In this article, we examine the traditional classificatory
terms of cache and burial as they are used in Lowland Maya
archaeology and argue that, rather than forming mutually exclusive
categories, these ritual deposits are members of a continuum.
After discussing the intertwined concepts of dedication and
termination and the cosmology of caches, we summarize burgeoning
evidence that not all deposits classified as caches are votive
offerings. We also discuss the role played by household refuse
in ritual contexts. We then describe the investigation of a
pit excavated into bedrock beneath a residential structure at
the Maya site of La Caldera, in northwestern Belize. Our
interpretation of the ritual importance of the pit is based
on a series of behaviors that activated, terminated, and then
reactivated the ritual pathway defined by the feature. We suggest
that this behavioral approach to special deposits is more
compelling than attempts to classify the material traces of
ritual actions according to narrowly defined terms.