Ancient Mayan artifacts remain on view in Cayo Cave

The news that visiting students were attempting to take Mayan artifacts out of the country did not surprise many Belizeans, who have long believed that foreign archeologists routinely export their best finds and show only the second rate stuff to government inspectors. While most visiting archeologists in fact would not dare to smuggle artifacts and many Belizeans do so regularly, there is one place in Belize where magnificent Mayan pottery has been discovered…and still remains exactly where it was left over a thousand years ago. News Five’s William Neal first brought us this story in 1992.

William Morales, Chumpiate Cave Discoverer

“We came looking for this kind of leaf; it’s the one that you can see right up there. It’s the bay leaf. See the bay leaf palm right there. That was the one that we were looking for, for thatching, make the roof of the houses. Because we don’t have them down there we have to come all the way up here to pick them up. So we were walking. That was something like a Tuesday morning and we came here and we came here… That was three years ago, right now. And we came a pick these leaves and we were right, right there on the front, the front of that one, don’t you see. We discovered a small hole, a small hole, you know a small entrance.”

That entrance was to a cave. In the western part of Belize covered extensively with limestone, caves are hardly unusual. But what sixteen year old William Morales was to find less than a mile from his home on the plateau was anything but usual.

William Morales

“When we came here we though this place was just a hole where we could just look around and then come out but then, when we get to the inside? This part here, this little part was the only part that we could see, right here.”

The hole in the inside that William though was home to an armadillo was in fact used by the Maya who inhabited the region over two thousand years ago. For the Maya, caves represented the entrance to the underworld. They did not live in the cave but used them for special ceremonies and to store valuable goods.

William Morales

“They were just in the same place as, and everything as you can see is just in the same way as we found it. You know, the first day and right here you can see pieces of pottery. Right there and the design on it, see the design there on it.”

William Neal

“Although broken pieces of pottery can be seen all over the floor of the cave, to get to the really good stuff you have to become an Indiana Jones to climb up.”

This chamber, one of several in the long narrow cave, was filled with clay pottery. Many of the vessels measure over one meter in height and a few still hold remnants of grain which scientists have shown to be over fifteen hundred years old. The name the family gave to the cave, Chumpiate, is that of an alcoholic drink made from fermented corn.

William Neal

“Most of the pots that you find in the cave are usually just big and plain. This one is different, however. It shows the drawing of a monkey.”

Other vessels, the only ones actually removed from their locations by archaeologists, display more elaborate design. This bowl appears to depict a vulture, which like the monkey, is still commonly seen in the surrounding forests. These painted bowls may have been used to collect water which still drips from the cave’s steatite formation. The Maya considered such water sacred and used it in religious ceremony.

In a highly unusual decision the Department of Archaeology allowed most of the caves artifacts to remain undisturbed. The Morales family was appointed custodian for the site.

William Morales

“Well it’s something that we arranged and we try, we try a lot and we asked them if they could stay in the same place they were found and the same day? So everybody who takes a good look at the pots, they can have the same impression and the same feelings as we had the first time we found it.”

Walking through the cave’s comfortably narrow passages one can’t help but imagine what it might have been like to first behold the place in 1989 or even in ?89 BC. Until now this cave has been viewed by a relative handful of people – those who don’t mind a two hour hike – much of it uphill. But with the commencement of a hydroelectric project nearby a road is under construction. And combined with other attractions like the picturesque attractions Macal River and lush rainforest this area will soon see an influx of visitors – both local and foreign. The Morales family has built come cottages to host the growing number of tourists but hope that they can still preserve and protect what nature and the ancient Maya have created.

William Neal

“From deep within Chumpiate Cave this is William Neal, reporting for News Five.”

To reach the cave, located near Chechem Ha Resort in Cayo, just take the road through Benque toward the Mollejon Hydro Plant and follow the signs.