At the edge of the world : caves and late classic Maya world view

In this book, Karen Bassie-Sweet reevaluates Late Classic Maya cosmology based on the rituals recorded in their art and hieroglyphic writing as well as in Post Classic, post-conquest, and modern sources. The universe of the Late Classic Maya comprised the sky, the earth, a mythological sea, and an underworld. The Maya saw the earth as a flat disk floating on the sea. Their creator deities had established a quadrilateral space on the surface of the earth within which humans could live. The corners of this world were marked by the rise and set points of the solstice sun. Bassie-Sweet argues that there was a mythological mountain centered on each side of the quadrilateral world and that these mountains were the homes of the guardian deities and certain ancestors. According to Bassie-Sweet, a supernatural road radiated from the center of the world to each of the directional mountains. The road did not end at the mountain but continued down a cave passageway into the interior, to the sea beyond the mountain and the underworld beyond that. The mountain was the location where earth met sky, and its cave opening served as an entry point to the sea and the underworld. The directional mountain was the threshold to the supernatural world. Bassie-Sweet proposes that the borders of the Maya community were defined by local caves that represented the mythological caves of the guardian deities. She further argues that during the Period Ending ceremony, which was a reenactment of the destruction and re-creation of the quadrilateral world, the ruler reestablished the community boundaries by placing guardian idols and trees at these caves. She characterizes the Period Ending event as an act of renewal. "Reconstruction of classic period Maya beliefs about the structure of the universe based on imagery and hieroglyphic texts from lowland cities. Focuses on cosmological meanings of caves in defining the Maya world and connections with supernatural realms, especially the underworld"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57. This work evaluates late classic Maya cosmology, based on the rituals recorded in their art and hieroglyphic writings as well as in later sources. The author proposes that the borders of the Maya community were defined by local caves which represented the domain of guardian deities.