[choltun, chultun]. A bottle-shaped underground chamber or series of chambers, found in Mesoamerica. Principally for storage, they may also have been used as sweat baths or burial chambers. In the southern Maya Lowlands they were most often used to store dry foods especially ramon (bread) nuts. In the northern Yucatan, however, they were more frequently used as water cisterns, in which case they were usually lined with stucco to prevent seepage.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied