The popular narrative that developed around this feature was romantic and mysterious: the builders deliberately buried their sacred monuments in one grand ritual gesture, perhaps as a dedicatory act, perhaps as an intentional concealment, perhaps as part of a cosmic cycle of creation and destruction.

The “intentional burial” story was vivid and compelling.

The archaeological reality is both more complex and, in its own way, more interesting.

The backfill of the older enclosures does include deliberate deposits of stone, soil, and debris.

This is well-documented archaeologically.

The fill preserves the lower portions of the pillars and the associated artifacts and food remains in their original contexts, which is partly why the site is so well-preserved and so informative.

The deliberate character of the filling process is not in question.