El Osario - Chichen Itza, Mexico
| General Attributes |
DOI| 10.34946/D6J30S | |
| Project Name | El Osario - Chichen Itza |
| Country | Mexico |
| Status | Upcoming |
| Citation |
| Travis Stanton, Dominique Rissolo, Dominique Meyer, Kai Vilchis, Jesus Gallegos Flores, Ashuni Romero Butrón, Luis Alberto Catana, Arlette Herver Santamaria, Helena Barba Meinecke, Jose Francisco Javier Osorio León, Francisco Pérez Ruiz, Falko Kuester, Scott McAvoy, Jeremy Coltman, Arianna Campiani, Esteban Miron Marvan, Falko Kuester, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH), Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI) 2026: El Osario - Chichen Itza - Short Range Scan, LiDAR - Mobile, Photogrammetry - Aerial. Distributed by Open Heritage 3D. https://doi.org/10.34946/D6J30S |
| Download |
| Spatial Data | Coming Soon |
| Data Type |
Size |
Device Name |
Device Type |
| Short Range Scan | Not available | Not available | Not available |
| LiDAR - Mobile | Not available | DJI Phantom 3 , Artec Leo , Hovermap 1 | Drone , Structured Light Scanner , Mobile LiDAR |
| Photogrammetry - Aerial | Not available | Not available | Not available |
| Background |
| Site Description | El Osario (also known as the High Priest's Temple, the Tomb of the High Priest, or simply the Ossuary) is a stepped radial pyramid . Standing near the Xtoloc cenote, it echoes El Castillo in miniature: four sides with staircases on each side, nine tiers, serpent balustrades, and a summit temple.
Its defining feature lies at the top. At the center is an opening into the pyramid that leads to a natural cave 12 meters (39 ft) below. When Edward H. Thompson explored this shaft in the late nineteenth century, he found several skeletons and artifacts such as jade beads, he named the structure The High Priests' Temple. Later excavation recorded seven tombs holding offerings of jade, rock crystal, shell, and copper. Archeologists today believe neither that the structure was a tomb nor that the personages buried in it were priests; the cave is now read as a symbolic portal to the underworld, a recurring theme in Mesoamerican sacred architecture.
The pyramid carries a dense decorative program of interlocking feathered serpents, mythological birds, masked figures, and Puuc-style Chaak masks. A pillar placed in the temple is dated A.D. 998, long used to treat the building as a late construction — yet radiocarbon dating establishes that the earlier structure was terminated and the Osario pyramid was constructed in the early eighth century A.D. Thus, the Osario predates the Castillo. | |
| Project Description | Over the course of several field Seasons between November 2022 and December 2025, archaeologists performed a number of 3D captures through a variety of means, capturing exterior and interior (cave) detail. This digital palimpsest contains Drone photogrammetry, high resolution structures light scans, and mobile LiDAR of the interior cave system. The details of these efforts are included in the following field reports:
Mcavoy, S. P, Rissolo, D., & Kuester, F. (2025). Chichen Itza, Mayapan, Coba, Xkukikan - December 7th - 14th, 2024 Yucatan, Mexico. UC San Diego: Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI) at Calit2. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6nn5s6d9
Stanton, T. W, Mcavoy, S. P, Rissolo, D., & Kuester, F. (2025). Chichen Itza, Yaxuna, Ek Balam, Yula, Maya and June 2023, Yucatan Mexico. UC San Diego: Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI) at Calit2. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9666z0dd
Mcavoy, S. P, Rissolo, D., & Kuester, F. (2023). Chichen Itza and Ek Balam, Yucatan, Mexico August 27th – September 2nd 2023. . UC San Diego: Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI) at Calit2. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8qg65087
Mcavoy, S. P, Rissolo, D., & Kuester, F. (2023). Chichen Itza and Merida, Mexico February 6th-12th 2023. UC San Diego: Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI) at Calit2. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1jb1q2fr
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| UNESCO World Heritage Site | Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza |
| Collection Date | 2018-07-16 to 2025-12-12 |
| Publication Date | 2026-07-04 |
| License Type | CC BY-NC |
| Model Information |
| Reuse Score | A - High-Quality Model with Accurate Georeferencing |
| Curator Notes | Georeferencing is performed through alignment with the following foundational dataset:
Travis Stanton, National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), Francisco Pérez Ruiz, Jose Francisco Javier Osorio León 2026: Chichen Itza Tourist Zone - NCALM Aerial LiDAR - LiDAR - Aerial. Distributed by Open Heritage 3D. https://doi.org/10.34946/D6NS3R
A report concerning the accuracy of these models is upcoming in 2026. |
| Entities |
| Contributors | Travis Stanton, Dominique Rissolo, Dominique Meyer, Kai Vilchis, Jesus Gallegos Flores, Ashuni Romero Butrón, Luis Alberto Catana, Arlette Herver Santamaria, Helena Barba Meinecke, Jose Francisco Javier Osorio León, Francisco Pérez Ruiz, Falko Kuester, Scott McAvoy, Jeremy Coltman, Arianna Campiani, Esteban Miron Marvan, Falko Kuester, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH), Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI) |
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