THECA VE AS A COSMOGRAM: THE USE OF GIS IN AN INTRASITE SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE MAIN CHAMBER OF ACTUN TUNICHIL MUKNAL, AMAYA CEREMONIAL CAVE IN WESTERN BELIZE by Holley Moyes A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters As Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Aorida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Aorida December 2001 Copyright by Holley Moyes 2001 ii THE CAVE AS A COSMOGRAM: THE USE OF GIS IN AN INTRASITE SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE MAIN CHAMBER OF ACTUN TUNICIUL MUKNAL, AMAYA CEREMONIAL CAVE IN WESTERN BELIZE by HoUeyMoyes This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Arlene Fradkin, Department of Anthropology and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt CoUege of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMITIEE: ~i~ Dr. Arlene Fradkin ~mor r.;:.susan~~,t toe ~ Dr~Edward~ ~ru~ v_. _J; ____ Dr. Gerald Weiss, Chairman Department of Anthro~ gy iii Acknowledgements The Western Belize Regional Cave Project (WBRCP) was funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Dr. Jaime Awe. The permit for the project was provided by the Belize Department of Archaeology, and special thanks go to Dr. Allen Moore, Brian Woodeye, and John Morris. Additionally, I received personal support for two field seasons from a grant from the Ann Adams Scholarship Fund at Florida Atlantic University for which I am grateful. First and foremost I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Jaime Awe, primary investigator of the WBRCP, who gave me the opportunity to work at Actun Tunichil Muknal. He has provided innumerable insights and has been continually supportive of my work. I would also like to express my thanks to our field director Cameron Griffith and to the 1997 staff of the WBRCP, Sherry Gibbs, Mike Mirro, Caitlin O'Grady, Vanessa Owens, Rhanju Song, Jeff Ransom, and Kay Sunihara. Special thanks go to Chris Helmke who made valuable suggestions and provided the illustrations for the project. I will be forever in debt to Sherry Gibbs and Kay Sunihara for their kindness and friendship. This project would not have been possible without the aid of our Maya workmen Don Jose, El Tigre, and Don Valentin who took good care of us at our jungle camp and became our friends. I would also like to thank a number of people who offered valuable insights and made helpful suggestions to me during the writing process. I would first like to thank my professor Dr. Arlene Fradkin for her comments and enthusiastic support of my work. I would also like to thank Dr. William Jerald Kennedy for his suggestions on early drafts iv of this paper, Dr. Betsy Schumann for her assistance, and Dr. Susan Love Brown for her suggestions and guidance. Scholars outside of FAU were also generous with their time and knowledge. I am grateful to Dr. Keith Kintigh for his assistance in the early stages of my spatial analysis. Thanks go to Dr. Karl Taube for his comments as well as the use of his illustrations. I would also like to thank Dr. David Freidel and Dr. Barbara Tedlock for providing helpful comments and insights. Dr. Dorie Reents-Budet and Dr. Barbara MacLeod generously allowed me to publish their drawing of the "labret," and Dr. Thomas Miller allowed the use of his map of Actun Tunichil Muknal. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. James Brady for his intellectual generosity. He has been instrumental in the development of my work and continually supportive of my ideas. I am grateful for his guidance and for his editorial comments. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Mark Aldenderfer for his editorial assistance and suggestions. v Abstnct Author: Holley Moyes Title: The Cave As A Cosmogram: The Use of GIS in an lntrasite Spatial Analysis of the Main Chamber of Actun Tunichil Muknal, A Maya Ceremonial Cave in Western Belize Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Arlene Fradkin Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2001 This study is a spatial analysis conducted in the Main Chamber of Actun Tunichil Muknal, a Terminal Classic Maya ceremonial cave (A.D. 830-950), located in Western Belize. The research examines ancient Maya ritual cave use by analyzing artifact deposition patterns. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS), it provides a methodology for the development of comparative models of spatial organization. The system facilitated data visualization, exploration, and generation. The GIS was instrumental in the analysis of the proxilnity of artifacts to natural morphological features of the cave. Artifact deposition patterns were correlated with known ritual behavior patterns from the region. Using this method, boundary markers, artifact pathways, and a centrally located symbolic three-stone-hearth feature were identified. This study suggests that, within the cave, the ancient Maya employed a cognitive model of spatial organization similar to that witnessed by ethnographers in other venues, or reported in ethnohistorical texts in rites of foundation. vi Table of Contents LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................ .ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................... x CHAPTERS 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1 A Cognitive-Processual Approach ............................................. 1 Context and Classificatory Schemes ............................................ 2 A Brief History of Maya Cave Archaeology .................................. 3 Spatial Analysis ...................................................................5 Ritual Patterning ..................................................................5 Use of Analogy ................................................................... ? 2 THE SETfiNG ....................................................................... .11 The Project ........................................................................ 11 Description of the Cave ......................................................... 12 Water Turbation and Artifact Movement. ................................... 13 Main Chamber Description by Area .................................................. 14 The Creek ........................................................................ .14 Boot Hill ........................................................................... 15 The Passage ....................................................................... 17 The Burial Chamber ............................................................ .19 The Ransom Chamber ...........................................................22 The Cathedral ..................................................................... 23 The Angel's Room ................................................................ 24 West Wall. ........................................................................25 Crystal Sepulcher .................................................................26 3 METHODOLOGY ....................................................................58 Field Mapping .................................................................... 58 Recording of Artifacts ........................................................... 59 Classification System ............................................................59 The Use of Geographical Infonnation Systems (GIS) ..............................61 System llesign .....................................................................61 Creating Maps in GIS ............................................................ 64 Editing .............................................................................. 65 Data Sets ...........................................................................65 4 ARTIFACT ANALYSES .............................................................66 Artifact Counts ...................................................................66 Ceramic Chronology ............................................................ 68 Cave Assemblages .......................................................................71 vii Collection of Zuhuy Ha .......................................................... 71 Ritual Breakage .................................................................. 72 Refitting ........................................................................... 73 Artifact Specialization ...........................................................75 Speleothems .............................................................................. 77 Function and Meaning ........................................................... 77 Speleothem Use in the Main Chamber ........................................79 Construction Material ............................................................ 80 Omaments .........................................................................81 The Three-Stone-Hearth ......................................................... 82 5 QUANTITATIVE ANALYSES AND RESULTS ...............................95 Preliminary Analysis .............................................................95 Summary of Preliminary Results ...............................................97 Cluster Analysis ..........................................................................98 K-means Clustering ..............................................................