The Stela Cave

This opening leads into a low domed chamber that is approximately five meters in diameter and three meters at its highest point. The floor of this entrance room is littered with Late Classic pot- tery fragments and displays substantial evidence of recent human activity loot- ing. At the southern comer of the entrance room there is a narrow crevice that drops sharply downward to a narrow passageway. This passageway then gradu- ally spirals upward until it reaches the Stela Chamber, which is situated above the level of the entrance room see Figure 9.

The Stela Chamber measures 9 meters long northeast to southwest by 4. As H elmke et al. Laberinto de las Tarantulas upper passages plan view, featuring the Stela Chamber. Reconstruction of Laberinto de las Tarantulas stela monument in situ. Laberinto de las Tarantulas Drawn by Christophe G. In the middle of the room, "the Maya erected dry-laid retaining walls on the eastern and western flanks of this pile of breakdown.

The walls retain soil and colluvium that were transported to the chamber to create a level surface atop the pile of breakdown. It should be noted that without these architectural modifications it would have been difficult to erect the stela. Consequently it appears that the re- taining walls were constructed to facilitate the erection of the slate monument" Helmke et al. The stela was found lying on its side almost at the center of the floor area of the small chamber. It is quite possible that the monument was originally set in a vertical position and was only recently dislodged by looters Figure 9.

This interpretation is suggested by the presence of a small pile of boulders en- circling a depression at the center of the room, by several chips and flakes of slate that appear to have been recently broken off the monument, and by widespread evidence of looting throughout the cave. The stela is 1. Its average thickness is 3 centimeters, and this is fairly uniform from top to bottom. Cultural remains in association with the stela were minimal, but this pat- tern may reflect the rampant looting activity rather than the original situation.

Indeed, we found potsherds, many with fresh breaks, around the perimeter of the room. This small ceramic assemblage included Roaring Creek Red: In front of the pile of rocks that may have originally held the stela in a vertical position we found flecks of charcoal and some ash. Passages that lead from the Stela Chamber also contain nine complete and seven partial vessels. With only a small area in the main tunnel that has active drip-water formations, Chechem Ha is also best described as a dry cave.

The site was discovered by a local farmer in and was initially explored by members of the Belize Department of Ar- chaeology and mapped by British spelunkers that same year Williams In , , and , the WBRCP remapped the cave, excavated several units, and point-plotted all cultural remains within the site Figure 9. The entrance to Chechem Ha is a small 1. Beyond the entrance a high narrow passage gradually descends into the cave interior until it eventually constricts into an impassable tunnel about meters from the entrance.

Several alcoves and small chambers are located at different elevations above the floor of the main passageway. The Stela Chamber is at the end of a low tunnel Tunnel 2 that extends from Chamber 3. Tunnel 2 is initially narrow but then widens slightly before dropping sharply downward to the Stela Chamber. The recessed Stela Chamber is approximately meters from the entrance to the cave. The room is 9 meters wide by 15 meters long and more than 20 meters high Figure 9. The stela is set in a vertical position at the center of the chamber and is encircled by a ring 1.

In front and along the east side of the stela there is an upright speleothem approximately 40 centimeters in height Figure 9. A small cavity at the top of the speleothem contains ashes and flecks of charcoal. Actun Chechem Ha plan view. Drawn by Reiko Ishihara.

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The Chechem Ha stela is 0. It is 40 centimeters wide at base, 47 centi- meters wide at center, and tapers to 22 centimeters at the top. Surface collection on the floor of the Stela Cham- ber recovered a few potsherds and several animal bones. On a small ledge high above the floor of the room there is a jar containing uncarbonized nightshade Solanum sp.

Five excavation units in the Stela Chamber recovered only a: Actun Chechem Ha Stela Chamber plan view. Actun Chechem Ha stela monument plan and profile views. Cave Stelae and Megalithic Monuments in Western Belize two nondiagnostic body sherds along with a large assemblage of animal remains see Figure 9.

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Preliminary analysis of the fauna! Most of the ceramic remains in the Stela Chamber at Chechem Ha are con- centrated along the sides of the room and are predominantly represented by Late Classic jar forms. The caretakers of the cave provided us with fragments of three effigy censers, which they reported finding beside the western wall of the cham- ber, approximately three meters from the stela personal communication with Awe, These vessels are hollow, cylindrical in form, and have projecting wings or flanges on either side. The front of the censers are modeled to repre- sent faces with large rounded eyes, wide mouths, crooked projecting noses, and appliqued cruller designs above the nose.

We discovered cultural remains in addition to the materials in the Stela Chamber in practically all other areas of Chechem H a Cave. Most of these re- mains, however, are concentrated in high, difficult-access alcoves and cham- bers. Along the main passage, about ten meters beyond the entrance, are several sherds of Savannah Orange and Reforma Incised that suggest that the prehis- toric use of Actun Chechem Ha or, at least of the cave entrance may extend as far back as the Middle Preclassic Period nc.

