Were the Ancient Mayan Hells Vertical or Horizontal?

Loltun Cave, photo by selkie30.

Did the ancient Maya think of the afterlife as layered vertical levels or as horizontal chambers?

In the 1300s, Dante's Inferno ("Divine Comedy") convinced Europe that there are nine circles of hell and nine circles of heaven, layered one on top of the next. If your sin is gluttony, for instance, you are punished in the third circle of hell. If your sin is fraud or treason you are in real trouble; you go to the eighth or ninth circles of hell which are as bad as it gets. Western religions were influenced by Dante's vision. The Franciscan and Dominican priests taught it. They taught it in the New World as Spain conquered the Maya culture. The Mayan texts that explain ancient beliefs were written AFTER the conquest. Native Mayan scholars of the Colonial period reported how their ancient ancestors thought. And, lo and behold, they portrayed them as seeing the afterworld as layered. Just like the European belief!

Now that could mean one of two things: either the afterlife really is layered and both cultures picked up on that reality. Or else, the Spanish influenced the reporting of the Maya.

Scholars today argue about this. It is "common knowledge" in textbooks that the ancient Maya believed in a nine-layered hell and a nine or thirteen-layered heaven. Here is an example from a reliable online resource: 'The nine-layered underworld also played a significant part in Maya cosmology.... As Michael Coe so eloquently states, "The Mesoamerican cosmos was one in constant flux, in which space and time were co-terminous, in which the heavenly bodies moved in fixed layers, and which was in constant peril of cataclysm". '

But, what if ...
What if the ancient Maya never believed that?
What if they saw the underworld as chambers on one level (like in a cave)?
What if the Spanish had been so successful at changing the ancient culture that the Maya of their day began to report that "yes, our ancient people saw the afterlife as layers one on top of the other"?
Wouldn't scholars feel stupid?

There is an article in the journal Antiquity that is convincing. The authors, Jesper Nielsen and Toke Sellner Reunert, show how this possibly erroneous idea of layering made its way into common knowledge. The article is called "Dante's Heritage: Questioning the Multi-Layered Model of the Mesoamerican Universe". The authors conclude that probably the ancient Maya saw the afterlife as a horizontal place. They probably thought of it as consisting of four groupings around the outside of a circle - four cardinal directions and a center. It makes perfect sense if you think of how prevalent caves and cenotes were in their surroundings. Caves are a horizontal series of chambers. Caves represented the underworld Xibalba. The authors point out that actual inscriptions from the ancient people don't portray layers. Only texts that were written after the Spanish got there illustrate a layered version.

Shaky common knowledge can build upon itself. The famous Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson seemed to talk himself into something here:
1934: "it is possible that the various groups of Maya direction gods ... were considered to be on different celestial or terrestrial planes."
1954: [compartments of the gods] "may have been thought to be arranged as ... horizontal layers one above the other."
1970: "there are thirteen layers of the skies ... just as there are nine layers of the underworld."
See how he eventually lost the "possibly" or "may have been"?

This is a cautionary tale. Our view of the past can be totally wrong. Or partially wrong. And, with the internet, it's possible for common knowledge build upon itself until it has constructed a huge nine level pyramid of its very own.

I will keep this in mind as I follow Calleman's wave theory. His "sixth night" comes soon. November 7th is when it begins. I plan to sell my stocks and buy gold-type investments for my paltry IRA. I love following kooky theories. But, I'll still stick to reasonable investments because after all ... he's building his theory on nine levels, and Nielsen and Reunert can show that that's nutty.

Related posts:More on Calleman's wave theory.
More on my crazy finances.
In the Popol Vuh, Xibalba really does seem to be one one level.
Current MY2K article.