The Chilam Balam of Chumayel: Xibalba, katun history, and sacred geography

Record summary

The Chilam Balam of Chumayel is a colonial Yucatec Maya manuscript containing calendrical prophecy, historical passages, Christian material, medical lore, cosmological texts, and accounts of directional and sacred time. Its references to creation, katun cycles, deities, and older mythic structures can be compared with underworld and boundary concepts preserved in the Popol Vuh, although it is not simply another version of the same narrative. The manuscript is composite, difficult to date internally, and transmitted through colonial scribal practices, making textual stratification a major uncertainty.