Valladolid Adventures Part 12: Artifacts recovered from the depths of Cenote Ziis-Há

 

Display of 19th century flintlock muskets recovered from the cenote. It is not unusual for archeologists to discover pre-hispanic artifacts when they dive into Yucatan's deep cenotes. Most of them were thrown in as offerings to the gods. When divers searched the bottom of Cenote Ziis-Há in 2001, they did find a number of ancient offerings, as well as pre-historic animal bones. However, to their astonishment, they also found large numbers of weapons from the mid-19th century. These included flintlock muskets and a large number of musket parts, a cannon, bullets and cannon balls, lance heads, and much more. 

How this 19th century arsenal ended up littering the cenote's depths is a question people have been asking ever since. In this posting, I'll show you some of these artifacts and explore a possible answer to that questioin. The story involves the violent clashes that occurred in 1847, in the immediate vicinity of Convento de San Bernardino de Siena. This was the beginning of Yucatan's 68-year Caste War (1847-1915).

Looking through the museum's "dutch door" into one of the Convento's courtyards.  We entered through this door into the small museum contained in Valladolid's 16th century Franciscan Convento. The museum contains artifacts from the Convento's 600-year history and others from centuries before the Spanish arrived. Along with these items, they also found bones from various animals dating back 11,000 years. These animals probably fell accidentally into the cenote and drowned.

Pre-hispanic artifacts

Post-Classic Maya incense burner. The Post-Classic era lasted from 900 AD -1519 AD. This clay device, called a chemul, was used to burn copal incense during religious rituals. Traces of the incense indicate that it was probably still burning when the chemul was thrown into the cenote as a sacrifice. The incense burner measures 12cm tall x 12cm wide (4.72 x 4.72 inches). Black and red paint still adhered to it when it was found. The design is anthropomorphic (human featured). The face has two bulging eyes under large eyebrows, a partially damaged nose, and a pair of fangs protrudes from either side of the mouth. 

Hollow log used as a drum. A horizontal hollow log drum was called a tun kul by Maya musicians. Long rectangular slots were carved along the top side of the log when it lay flat. This gave it a pleasing tone when it was struck by a padded stick. Music was an important part of pre-hispanic Maya religious rituals, as well as in various secular celebrations and dances. Since it was made entirely of wood, the drum must have floated for a while before becoming waterlogged and sinking to the bottom.

19th century military artifacts 

Ammunition for a musket and a cannon. A cannon with its gun carriage was also found, but they were not on display when I visited. The musket ball (left) is 16mm (0.62in) in diameter. It also might have been part of a collection of balls, called grapeshot. When loaded into a cannon, it effectively became a huge shotgun. A load of these balls, blasted at close range, would have been devastating. The cannon ball (right) was for long-range work. It was capable of killing several warriors at a time. This is unlikely to have been Maya ammunition, because they had few firearms and no cannon.

A large arsenal had been deliberately dropped into the cenote. Some of the muskets had been tied together with cords, while others had been thrown in more randomly. The Maya would have been delighted to find a large, intact cache of firearms and ammunition and would not have intentionally destroyed them. Their opponents, the Yucatecos (non-Maya elites), were highly motivated to keep arms and ammunition, and particularly cannon, out of the hands of Maya rebels.

A nearly intact flintlock musket. The wood stock of the weapon is somewhat deteriorated and the metal parts are rusted, but it is clearly recognizable as a flintlock musket from the late 18th or early 19th centuries. It has been identified as the "India pattern" manufactured by Ketland & Co. of Birmingham, England. The company operated from 1776 to 1830. This type of musket would have been used by the British Army during the American Revolution and in the series of wars against the French that culminated in the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. 

When the British were fighting against Napoleon's forces in Spain from 1808-1814, they supplied their Spanish allies with muskets like this. Some of those weapons may have ended up in Yucatan, which was a Spanish colony until 1821. They might have been used by Spanish soldiers and local royalist militia fighting against insurgents during the War of Independence (1810-1821). We also know that in 1847 the government of Yucatan imported 2000 British muskets from the Spanish colony of Cuba. They arrived on the Spanish ship Amistad Campechana shortly before the Maya uprising that began that same year. 

Collection of musket parts, including four flintlock mechanisms. Also included are five brackets used to secure the muskets' barrels to their wooden stocks. At the bottom right are two metal tubes which kept ramrods in place. A flintlock weapon used a piece of flint, which was fitted into the hammer. When the trigger was pulled, the hammer sprang down, striking the flint against a metal plate. This created a spark which ignited the powder in the gun's barrel. 

The threat of Maya uprisings always haunted the Spanish in Yucatan. The conquistador Francisco Montejo el Sobrino established the new city of Valladolid in 1545, after he conquered the Maya in eastern Yucatan. But the Maya had a disconcerting habit of not staying conquered. In 1546, 20,000 Maya rebels attacked Valladolid and were beaten back with great difficulty.  Over the next 500 years, the Spanish and the Yucatecos (who took over after Independencia), were kept on edge by many more uprisings. The east coast of Yucatan  remained under Maya control well into the 20th century.

