Spectacular Cayo cave depicts human sacrifice
Over the last decade News 5’s reporters and camera crews have ventured deep beneath the surface of the Belizean countryside to explore spectacular subterranean caverns at the Vaca Plateau, Mountain Pine Ridge and Caves Branch. Tonight we take you on another adventure to a place that offers the most stunning evidence yet of how the earliest inhabitants of Belize lived–and died–in a realm called the underworld. Janelle Chanona reports.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Geological surveys of Belize have revealed that the country is home to the largest network of cave systems in all of Central America. Many of these mysterious underground tunnels have yet to be discovered, but an increasing number are being explored by scientists and in their footsteps, an adventurous public.
In the Cayo District, the caverns of one such cave and the artefacts they contain have earned the name Actun Tunichil Mooknal or the Cave of the Stone Sepulcher.
To get there requires a forty-five minute hike through the bush, punctuated by no less than three crossings of the picturesque Roaring River.
Janelle Chanona
“The cave is not the only attraction of the trip. The trail takes you through the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve, home to giants like this Wild Fig Tree.”
Leading the way is tour operator and guide Emilio Awe. Awe has been walking this path for the past five years and is keen to make sure that the source of his livelihood stays in good shape.
Emilio Awe
“We ask that you do not touch any of the formations in the cave: stalactites, stalagmites or flowstones also we ask that you do not have any paper in your pockets, anything that can float out of your pocket and litter the floor of the stream.”
Janelle Chanona
“This cave lay untouched for more than a thousand years until modern day scientists explored it in 1986. Since then it’s become a popular destination with tourists.”
So every year, one by one, hundreds of tourists take a leap of faith into the cold waters to behold the remnants of a world lost in time.
Once inside we are enveloped in the overwhelming darkness; our tiny headlights helping to show us the way as the gurgling sounds of the stream echo off the walls. Much of the route goes through water, ranging from ankle to chest deep.
Emilio Awe
“It is a very adventurous trip. It can only be done by people who are physical or able to hike…they have to be able to swim, climb, crawl, and be able to hike for most of the day.”
Having navigated the claustrophobic caverns and twisting waterways, we begin our ascent into the main chamber. Suddenly a strange odour fills the air as we encounter the first artefact of the cave on the aptly named Boot Hill.
Janelle Chanona
“Emilio, why do I have to take off my shoes?”
Emilio Awe
“Because of the conservation of the cave. We will be walking on some travertine pools or rim stone dams, and also within the main chamber of the cave, there’s a lot of artefacts that are littered all over the floor of the cave…some of them covered by calcium carbonate minerals, some of that you see exposed. By being barefooted, then we tend to be more careful with every step we make.”
One set of feet that apparently has not entered the cave is that of looters. This has allowed scientists to spend years documenting everything they could find. And what they discovered are ancient stone tools, carved monuments arranged as an altar and thousands of pieces of pottery. This particular pot depicts a creature with only four fingers on each limb, leading scientists to suspect it is a spider monkey. Now lying scattered all over the floor, these pieces are broken symbols of a lost civilisation trapped forever in layers of limestone.
Janelle Chanona
“Halfway through the main chamber we find dramatic evidence of human occupation. Archaeologists tell us that even though the Mayans didn’t actually live in caves, they did use them extensively for religious purposes.”
And one of those purposes was sacrifice.
How they are related to religious purposes is unclear, but fourteen skeletal remains have been found entombed here giving the cave its name. Beneath the limestone, they found a skull that during its formative years, had been moulded so the forehead would appear flat, achieved by binding two planks of wood to the head. The teeth had been chipped and carved into a three pronged design. It is believed these alterations to the body were seen as signs of beauty by the Ancient Maya.
Despite his pleasing appearance–or perhaps because of it–this particular citizen met a violent death. A fracture line clearly visible on the side of the skull looks like trauma with a blunt instrument, a feature common to most of the cave’s skulls.
But the prize of Tunichil Mooknal lies in this alcove. Estimated to be at least twelve hundred years old, this is the cave’s only fully preserved skeleton. Initially, water movement might have shifted its position, but soon after the limestone built up around it, naturally cementing it to the floor. The shape of the eyes and pelvis indicate that this was a woman. Additional tests have revealed she died when she was only twenty years old. Like the others, she too boasts a fractured skull.
Emilio Awe
“This is the only female found so far. So the other thirteen, are males, the ages go from about nine months to about fourteen years of age.”
“Whatever skeletal remains you see in the cave are not considered to be burials, as they do not believe the Mayan people buried their dead in the cave. But they believe that the skeletal remains are evidence of sacrificial offerings done to the Gods that dwell within the cave, primarily the Rain God. And they believe that the Rain God because most of the remains, as you might have noticing, were placed in areas that hold water during the rainy season.”
But will the artefacts like these of Actun Tunichil Mooknal have to be sacrificed to satisfy the curiosity of those who would brave the darkness?
Emilio Awe
“This cave is seen as actually as a natural museum, stuff is left exactly as the Mayan people left it.”
“There are two different tour companies conducting tours in the cave, and all the guides have been trained by archaeologists. So they have set designated paths as well as rules for conducting tours in the cave.”
By all accounts, those rules are being scrupulously followed. The people who have had the honour of retracing the footsteps of the Ancient Maya have done so with respect and the cave appears to be in remarkably good condition. For any reasonably fit person, a visit here is a lesson in history that can’t be found in any book.
Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.
Cameraman on this remarkable story was Brent Toombs, who at six foot, six inches tall is not exactly the ideal size for cave exploration. Emilio Awe is proprietor of PACZ Tours, one of the two companies licensed to operate in the cave. He can be contacted in San Ignacio at 824-2477.
