language: en
legacy_status: canonical_en
derived_from_base: v0040
purpose: individual_candidate_promotion_execution
related_candidate: Q-0061
related_case: CASE-0001
related_sources: SRC-0061; SRC-0076; SRC-0077
related_reports: REPORT_018_PHASE_3_HORIZONTAL_REVIEW_WATER_SUBLINE.md; REPORT_019_SOURCE_REINFORCEMENT_WATER_CANDIDATES_Q0061_Q0065.md; REPORT_020_INDIVIDUAL_CANDIDATE_PROMOTION_REVIEW_Q0061_Q0065.md
operation_type: individual_candidate_promotion_execution_operation
promotion_review: false
promotion_executed: true
promotion_level: individual_candidate_only

REPORT_021 — Promotion Execution: Q-0061 as the First Main Database Case

1. Operation status

This report documents the first executed promotion in PATHOS history. The operation creates CASE-0001 in data/cases_main.jsonl by promoting only Q-0061 — Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá as watery threshold and offering locus.

The operation follows:

• REPORT_018_PHASE_3_HORIZONTAL_REVIEW_WATER_SUBLINE.md;
• REPORT_019_SOURCE_REINFORCEMENT_WATER_CANDIDATES_Q0061_Q0065.md;
• REPORT_020_INDIVIDUAL_CANDIDATE_PROMOTION_REVIEW_Q0061_Q0065.md;
• external audit of REPORT_020;
• consensus between PATHOS Control and the external auditor.

This is not a new research run. No new sources, candidates or raw runs were added.

2. Promotion executed

Q-0061 has been promoted to the Main Database as:

CASE-0001 — Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá as watery threshold and offering locus

Promotion level:

individual documented ritual/social practice

This means that the individual candidate is considered sufficiently documented as a ritual/social/material case for inclusion in the Main Database. It does not mean that the broader water subline, the Maya subcluster, any comparative pattern, any ontological claim or any high-level PATHOS hypothesis has been promoted.

3. Evidence base used for CASE-0001

The promoted case is linked to:

• Q-0061;
• SRC-0061 — Into the Centipede's Jaws: Sumptuous Offerings from the Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá;
• SRC-0076 — Artifacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan;
• SRC-0077 — Place of origin of the sacrificial victims in the sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá, Mexico.

Together, these sources support the individual case as a documented water-related ritual and offering locus, with material deposits, sacrificial/votive practice and bioarchaeological context. They are sufficient for individual documentary promotion, but they do not prove literal underworld access or any ontological reading.

4. Why Q-0061 was selected before Q-0065

REPORT_020 recommended both Q-0061 and Q-0065 for future individual promotion review. This operation executes only the promotion of Q-0061.

Q-0065 remains in Quarantine. Its positive recommendation remains recorded, but its execution is deferred to a future separate operation. The methodological reason is prudence: San Casciano dei Bagni is a strong water-centered votive and healing sanctuary candidate, but it depends on active excavation and an evidence base that is still maturing. Promoting it separately preserves a conservative precedent and avoids creating two first promotions in a single execution operation.

5. Boundaries of promotion

The promotion of CASE-0001 is strictly limited. It does not promote:

• the Phase 3 water subline;
• the Maya water subcluster;
• Q-0055;
• Q-0062;
• Q-0065;
• any comparative water pattern;
• universal water-underworld symbolism;
• literal underworld access;
• an ontological portal;
• deep common origin;
• ritualized cultural memory;
• the single responsible-agent / maximal hypothesis.

The promotion recognizes only that Q-0061 is a documented individual case of ritual/social/material practice.

6. Conventional explanation and overreach control

The local conventional explanation remains central. The Sacred Cenote can be explained as a natural water feature embedded in Maya ritual, offering and sacrificial/votive practice. This explanation is sufficient to close or reduce strong anomalous readings, including any claim that the cenote proves literal access to an underworld.

The PATHOS value of CASE-0001 is therefore not ontological proof. It is methodological and documentary: the case shows how a water feature can be materially and ritually organized as an offering locus and culturally interpreted liminal setting within a specific Maya context.

7. Archive bias and Maya concentration

The promotion of Q-0061 increases the visibility of the Maya/Mesoamerican water cluster already identified in the water subline:

• Q-0055 — Cara Blanca;
• Q-0061 — Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá;
• Q-0062 — Chultún at Chichén Itzá.

This archive-bias risk does not block individual promotion of Q-0061, because the case is documentarily strong on its own. It does limit any future pattern claim. Future reviews must avoid overcounting Maya cases as independent global convergence and must continue using contrast candidates and non-Maya controls.

8. Relation to contrast candidates

The contrast candidates from RUN-0015 remain methodologically active:

• Q-0071 — Dholavira water reservoirs and drainage;
• Q-0072 — Persian Qanat;
• Q-0073 — Omani aflaj;
• Q-0074 — Segovia aqueduct;
• Q-0075 — Masada runoff collection and cistern system.

These cases show that water infrastructure can be central, monumental, subterranean or technically sophisticated without being ritual, cosmological or underworld-related. They do not refute Q-0061, because Q-0061 is promoted only on the basis of its specific ritual/social documentation. They do prevent any promotion based on water alone.

9. Precedent created by this operation

This operation establishes a conservative precedent for PATHOS:

1. A candidate may be promoted individually without promoting its subline.
2. A candidate may be promoted individually without promoting a comparative pattern.
3. A candidate may be promoted individually without promoting a high-level hypothesis.
4. Contrast candidates must remain part of future horizontal reviews.
5. Conceptual quarantine protects high-level hypotheses from premature promotion.

This precedent should be applied to any later promotion execution, including any future decision about Q-0065.

10. Mandatory conclusion

Q-0061 has been promoted to the Main Database as CASE-0001.

Promotion level: individual documented ritual/social practice.

No comparative pattern has been promoted.

No high-level hypothesis has been promoted.

Q-0065 remains in Quarantine.

The water subline remains a bounded contextual subline, not a universal symbol.

The single responsible-agent / maximal hypothesis remains outside the canonical evidentiary layer and under Conceptual quarantine.