Spotted by aerial remote sensing equipment, the vast and ancient Mayan complex was hidden by forests and fields for millennia until it was revealed to the public in 2020. Five years later, archaeologists are uncovering more secrets of the monumental structure.
An artificial plateau made of earth, with connecting paths, canals and corridors, was built in southeastern Mexico 3050 years ago and was used for about 300 years. Called Aguada Fénix, it is the oldest and largest architectural site in the area occupied by the ancient Maya civilization, larger than later Mesoamerican cities such as Tikal and Teotihuacan, albeit without their distinctive stone pyramids.
According to new research published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, the site’s design reflected how the community conceived of the universe. The site contains crosses of increasing sizes, with a central cross pit containing valuable ritual artifacts.
“It’s like a model of the cosmos or the universe. They thought that basically the universe is organized according to this cross pattern, and then it’s linked to the order of time,” said Takeshi Inomata, professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona and lead author of the study.
The archaeological site was built at the beginning of the Mayan civilization, which reached its height between 400 and 900 AD, mainly in modern Mexico and Guatemala. It was a time of development, when temples, roads, stone pyramids and other monuments were built, and sophisticated systems of writing, mathematics and astronomy were developed.
“There was no major construction at this site before. There was nothing archaeological in fact, they didn’t even use pottery,” Inomata said.
The ancient complex was discovered by remote sensing technique LiDAR. – Middle Usumacinta archaeological project
The team excavated several key areas of the site, examined soil cores, and conducted an additional LiDAR, or light detection and ranging, survey. Remote sensing techniques, which can create detailed models of any terrain, have revolutionized archeology in recent years, revealing ancient structures covered in vegetation and trees, particularly in Central America.
The site is not immediately apparent on the ground, although the main platform would have once been nearly 15 meters (50 feet) high, said Verónica Vazquez Lopez, a lecturer in Mesoamerican archeology at University College London and co-author of the study. The builders didn’t use stone, and it’s easy to mistake their creation for a natural hill, she added.
“Most of the platform these days is used for agricultural activities,” she said. “It’s very subtle and you can’t see it from the ground. That’s why it was only identified with LiDAR.”
Several jade objects, including axes, have been found at this site. – Middle Usumacinta archaeological project
Ancient calendar
The center of the site is a large, raised rectangular platform or square that can hold more than 1,000 people. It is located at the intersection of two long thoroughfares, one running north-south and the other running east-west, which may have been used as procession routes.
In the middle of the raised square, archaeologists excavated a cross-shaped pit that was accessible from the platform above. In it sat a smaller pit containing a cache of jade artifacts, also arranged in the shape of a cross.
“We found pigments there associated with specific directions: blue to the north, green to the east, yellow to the south. West, we don’t know, but there is a red shell, so it could be red,” Inomata said.
The east-west axis of the monumental structure was aligned with the direction of sunrise on October 17 and February 24, so Inomata believed that the monument may have functioned as a ritual site on important days of the Mayan calendar year.
“The break is 130 days. That’s half of 260, and that’s the main ritual calendar of the people of Mesoamerica,” he said. “These directions and this order were important to them and they put in a lot of work to represent that on the ground.”
Colored pigments representing north, south, east and west were found in a cross-shaped cache in the center of the monument. – Middle Usumacinta archaeological project
Inomata and his colleagues also believe that the site would have been built by willing participants, rather than the compulsory labor used to build many ancient wonders, such as the Egyptian pyramids and later Mayan cities.
Their excavations did not reveal any signs of social hierarchy, such as statues of specific individuals.
“If you have kings or rulers, often in Mesoamerica, who are depicted in sculpture or painting, then you usually find large buildings or palaces where those powerful people lived. And we don’t have that at Aguada Fénix,” he said.
Inomata said the dwellings they discovered indicate that it would not have been permanently occupied by many people, and may have been used as a place for gatherings and worship during the dry season.
The latest research was based on excavations of the last five years. – Middle Usumacinta archaeological project
Researchers estimate that it would have taken more than 1,000 people to build the site, spending several months each year for several years. The canals and pond, which had a total volume of 193,000 cubic meters and seem to have no practical purpose, would have required 255,000 man-days of work. The main plateau, which has a volume of 3.6 million cubic meters, would have required 10.8 million man-days, the study said. It appears that the channels have not been completed, Inomata added.
“We have this perception that to do something big, you have to have a hierarchical organization, and that’s what happened in the past.”
But now we get a different picture of the past,” he said.
“People have also done great things by organizing, coming together and working together,” he added.
Here are some jade objects before they were unearthed. – Middle Usumacinta archaeological project
According to Stephen Houston, a professor of anthropology at Brown University in Rhode Island, the research was exciting and interested archaeologists everywhere.
“The bottom line is that a common theme in Mesoamerican societies — the ordering of the world according to ritual directions and their associated colors — is clearly and early on the Aguada Fénix,” Houston said.
“This study is part of a larger intellectual movement in archeology to show that large-scale construction can take place in situations of relative equality.
Andrew Scherer, professor of archeology and the ancient world, also at Brown, said the sheer size of the earthworks, their early age and the absence of a significant social hierarchy made the site particularly interesting.
“An enormous amount of labor was invested in Aguada Fenix - not only raising the earthworks, but also importing and carving many greenstone objects – and there is in no way a clear case that something was built or produced to celebrate a ruler or a specific subset of individuals,” he said in an email.
“This is a period that is still poorly understood in the history of Mesoamerica, so the latest findings reported by the … () team are extremely important for understanding this murky period.
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