On Ledge 6, high above the Main Tunnel Figure 9. Morphological study of the maize revealed that the cobs share nu- merous similarities with species of maize still cultivated in the Maya Lowlands Morehart Two other chambers in the cave contain several large jars Cayo Unslipped , many of which are covered by inverted Mount Maloney Black bowls. Other vessels in these rooms include shallow dishes that have been identified as Benque Viejo Polychrome and Platon Punctated Incised, both dating to the Late Classic.

Comparisons Prior to this report, there have only been two cursory accounts of "possible" stelae in theMaya area.

The earliest account was published by Samuel K. Loth- rop in According to Andrews and Andrews We therefore have no information about the size of the stela, its raw material, its location within the chamber, or the nature of associated cultural remains. The second account is considerably more informative, but the presence of an actual cave stela may be debatable, since it derives from our interpretation of data previously recorded by E. In his description of Balan- k. The latter was a small domed chamber that represented the "limit of human penetration in this direction.

In front of this central slab of stone was a hearth, with several centimeters of charcoal from burnt offerings, including a number of shell and jade beads. The form of the monument, its erect position at the cen- ter of the room, and the contextual distribution of the associated remains in the Group IV Chamber all support this interpretation. Apart from the two Yucatan examples, the available literature describes only one other possible stone stela or megalithic monument in a Lowland Maya cave. Deep within Naj Tunich, in a passage of extremely difficult access referred to as K'u Multun, Stone The altar consists of a meter-high heap of rocks shoved up against the wall Figure A fiat rock lay at the top of the pile, t hough nothing was on it.

Propped up by this mass of rocks is a vertical stone seventy centimeters high. The vertical rock bends and tapers nearly to a point over which the Maya had hung two olla rims The stones comprising the altar were in all likelihood laboriously hauled up from the North Passage. Tlaloc effigy censers G: Carved limestone censers D: Studded hourglass censer Figure adapted from a drawing by George E.

Despite the apparently limited distribution of cave stelae, several other in- vestigators see, e. In Te Tun Cave approximately 5 kilo- meters east of Petroglyph Cave Bonor and Martinez discovered a col- umn carved with crude faces above a formation that was modified to resemble an altar. One of these stones was a broken stalagmite. Immediately in front of the uprights was a meter-square area of fiat stones.

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A similar arrangement of three vertically set speleothems in association with an altar has been reported in a cave in the Bladen area of southern Belize Prufer In his publication of Anderson's excavations at Rio Frio, Pendergast The body of the stalagmite is a somewhat irregular hemisphere, with the flat surface resting on the cave floor; atop this is a small spherical section, giving the object the appearance of a seated human figure Plates 3 and 4. Anderson examined this unusual ob- ject closely during his first visit, and found that there was a row of eight small circular depressions down the front, accentuating the effect of a cape cover- ing the body.

He also recovered burnt wood, charcoal and sherds coated with carbonized material from a roughly circular shallow depression in front of the "head. We would also suggest that the eight circular depressions at the front of the figure have little to do with a "cape," but actually represent crude steps that lead up the altar to the small monument above. That the spherical section, iden- tified by Anderson as the "head" of the figure, more likely represents a monu- ment is further supported by the discovery of "burnt wood, charcoal and sherds coated with carbonized material from a roughly circular shallow depression in front of the 'head"' Pendergast As in western Belize, several caves containing speleothem "monuments" have been discovered in the eastern region of the Peten Province of Guatemala see Figure 9.

At Naj Tunich, Brady et al.

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Furthermore, "The open space south of the altar is dominated by a large stalagmite, 1. A search of the area failed to find the place from which the shaft had originally come, and the weight of the piece ensures that it could not have been moved any great dis- tance by natural forces. It was concluded that the shaft had been moved to that location by the Maya and could have been set vertically at one time, although there is no evidence for the latter. This is particularly true when we consider that at Yaxchilan a large speleothem was, in fact, carved and used as a stela Tate Despite the Yaxchilan examples, however, the use of speleothems as monu- ments or stelae at either subterranean or surface sites is rare.

In contrast, their use for practical and nonmonumental purposes is relatively common in the Maya Lowlands see Brady et al. For example, they have been found carved into figurines at D owner's Cave near the Sibun River and in unmodified form within an axial cache in Ballcourt 3 at Baking Pot Ferguson ; see Figure 9. In order to fully appreciate the significance of these discoveries, however, there are several crucial questions that need to be addressed.

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For example, was the erection of cave stelae temporally sensitive? What kinds of rituals were associated with these monuments in caves, and why did the ancient Maya erect them?

