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AMCS Bulletin 12 — Chapter 4 79Figure 4.8.2. Actun Tsub. Artificially widened shaftleading to pool below.4.8.4). The area shown in figure 4.8.5 has been strippedof speleothems and short soda straws currently growfrom the stumps of those stalactites that were brokenoff.Stalactites hanging from portions of the ceiling ashigh as 3 m above the cave floor were also removed.Rarely did these exceed 10 cm in diameter, and couldhave been knocked off with the aid of a long, hardwoodpole. In areas where the ceiling was lower,stalactites as wide as 45 cm were detached. With respectto speleothem removal, there did not appear to be adistinction between those areas near the entrance andthose areas along the cave’s periphery.A one hundred percent surface collection of thecave was conducted and only three sherds were recovered(see table 4.8.1). All were Early Classic indate and found near the entrance area. As mentionedabove, the bottom of the main pool and the bottoms ofthe two other pools were also surveyed. We expectedto find broken vessels on the bottom of the pool at thepoint beneath the well shaft, but it is possible that theylie beneath a thick layer of silt.Figure 4.8.4. Evidence of stalactite breakage in Actun Tsub,central formation.Figure 4.8.3. Pool in Actun Tsub.was artificially created after ancient visitors to the caverealized that water could be drawn from the surfacewith little effort (once a well shaft has been excavated).This would provide an alternative to descending theinto the cave by ladder (through the primary entrance)and walking down to the edge of one of the cave’sother pools or standing on the edge of the shaft in thecave floor and drawing water with a rope and bucket.Regardless of intent, the lower shaft (as seen in figure4.8.2) exhibits clear evidence of artificial widening.Unlike other water-bearing caves in the survey,Actun Tsub contains no offerings or architectural features.However, speleothem breakage and removal wasmore intensively practiced than in other caves in theregion. The countless stumps across the ceiling andfloor indicate that the cave was once rich inspeleothems, though it is now almost completely denuded.Stalactites once hanging from the cluster inthe center of the cave have all been removed (figure