• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Ancient Maya Canoe Found In Mexican Cave Could Mark Portal To The Underworld

July 6, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

What do a sunken canoe and armadillo remains have to do with the underworld? Well, a recent discovery by archaeologists in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula may mark a site that the Maya believed led to the otherworldly realm.

In 2021, a team of underwater archaeologists with the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found a submerged canoe in a cenote – a natural sinkhole – while carrying out research ahead of planned construction work. 

Advertisement

The canoe was surrounded by human and animal bones and was located around 4.6 meters (15 feet) underwater. According to a statement from INAH, the team discovered around 38 skeletal remains, which included human metatarsals (bones in the feet) that probably belonged to a woman, as well as the remains of dogs, turkeys, eagles, and, importantly, armadillos.

The presence of these shelled mammals’ bones, in conjunction with the human remains, has led the archaeologists to assume that the canoe was likely used for ritualistic purposes and was probably placed in the cave before it flooded. 

According to Maya belief, flooded and semi-flooded caves and cenotes were thought to be portals to the underworld. In addition, armadillos were regarded as an avatar to the Maya chthonic god, known as God L, who was represented as a jaguar wearing a cape that mimicked the armadillo’s shell.

The archaeologists believe that the armadillo’s ability to swim and hold its breath underwater could be an “allusion to the entry of [the animal] into the underworld.”

Advertisement

There are known images in Maya ceramics of armadillos appearing as a “stool of the gods”, with deities placing their feet on them, Alexandra Biar, an archaeologist from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), said in the statement. This, Biar added, would be linked directly to the archaeological evidence in the cenote, where the armadillos may have been seen as a manifestation of the divine.

For Biar and colleagues, the morphology of the canoe itself adds to the idea that this was all part of a ritual. They believe that the prow is too heavy and stern to have been used to navigate swift currents, which would have made it useless on the sea.

According to Reuters, at the time of its discovery, the vessel was “tentatively dated” between 830-950 CE, which was around the end of the Maya civilization’s classical zenith. This was a point in history where Maya cities, like Chichén Itzá (which was located near to where the canoe was found) thrived. However, further carbon dating has shown that the sunken boat was likely built in the 16th century.

If this is correct, then it would represent a continuity of Maya ritual practices associated with bodies of water in cenotes (and armadillos) during the time of contact with the Spanish.

Advertisement

But these conclusions are offered with caution. According to the archaeologists, microplastics were found in the tested samples, which may have affected the dating. As such, new dives are being planned to take additional samples of wood and bone from the submerged site.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Take Five: Big in Japan
  2. Struggle over Egypt’s Juhayna behind arrest of founder, son – Amnesty
  3. Exclusive-Northvolt plots EV battery grab with $750 million Swedish lab plan
  4. What Is The Heaviest Object In The Universe?

Source Link: Ancient Maya Canoe Found In Mexican Cave Could Mark Portal To The Underworld

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Have You Seen This Snake? Florida Wants Your Help Finding Rare Species Seen Once In 50 Years
  • Plague Confirmed In Lake Tahoe Area For First Time In 5 Years, California Officials Say
  • Supergiant Star Spotted Blowing Milky Way’s Largest Bubble Of Its Kind, Surprising Astronomers
  • Game Theory Promised To Explain Human Decisions. Did It?
  • Genes, Hormones, And Hairstyling – Here Are Some Causes Of Hair Loss You Might Not Have Heard Of
  • Answer To 30-Year-Old Mystery Code Embedded In The Kryptos CIA Sculpture To Be Sold At Auction
  • Merry Mice: Human Brain Cells Transplanted Into Mice Reduce Anxiety And Depression
  • Asteroid-Bound NASA Mission Snaps Earth-Moon Portrait From 290 Million Kilometers Away
  • Forget State Mammals – Some States Have Official Dinosaurs, And They’re Awesome
  • Female Jumping Spiders Of Two Species Prefer The Sexy Red Males Of One, Leading To Hybridization
  • Why Is It So Difficult To Find New Moons In The Solar System?
  • New “Oxygen-Breathing” Crystal Could Recharge Fuel Cells And More
  • Some Gut Bacteria Cause Insomnia While Others Protect Against It, 400,000-Person Study Argues
  • Neanderthals And Homo Sapiens Got It On 100,000 Years Earlier Than We Thought
  • “Womb Of The Universe”: Native American Tribal Elders Help Archaeologists Decipher Ancient Rock Art In Missouri Cave
  • 16,000-Year-Old Paintings Suggest Prehistoric Humans Risked Their Lives To Enter “Shaman Training Cave”
  • Final Gasps Of A Dying Star Seen Through A Record-Breaking 130 Years Of Data
  • COVID-19 “Vaccine Alternative” Injection Could Be On Fast-Track To Approval From FDA
  • New Jersey Officials Investigate Possible First Locally Acquired Malaria Case Since 1991
  • First-of-Its-Kind Bright Orange Nurse Shark Recorded Off Costa Rica Makes History
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version