Ancient Maya City Layout Resembles a Crocodile: Symbolism or Happenstance?

According to a recent study, an ancient Maya city resembles a crocodile concerning its layout. However, other scientists are disputing the published analysis. The question is whether this is intended as symbolism or just happenstance.

Ancient Maya City Nixtun-Ch'ich'

The largest and most powerful settlement in Mesoamerican history during the Middle Preclassic era was Nixtun-Ch'ich. The most distinguishing aspect of the city is its gridded urban core, which is centered on a 2-mile-long row of 21 buildings.

According to the study's authors, the city was planned and is comparable to a modern town in that it was built to encourage social interaction.

According to a study, Prudence Rice, an author of the study and a professor of anthropology from Southern Illinois University, has previously put forth the theory that the unusual layout of the Maya city may have been designed to resemble the scaly back of a crocodile in a previous study published in Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.

Crocodiles in Mayan Culture

Crocodiles were significant in the Maya's worldview and stood for a variety of concepts and symbols. The crocodile, Itzam Cab Ain, is a representation of the earth. At the time of creation, this monster was sacrificed, dismembered, and turned into the ordered universe. It was believed that crocodiles were in charge of the soil's fertility and the timely arrival of rain.

Maya Cosmology

Crocodiles were, according to Harri Kettunen, a Maya culture specialist from the University of Helsinki in Finland, a fundamental element of the prehistoric Maya culture. Animals are frequently combined with other animals in Maya art to create fantastical creatures. Since the crocodile's back resembles the thorny trunk of a ceiba tree, it is also common for people to fuse crocodiles with trees.

The ceiba tree, which served as a bridge between the sky, Earth, and the underworld, was revered as the most sacred tree by the ancient Maya.

According to Paul Healy, a professor in Trent University's Department of Anthropology in Canada, crocodiles are depicted in early Maya artwork such as stone monuments, buildings, painted ceramics, and carved figures made from a variety of materials. Crocodiles can also stand in for a canoe, which can also stand in for the Milky Way as it spans the sky. It is challenging to pin down precise, constant meanings for these religious symbols, according to archaeologist David Pugh.

Healy said that the crocodile, like the jaguar, was a potent symbol among the ancient Maya due to its size and ferocity as a major tropical predator.

He brought up the possibility that shamanistic figures in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica wore crocodile hides. In addition to the numerous depictions of crocodiles in early Maya art, crocodile faunal bones have also been found at numerous Maya sites, suggesting that the animal also had a wealth of ceremonial as well as cosmological associations.

The Nixtun-Ch'ich' Crocodile Layout

The layout of Nixtun-Ch'ich', in Rice's theory, had spiritual significance and was intended to resemble the mythical crocodile of creation, showing the significance of ideological power in the growth of complex societies.

The configuration of the site and the shape of the structures therein are revealed on maps made using GPS data, revealing its structured throughways arranged in a grid of straight lines.

According to Pugh, the site's crocodile-like appearance was caused by the city's construction with bilateral symmetry along the peninsula, and the city was undoubtedly planned.

From above, the peninsula of Nixtun-Ch'ich resembles the outline of a crocodile. In addition, the tall hill to the north offered a good view of the city's shape.

Other Crocodile Creation Myths

There may have been additional allusions to the crocodile creation myth in the city.

The crocodile, according to some myths, had a hole in its back. Rice mentioned the potential existence of a cenote, which at the time were sinkholes filled with water that could be found throughout the Maya lowlands, in Nixtun-Ch'ich. When looking at the map, the layout does resemble a crocodile with a hole in its back.

Lack of Evidence

Although crocodiles were frequently depicted in many Maya iconographies, the city is the only known instance of a Maya archaeological site that may have been built to resemble one, according to Pugh. The researcher clarified that there is no certainty that the Maya intended for the city to have a crocodile-like appearance.

He said that the location undoubtedly resembles a crocodile, but it's also possible that it is a Rorschach phenomenon, where symmetry, like ink blots, unintentionally makes something appear to be a crocodile. More proof is required, and this proof could come in the form of an artifact or piece of artwork that shows the city next to a crocodile to show that the design was deliberate.

The idea that the city was based on a crocodile's body is disputed by some Maya specialists, including Kettunen.

Kettunen added that he didn't think the Maya of antiquity had it in mind when they built the city.

Divine City

If the Maya did intend for the site to resemble a crocodile, according to Pugh, their objective would have been to build the city in the shape of the universe as it was created by the gods.

He claimed that they may have built a divine city by imitating the actions of the gods.

According to Pugh and Rice, evidence at the site suggests that Nixtun-Ch'ich' served as an important ritual or religious center throughout the pre-classic period and was filled with symbolic public infrastructure and architecture. Their new study was published in the Frontiers in Political Science journal.

According to the researchers' findings in the Frontiers article, the settlement served as a microcosm of the orderly cosmos, the harmony between water and earth, and the cycles of rain and fertility. These characteristics were symbolic public goods that improved Nixtun-Ch'ich's quality of life and contributed to its recognition as the Creation place, Newsweek reports.