Pib? Storage Pit, Fire Pit? I think they had a Píib in their kitchen.

This area appeared like a food processing area, not sure what this pit area was. I was thinking fire pit or perhaps it was filled in.

Píib

Pib (in Spanish) or píib (in Yucatec Mayan; in both cases pronounced as peeb), is a typical earth oven of the Yucatán peninsula, in Mexico. This technique probably has a pre-Hispanic origin.[1] It consists of digging a hole, lighting a stove with firewood and stones, and cooking the food (traditionally pork or chicken) over low heat, all covered with more soil.[2] Today, many people in Mexico believe that "pib" refers to tamales cooked in the earth oven (called chachak waaj in Mayan) and not to the oven itself; This confusion is quite widespread.[3][4]

A piib oven can feed up to forty people, so it is typical to prepare it during local festivities. For example, in Kantunilkín, the municipal seat of Lázaro Cárdenas, the piib is prepared for December 8, the day of the Immaculate Conception, the patron saint of the town.[5] Relleno negro is also made for Hanal Pixan, as well as torteado or vaporcito tamales.
Etymology

In Yucatán it is mostly known as pib, or píib according to the current Mayan spelling promoted by the Academy of the Mayan Language [es].[6] In some contexts also pii'. The plural is formed as píibo'ob, not "pibs", and the verb is formed as píibt (translatable as 'to make a piib').[7]

Food cooked in a piib is called pibil. It is mistakenly thought that "pibil" means that they include recado. The suffix -bil indicates participle: pib-bil ('[thing] roasted'), muk-bil ('[thing] buried'), etc.[6] In the Mayan language, it is placed before the name of the food, while in Spanish it is the other way around, for example: the famous cochinita pibil, Mayans call it piibi'k'éek'en.
History

The piib is not explicitly explained in any pre-Hispanic codex, however, experts have come to the conclusion that it is a technique that has already been practiced before colonization. The reasons are various; On the one hand, the earth oven has never been part of the Hispanic tradition, so it could not be brought by the conquerors. On the other hand, the practice of the earth oven extends to other Mesoamerican indigenous peoples.

Other forms of earth ovens are also found in the rest of Mexico, such as the ximbó of Hidalgo, of Otomee origin, or the classic Mexican barbecue. However, nowhere are they as common as in the Yucatán.[8] Earth ovens are practiced by both indigenous and mestizo people.[9] Peasants in Mexico roast the whole lamb, typically on Sundays and holidays.[10]

A 2012 study carried out in Xocén, led by researcher Carmen Salazar from UADY, revealed that traditional piib'ob are prepared with native animals and plants, which suggests a continuity of piib practice dating back to pre-Columbian times.[8] At that time, the earth oven may have been a preservation method, rather than cooking, especially in hunts, which could last several days.[11] Furthermore, the study shows the close relationship between the piib and the kool (Mayan milpa), and that both could have the same age (approximately 3400-3000 BCE).[8] Another indication is in the discovery of bones of animals from a very old time that do not show cutting and fleshing features but do show heat marks, which is consistent with cooking in pib.[12]

In the Palenque site, Chiapas, the word pib can be read written in various hieroglyphs, although not to refer particularly to the oven, but with a related meaning. For example, one of the temples reads: u-pibnahil ("steam bath temple").[6] Pib'naah means "steam bath".[13]

The oldest written record of "pib" is found in the Calepino Maya de Motul (16th century), a dictionary of Mayan terms that defines it as "bath or temazcal in which the women in labor or recently given birth were purified, and the stove in which pumpkins, meats, etc. were roasted under the ground" (noun), and also as "roasted meat, squash, etc. under ground." (verb).[6] In another book of the time, Bocabulario Maya Than, defines it in a similar way.

More currently, one of the main anthropo-culinary studies on contemporary piib was in 2019, led by chef Wilson Alonzo, a researcher on the traditional cuisine of the Mayan ethnic group.[14] This study was carried out in twelve municipalities in Yucatán.

Size and shape
The size of the hole will depend on the amount of food. In addition, the technique of preparing a piib varies from region to region. In the west of the peninsula (Maxcanú, Hopelchén, ...) the ovens have a square shape, approximately 1 m per side. In the east (Valladolid, Tizimín, ...), as well as in the south (Peto, Tekax, ...), rectangular and elongated holes are dug. This is due to the fact that in it, several large pots are arranged in a row, which can be up to a dozen.[15] On the north coast it is possible to find circular ovens. According to the locals, this is due to the strong coastal wind.[11] The depth of the piib varies markedly between a few centimeters to approximately 1 m.