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AMCS Bulletin 12 — Chapter 3 29Figure 3.1. Cave sites of Yucatán and northern Campeche (after Bonor Villarejo 1989a:fig. 29a).close connection between settlements and cenotes inthis area. It is well known that in Yucatán, cenoteswere closely linked to community identity. In his synthesisof cave function, Thompson (1975: xiv–xv) ratestheir use as sources of drinking water as the mostimportant. This is noteworthy because it is the onlyutilitarian use listed among his major functions. Notsurprisingly then, archaeologists in Yucatán havetended to stereotypically assign caves the function ofwater sources. While the ritual role of the Cenote ofSacrifice at Chichén Itzá is widely recognized, it isoften assumed that its sacred function is somewhatunique and was made possible by the fact that theCenote Xtoloc functioned as the site’s utilitarian watersource. The implicit assumption is that a ritual functionis incompatible with a utilitarian function.Cave archaeologists have begun to question theseassumptions. The fact that cenotes are marked bycrosses, named in prayers (Góngora Cámara andPreuss 1990:144; Redfield 1941:117) and are the focusof ceremonies (Redfield 1941:118–119) indicatesthat they have a sacred significance regardless of theiruse as water sources. In the Puuc area, it is well knownthat chultunes (as well as aguadas) made urban life inthe hills possible (Barrera Rubio 1985, 1987; BonorVillarejo 1987a; McAnany 1990; Zapata Peraza 1987;see also Veni 1990). Barrera Rubio (1985) also mentionsthat the soil of the Puuc is excellent for agricultureand explains how the Maya were able to effectivelymitigate the water situation by directing the constructionand maintenance of chultunes and catchment basins.A detailed study of these features in the Puuc was conductedby Zapata Peraza (1989). Barrera Rubio (1995)raises the question of whether or not a “cave” must bea natural or human-made environment in order topossess sacred qualities. The study focuses on the modeledstucco sculptures found on the walls ofchultunes— many of which are animals often associatedwith rain. He asserts that the sacred qualities likelyascribed to chultunes are due to the scarcity of waterbearingcaves in the Puuc region. In other words, theyfunctioned as surrogates.Once again, the morphological continuum connectingthe two extremes (remote cave pool and opencenote) and the sacredness of cave/cenotes will beexplored in the final chapter of the dissertation.