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Thompson’s dredging of the Sacred Cenote was remarkable on a number of levels. The cenote had tempted earlier explorers who were drawn by accounts of treasure—not to mention virgins— being flung into the well. Verifying the accuracy of the virgin stories might have some academic or prurient interest, but verifying the tales of the existence of treasure was more intriguing. Earlier, Charnay, knowing of the accounts, had provided himself with “two automatic Toselli sounding-machines, one of which is capable of bringing up half a cubic metre deposit; but unfortunately I could not get it to work, owing to the height of the walls, the depth of the water, and the enormous detritus of several centuries” (Charnay 1887, 358). The cenote was formidable. It is rather oblong in shape, and the two diameters measured 150 by 190 feet (Morley 1946, 239). The surface of the water was well below the edge of the cenote— sixty-five feet when Charnay was attempting to dredge—and the walls were perpendicular. Altogether Charnay found it to be a physically impossible task, and an uninviting one as well. “The desolation of this aguado,” he wrote, “its walls shrouded with brambles, shrubs and lianas, the somber forest beyond, but above all the lugubrious associations attaching to it, fill the imagination with indescribable melancholy” (Charnay 1887, 353). Charnay was not being entirely fanciful in his description. Even today, amidst crowds of tourists, the cenote can seem very large and atmospheric. It is not a welcoming place. The problems of dredging the cenote were the same for Thompson as those Charnay had encountered years earlier in his attempts to dredge. The work could be done only from the upper rim; there are no ledges or shelves in the walls that could be used to support a dredging apparatus. Thompson had set up a derrick on the south side of the cenote. A boom extended from this, at the end of which was a steel bucket or dredge to be let down into the cenote. The 117 ______________________________________ Chapter Seventeen Dredging the Cenote You will be pleased to hear how very successful the dredging is being carried on and the remarkably interesting results that we are obtaining. —Edward H. Thompson to Frederic Ward Putnam, April ,  118 Chapter Seventeen ______________________________________ entire apparatus took five hundred yards of steel cable and rope. Thompson built the derrick on one rim of the cenote where a substantial shelf of rock makes a natural platform that was probably once used for ceremonial activities. He had experimented with tossing logs into the cenote and noting where they fell, and from this he determined a wedge-shaped “fertile zone” where material was likely to be found. This theory turned out not to be very useful in actual practice, in part because matter at the bottom of the cenote tended to shift. The dredge, which was not very large, would bring up muck, and objects, it was hoped, from the bottom. Thompson then had to go through the muck carefully, feeling for any object at all. Thompson hoped the dredging would lead to a “big find,” his hope for securing his future and making his name in archaeology. The dredging was a gamble on his part. He went out on a limb to get the funding for the operation, and his backers, notably Putnam and Salisbury, would want results. So far they had had little return from his work. If the dredging failed, not only would it be a financial debacle, but it would ruin him professionally. Thompson couched his intent in scientific inquiry, and no doubt he thought that the objects he hoped to find would enlighten scholars about the people of Chichén, their goods, and their rituals. But the impression of scientific inquiry generated some skepticism. His intentions were not entirely academic altruism; he was highly interested in the valuables. Furthermore, this was not a matter of rescuing material that was in danger, with the notion of preserving the material. The cold, oxygen-free muck at the bottom of the cenote was an excellent preservative. Problems arose when some of the material was exposed to air. Thompson was scrupulous about secrecy in the operations. He could not completely hide the dredging, but he did close off Chichén as much as he could. He examined the muck only when no one else was around. And he particularly did not want the Mexicans to know what he was doing, and...

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