MEXICO CITY.- For centuries, Maya communities have viewed caves and cenotes not simply as geological formations, but as sacred portals—a threshold between the world of the living and the vast, mysterious underworld known as Xibalbá. Now, new archaeological research is shedding light on when and how this powerful connection first emerged in Maya cosmology.

During a recent session of the Seminar on Anthropology and Applied Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), underwater archaeologist Carmen Rojas Sandoval, from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Quintana Roo, presented fresh findings that trace the deep roots of funerary practices in the flooded caves of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Rojas’s lecture, Funerary Treatments in Caves and Cenotes of Tulum, emphasized that while scholars have long known that prehistoric groups used caves for burials, the exact moment when these places took on a central spiritual role remains a key question. “These treatments represent the beginnings of Maya funerary practices,” she explained. “What we still need to understand is when they transformed and became a fundamental part of the Mesoamerican worldview.”

Unearthing the Earliest Burials

Over the last few decades, discoveries such as Naharon, Las Palmas, Muknal, Chan Hol 1, Chan Hol 2, and Ixchel have revealed a remarkable continuity in the use of caves—from prehistoric times up through the Classic Maya period (250–900 CE).

One of the most striking examples is the Lady of Las Palmas, who lived near what is now Tulum around 12,000 years ago. She died at roughly 45 to 50 years old, and her remains were placed carefully in a cave surrounded by dramatic stalagmites and stalactites. Often, bodies from this era were wrapped in animal skins, suggesting intentional, symbolic preparation.

Another early burial, known as the Muknal Grandfather, involved the deliberate transfer of remains into a deep chamber filled with charcoal more than 10,000 years ago. Such practices, Rojas noted, signal the beginnings of ritualized treatment of the dead—and possibly the early seeds of the belief that caves were gateways to the afterlife.

Caves as Portals to the Afterlife

What emerges from the accumulating evidence is a vivid picture: ancient groups did not select caves at random. They chose spaces with striking features—columns of mineral deposits, echoing chambers, underwater passages—natural elements that likely fed into a growing spiritual narrative about descent, darkness, and transformation.

These choices anticipate what would later become a fully developed Maya belief system in which the soul journeyed into the underworld, facing trials before being reborn as a living force within plants, trees, or fruits. This worldview remains alive today in Indigenous communities. In Yucatec Maya, common expressions for death translate as “entered the water” or “began their journey.”

Research in Progress

Rojas currently leads the Holocene Archaeology Project of Quintana Roo, focused on understanding how early social groups organized themselves and how their funerary practices evolved. The project aims to illuminate when cenotes and caves shifted from burial sites to fully sacred spaces at the center of Maya cosmology.

The work has profound implications—not only for understanding ancient belief systems, but also for preserving the fragile underwater archaeological heritage of the region.

“These sites help us understand how the Maya made sense of life and death,” Rojas said. “They are windows into the earliest chapters of human history in the Americas, and into a worldview that continues to resonate today.”