In the Yucatan, specifi- cally at Balankanche, cultural remains associated with the monuments suggest a similar Terminal Classic to Early Postclassic date AD The place- ment of vertically set speleothems in caves is also a contemporaneous Terminal Classic activity in both the Peten and Belize, and the speleothem stela Stela 31 at Yaxchilan is believed to be of Late Classic date Tate The avail- able data, therefore, suggest that the practice of erecting stone and speleothem monuments in caves was a Late Classic to Early Postclassic tradition in the east- ern Maya Lowlands.

It must be noted, however, that the database is limited, and future investigations could very well extend the time frame for this cultural activity. The contextual distribution of cave monuments also seems to reflect a similar pattern from one site to the other.

At Balankanche, the small Group IV Cham- ber, which contains the stela, is very difficult to get to and is one of the two rooms farthest from the entrance see Andrews The same is true for the stela rooms in Chechem Ha and Tarantula Caves. At Actun Tunichil Muknal the Stela Chamber is not the room farthest from the entrance, but the location of the ledge high above the streamway and the necessity of travers- ing several deep pools and a complicated breakdown passage before reaching the monuments clearly demonstrate that accessibility to the Stela Chamber was both limited and challenging.

Difficulty of access and distance from the entrance are characteristics that are also shared by the rooms with the stone monument in the K'u Multun chamber in Naj Tunich Stone What kinds of rituals were associated with these monuments? While this question is more difficult to address, a careful examination of the artifacts as- sociated with the monuments can provide important clues to the activities that were conducted around them.

In front of the monument at Balankanche, An- drews The Tunichil Muknal chamber had two ob- sidian bloodletters and fragments of charcoal at the base of the stela. Around the monuments were also a Molded-carved vase with a glyphic Primary Standard Sequence, a carved slate slab with a depiction of Tlaloc, four ceramic dishes, and fragments of a large olla.

The stone monument in the K'u Multun chamber in Naj Tunich was associated with a large amount of charcoal, several pottery fragments, a piece of unworked jade, two fragmented ceramic vessels, and a painted Calendar Round date of AD Stone According to Stone U , That the Maya performed ceremonies at this altar is evidenced by eight piles of charcoal found in interstices and depressions within the mass of rocks.

Most of the burning took place toward the top of the heap. The front surface of the tapered vertical stone was smoke-blackened from a fire set behind a small rock resting on the top of the rock pile All available evidence points to the idea that a ceremony was performed at the altar that included smashing the plate, painting the inscription, and burning small fires on the altar.

The presence of charcoal within all the chambers containing monuments thus suggests that the burning of organic materials was an activity that accom- panied most of the ceremonies conducted before these monuments. In the early 13th century, their leader and prior referred to in the rule only as 'Brother B,' although sometimes claimed despite an absence of supporting evidence to be either Saint Brocard or Saint Bertold asked the patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Albert , to provide the group with a written rule of life. Within a few decades, these monastic hermits left the troubled Holy Land and the Carmelite order spread throughout Europe, where, from onwards, the Order had begun to found houses.

He had a small monastery constructed on the promontory at Mount Carmel, close to the lighthouse , and the friars lived there until , when Zahir al-Umar , the then effectively independent ruler of Galilee, ordered them to vacate the site and demolish the monastery. The Order then moved to the present location, which is directly above the grotto where the prophet Elijah is said to have lived.

Here they built a large church and monastery, first clearing the site of the ruins of a medieval Greek church, known as "the Abbey of St. Margaret " and a chapel, thought to date back to the time of the Byzantine Empire. This new church was seriously damaged in Napoleon 's campaign. Sick and wounded French soldiers were accommodated in the monastery, and when Napoleon withdrew, the Turks slaughtered them and drove out the friars. In , Abdullah Pasha of Acre ordered the ruined church to be totally destroyed, so that it could not serve as a fort for his enemies, while he attacked Jerusalem.

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The masonry was used to build a Abdullah Pasha's summer palace and a lighthouse , [1] which were sold back to the Carmelite order in The current church and monastery, built under the orders of Brother Cassini of the Order, was opened in For much of the 20th Century it was occupied by the military, first the British, and later the Israelis, but at the end of their lease it was handed back to the Order. The Monastery serves as a centre of Carmelite spirituality throughout the world. The symbol of the Order is mounted right above the entrance door.

During the erection of the church, friars were assaulted by their neighbors and had to defend their property and the church guests. As a result, the monastery's ground floor is built out of thick walls with few and small openings covered by bars. The monastery's main church resembles the shape of a cross. Its dome is decorated by colorful paintings based on motifs from both the Old and New Testament: Latin inscriptions of biblical verses are written around the dome. The altar stands on an elevated platform situated above a small cave associated with Elijah. The cave can be reached from the nave by descending a few steps and holds a stone altar with a small statue of Prophet Elijah.