Archaeological Investigations in the Candelaria Caves and La Lima, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala

The Role of the Candelaria Caves in the Maya World

Unlike other caves in the region, Candelaria began to be used only around the beginning of the Classic period, and peaked in the Early Classic with rituals apparently performed by people with distinctly Central Petén tastes. The smaller, more concentrated Late Classic use appears to have been unrelated to earlier use, as it is almost exclusively northern highland and consists of entirely local modes. What could have accounted for this change?

Another FAMSI-sponsored project directed by Federico Fahsen (2002) to rescue the newly-discovered steps of a hieroglyphic staircase at Dos Pilas revealed that Tikal already had control of the Río Pasión and at least the riverine section of the Great Western Trade Route before the founding of Dos Pilas, and the reason for the city's existence was to maintain Tikal's control of the route. This would indicate that the practitioners of ritual activities in the Candelaria Caves were at least associated with Tikal in the Early Classic, if not merchants and travelers from the site itself, which would account for the more "cosmopolitan" tastes in ceramic vessels.

In the Late Classic, however, use of the river system changed drastically. Many new sites were founded, including Cancuén (Demarest and Barrientos 2002), Dos Pilas (Houston and Matthews 1985), and possibly Raxruha Viejo (Bill et al. 2003). Cancuén was situated at the headwaters of the Río Pasión and served as a processing center for exotic raw materials coming down from the highlands (Kovacevich 2003), rendering travel into the highlands by lowland merchants obsolete. As a result, use of the caves decreased dramatically and became replaced by local ritual activities, and exterior ties shifted to the highlands, possibly with intermittent use by residents of Cancuén (accounting for the scattered Late Classic lowland wares).

The presence of exotics such as obsidian from Pachuca (Carpio, pers. comm. 2004) and Cerro de las Navajas (cf. Arnauld 1986) as well as apparently locally produced versions of fine orange ceramics show that La Lima lasted further into the Terminal Classic than sites immediately to the north. This again reaffirms ties to the Northern Highlands, did not collapse with the Petén. However, with the loss of the lowland market, use of the Candelaria Caves appears to have ceased soon after the abandonment of Cancuén and the cessation of the trade route, and residents of La Lima moved away soon after.

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