Loltun Cave is a
cave
Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...
in the
Yucatán
Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida.
...
, approximately south of
Oxkutzcab. The cave contains
paintings
Painting is a visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or " support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush. Other implements, ...
attributed to the
Maya civilization
The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writin ...
from the Late Preclassic Era or even older. The name is
Mayan for "Flower Stone" ("Lol-Tun").
History
This cave is about two kilometers in length.
Inside Loltún there is evidence that confirms human occupation such as recovered bones of
mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...
, bison, cats, and deer remains from the pleistocene.
On the walls you can observe natural formations and
paintings
Painting is a visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or " support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush. Other implements, ...
, hand painted with representations of the technique of negative human faces painted on the walls, sculptural representations, representations of animals and some geometric shapes. Tools were also recovered.
The prehispanic Maya also used the cave as shelter and used to extract the clay to make their tools.
The tour offers visits to the galleries and natural formations known locally as the room of musical columns, a vault known as the cathedral, jaltunes, Grand Canyon, corn cob, the infant, black hand paintings, the room of stalactites and trenches.
The Huechil cavity was excavated where they found remains of extinct fauna such as
mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...
bones and vegetation different from today.
The occupation in Loltún goes back more than 10,000 years and served as a hiding place during the
caste war
A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...
.
Location
It is located 110 kilometers southwest of
Mérida. It is 7 km south of the town of
Oxkutzcab.
See also
*
Maya cave sites
Mayan cave sites are associated with the Mayan civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Beliefs and observances connected with these cave sites persist among some contemporary Mayan communities. Many of the Mayan caves served religious purposes. ...
References
External links
Loltun Cave Photo ArchiveINAH official siteCaves of the YucatanPhoto Essay of the Loltun Cave
Caves of Mexico
Cave sites in Mesoamerican archaeology
Maya sites in Yucatán
Landforms of Yucatán
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