More musket parts recovered from the cenote. Included are several trigger guards, some oval parts which held the long barrels in place, faceplates from the sides of the wooden stocks, and a collection of bolts. Archeologists have identified 72 parts from at least 31 different muskets. In addition, they recovered ammunition and a cannon mounted on a gun carriage. 

The actions of the Spanish, and the later Yucateco authorities, caused much resentment among the Maya. As mentioned previously, they took over Ziis-Ha and other key cenotes in water-scarce northern Yucatan. The Franciscan friars and those of other Orders often forced the Maya to gather in large villages, in a practice called congregación. The intent was to convert them and to enforce Catholic religious practices. The friars also burned vast pre-hispanic hieroglyphic libraries and destroyed Maya religious shrines. Maya lands were seized to form haciendas and the owners used forced labor under the ecomienda system. 

A lance head and various other parts. Other than the lance head, the function of the other parts is unclear. You might think that lances were an anachronism in the mid-19th century. However, they were still in use among some of the world's cavalry units as late as the beginning of the Second World War.

The henequen boom greatly accelerated land seizures in the mid-19th century (see Part 7 of this series). The encomienda system was later replaced by an equally oppressive system of debt slavery. All this came to a head in 1847. Yucatan was already in turmoil at the time. In 1839, the Yucatecos had declared Yucatan to be independent from Mexico. There were two factions and two competing capitals. Then, in 1846, Mexico was invaded and much of it was occupied by American armies. Seeing the disarray among the Yucatecos, and that the Mexican government was distracted by the Americans, the Maya prepared for a great revolt. 

The shaft of a piece of wooden machinery. This may have been part of the Convento's  noria (waterwheel) system, which had been built over the cenote. It had fallen into disrepair after the Convento was secularized in 1755. In the century that followed, part of the mechanism may have tumbled into the sinkhole. It is also possible that the noria's waterwheel was dismantled and some of its parts thrown into the cenote to create the space necessary for the arsenal to be dropped into the water. 

In June of 1847, Santiago Méndez was a leader of one of the two Yucateco factions. He heard that the Maya were massing men and supplies in a pueblo near Valladolid. He marched there and summarily executed a local Maya leader. Méndez then rampaged through other villages, burning them and ordering more arbitrary executions. In response, the outraged Maya rounded up and killed all the Yucatecos and other non-Maya people they could lay their hands on. The Maya then marched on Valladolid. Their initial point of attack was the pueblo of Sisal, just outside the city and adjacent to the Convento.

Mural about the Caste War, located in the Palacio Gobierno in Mérida. Ragged Maya fighters, armed with machetes, slash at Yucateco soldiers. This was war "up close and personal" and few prisoners were taken on either side. The Maya were poorly armed, when compared to the Yucateco forces. However, they had overwhelming numbers and a burning hatred born of centuries of abuse. In addition, many of the Maya had military experience. They had served in the various armies involved in the civil wars that had wracked Mexico during the first half of the 19th century. They now put that experience to use.

The Maya forces attacking Sisal numbered about 3000 and were commanded by a man named Trujeque. The Yucateco defenders were led by Comandante Venegas, who led a battalion of 300 well-armed men. They had a cannon, an arsenal of extra muskets and plenty of ammunition. The Yucateco force was well-entrenched and managed to hold off the Maya for two days, even though Trujeque's army outnumbered them by ten to one.

However, when it became clear that his forces would ultimately be overwhelmed, Venegas decided to surrender. It may have been at this point that he ordered his men to throw their weapons into the cenote to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Maya. There are other possible explanations for the presence of the arsenal at the bottom of the cenote, but this one seems most likely to me. 

These bells once hung in the Convento's bellfry, but were removed during the revolt. The bells did not end up in the Cenote Ziis-Há, however. They were taken to the Capilla de San Roque (now the Museum of San Roque) in Valladolid and buried in its atrium. It was not unusual during wartime for church bells to be melted down and the metal re-cast as cannons. This may have been the reason they were removed and hidden. The Convento's church was ransacked, but the rest of the Convento was left mostly intact. 

Comandante Venegas's surrender did not save him or his men. Either his white flag was not seen before the final assault, or it was ignored. The entire garrison were slaughtered, along with most of Sisal's non-Maya women, children, the elderly, and priests. The Maya went on to capture Valladolid and all of Yucatan except for the cities of Campeche and Mérida. The Governor was about to order a complete evacuation of Yucatan when the Maya suddenly began to retreat. The season had changed and the Maya farmers had to return to till their fields or their families would have starved. Yucatan's Caste War then dragged on until 1915.

This completes Part 12 of my Valladolid Adventures series. I hope you have enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question in the Comments, please include your email address so that I can respond in a timely fashion.

Hasta luego, Jim