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Investigations at Aguada Fénix, in the lowlands of Tabasco, south-east Mexico, are uncovering evidence of a vast ritual complex constructed c.3,000 years ago.
The site was first discovered via LiDAR in 2017, and initial explorations uncovered a large artificial platform believed to be the largest and oldest Mayan monument ever discovered (CWA 102). Over the last few years, further research has been carried out, including another LiDAR survey that identified hundreds of smaller, similar sites in the surrounding area. Meanwhile, work at Aguada Fénix, recently published in Science Advances (https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aea2037), has revealed an extensive ceremonial landscape that may have served as a massive cosmogram or symbolic model of the universe.
The most exciting discovery is a large cruciform pit in the centre of the site, with a smaller cross-shaped pit at the bottom. This depression contained a cache of ceremonial objects, radiocarbon dated to 900-845 BC, including piles of mineral pigments with different colours corresponding to the cardinal directions: blue to the north, green to the east, and yellow to the south. Other offerings are believed to have been made after the smaller cache was filled in, among them, a number of ceremonial jade axes and other jade ornaments depicting a crocodile, a bird, and what is believed to be a woman giving birth.
Researchers have also identified a network of raised causeways and sunken corridors across the wider site, which are orientated along the same axes as the cruciform pits and extend almost 10km from the main plateau. In addition, there was a series of unfinished canals and a dam created to divert water from a nearby lake. The centreline of this monumental complex corresponds to the location of the rising sun on 17 October and 24 February. This 130-day span is believed to represent half of the 260-day cycle of the Mesoamerican ritual calendar. The whole site therefore appears to form a colossal cosmogram, representing the worldviews and calendrical concepts of the people who constructed it.
Interestingly, there are no signs of powerful rulers at Aguada Fénix. Instead, the researchers propose, this impressive project may have been guided by intellectual leaders with astronomical knowledge and carried out by volunteers for whom the ritual nature of the site was important. The discovery of a site of this size and complexity dating to the Middle Preclassic is rewriting our understanding of early Mesoamerican civilisations, demonstrating that planning and construction was happening on a vast scale nearly a millennium before the heyday of cities like Tikal and Teotihuacan, and that monumental creations of this kind could be achieved through collaborative community effort.
Text: Amy Brunskill / Images: Takeshi Inomata/University of Arizona
