Actun Tunichil Muknal Is a cave with a river flowing through it. We went there today we got Soaking wet because the river gets as deep as 15 feet. The A.T.M. Cave is the only cave in mesoamerica that has a complete human skeleton. What happened was a teenage boy was brought down to the cave and sacrificed to the gods. Most of the skeletons we saw were scattered all over the place among: Pots, Firepits, and Sacrificial tools.
We saw 5 skeletons in the cave. One was a completely intact skull that belonged to a 30-40 year old man who was sacrificed in the cave. The other two were a 35year old man and a 7 year old girl. The Mayans believed it to be a sign of beauty, when a child was an infant, to tie two boards around their skull to make it more cone shaped. this was believed to make the head look like corn, which was believed to shape todays mankind. We saw multiple examples of this infant head-boarding in the caves.
I hadn’t heard about the head-boarding before. How did this play out in the adult skulls, or would the head eventually grow differently?
Clearly, what impressed you differed greatly from your father’s experience. He liked the geological, etc. aspect but you tell about the cultural part–the remains that prompt us to guess at how they ended up in the cave.
Did your remark about the corn mean that corn was essential to human life and so “shaped” mankind? Because I confess I read it as sarcastic: the corn sugar Americans pump into everything has sure “shaped” mankind…balloon-shaped from too much weight!
Wow! Joe–between the exotic zoo and the caving, you have had incredible experiences in the last couple of days. The cave experience reminded me of the Indiana Jones movie we watched at Gros Cap in September, though it was a little different sitting on the couch with the Mackinaw Bridge in sight. You’ll certainly remember this swim all your life. LOVE YOU XXXXXX Nannie
Wow, that sounds great Joe! We are going to do this tour in February, I think. Thanks for blazing the trail for us.
Sounds fascinating Joe. Very interesting about the binding of the heads and the reference to corn. I understand that they bound the heads at birth. Must have been very painful.
Corn played a very central role in the life of the Mayan people, and they even had a maize god. I am sure you will be hearing more about it. I hope you like the volcanoes you will see while in Antigua, and other parts of Guatemala. Good luck with your Spanish classes.