30 B.P., with a calibrated 1 to initiate the onset of life-giving rains. The physical sigma range of A.D. 1402-1433, corresponds to another manipulation of surface flow off of the plastered buildings period of recurring droughts (Hodell et al. 2005b: Medina- and plazas of the site center would have further demonstrated Elizade et al. 2010) and the collapse of Mayapán. their control over water in a more pragmatic manner as well. In the seasonally arid, river-less and -less Acknowledgements Puuc, reservoirs would, of course, have had tremendous practical importance as community water catchment and Much of the work reported here was funded by grants from storage facilities providing water for domestic uses as well the National Science Foundation (0940183), the National as perhaps facilitating some localized irrigation farming. Geographic Society (#7989-06) and Waitt Institute for The creation of large bodies of water within the site center Discovery (W62-09). We are especially indebted to would have also had further potent symbolic meaning as Anna M. Kerttula, Director of the Arctic Social Sciences well. A significant feature of Maya cosmology is the role Program, for her strong support and encouragement. This of water as a transformative boundary, simultaneously project worked with the permission of Mexico’s Instituto connecting and separating cosmic planes. The boundary of Nacional de Antropología e Historia. We are also grateful the underworld is manifest as a watery surface, reflective to Dra. Nelly Margarita Robles García (Presidente), of events past, present, and future (Dunning et al. 1999; Roberto García Moll (Former Presidente) of the Consejo Isendahl 2011; Scarborough 1998). The creation or de Arqueología of the Instituto de Antropología e Historia, enhancement of such surfaces within an ancient Maya Eduardo López Calzada Dávila (Director), Federica community undoubtedly had tremendous symbolic power Sodí Miranda (Former Director) and José Huchim replicating cosmic structure at the hands of rulers. Herrera (Coordinator) of the Centro INAH Yucatán. The municipalities of Santa Elena and Ticul must be praised The central reservoirs also gave the rulers of Xcoch for providing the project with strong logistical support, tremendous practical leverage over the urban population. especially Professor Marco Antonio Perez Medina As noted above, the reservoirs could have supplied a critical (Municipal President of Ticul); José Gonzalo Peralta back-up supply of water useable to supplement or refill Magaña (Communications Director of Ticul), C. Luís

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Alberto Sansores Mían (Municipal President of Santa 2004 High Times in the Hill Country: A Perspective Elena), and Ciriaco Chuil Puc (Ejido Commissioner from the Terminal Classic Puuc Region. In The Terminal of Santa Elena). We would like to thank Ezra Zubrow, Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, Dustin Keeler, Daniel Griswald, Jeffrey Schieder and and Transformation, edited by A.A. Demarest, P.M. Karen Crissy of the University at Buffalo for their services Rice, and D.S. Rice, pp. 424-449. University Press of administering the NSF grant. Harry Goepel, Dorothy Colorado, Boulder. Maxwell Goepel, Beth Cortright, Tammy Otten, and Carrasco Vargas, Ramón Chasity Stinson provided excellent and tireless assistance 1993 Formación sociopolítica en el Puuc: el sacbé in the surveying of Gruta Xcoch. We also want to express Uxmal-Nohpat-Kabah. In Perspectivas antropológicas our deep gratitude to Daniel Griffin, Pilar Suárez Smyth, en el mundo maya, edited by M.J. 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