A recently unearthed ancient monument in southeastern Mexico was built as a giant representation of the Mesoamerican universe, and was likely an important ceremonial site, finds new research by an international team involving a UCL archaeologist.
The paper, published in Science Advances, describes the ancient complex of raised causeways, corridors carved into the earth and series of canals discovered at Aguada Fénix in 2020. It's the largest monumental construction known today in the Maya area in the Mexican state of Tabasco, near Guatemala's northern border. The monument there measures nearly a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, and ranges from 30 to 50 feet (nine to 15 metres) high, and dates to 1,000 B.C.
Recently unearthed items, the study authors said, provide the clearest evidence that Aguada Fénix was a cosmogram - a model to represent the order of the universe, seen at other southeast Mexico sites - which could make it among the most significant ceremonial sites for the Maya area. The latest excavation revealed a cross-shaped pit, called a cruciform, that held a cache of ceremonial artifacts, which provide information on early Mayan rituals.
Co-author Dr Veronica A. Vazquez Lopez (UCL Archaeology) said: "This monumental structure reflects an extraordinary construction effort, likely requiring extensive collective collaboration. Its scale underscores the significance of Aguada Fénix for ancient Mesoamerican communities. The artifacts recovered provide valuable insights into their belief systems, the ways different groups interacted and shared cultural practices, and how these traditions evolved over time-especially when compared with findings from later sites in the region."
The researchers say the findings are further evidence opposing the long-held belief that Mesoamerican cultures grew gradually, building increasingly larger settlements, such as Tikal in Guatemala and Teotihuacan in central Mexico, whose pyramid monuments are icons for Mesoamerica today. Aguada Fénix predates the heydays of those cities by nearly a thousand years - and is as large or larger than all of them.
Lead author Professor Takeshi Inomata of the University of Arizona said: "What we are finding is that there was a 'big bang' of construction at the beginning of 1,000 B.C., which really nobody knew about. Huge planning and construction really happened at the very beginning."
Researchers first found clues of Aguada Fénix in 2017 using lidar, which uses lasers from an airplane flown overhead to scan through jungle and forest to create 3D maps of human-made structures.
The monument's central axis aligns with the rising sun on October 17 and February 24 - a 130-day span that probably represents half of the 260-day cycle of the Mesoamerican ritual calendar. This arrangement was similar to other Maya sites that also had ceremonial caches, giving researchers some indication that they might find something similar at Aguada Fénix, on what is now rural ranchland in eastern Tabasco.
The team used radiocarbon to date the cruciform pit and the construction layers above it. Researchers also analysed fragments of ceramic material that helped date the cruciform.
Their first significant find was several axes made of jade, which researchers recognised from previous excavations as ceremonial, indicating this was likely an important site for rituals.
As they excavated the cruciform further, the team found ornaments carved from jade including representations of a crocodile, a bird, and what they believe is a woman giving birth. At the bottom of the pit was a smaller cruciform, where they found mineral pigments - small piles of blue, green and yellowish soil - arranged to correspond to the four main compass directions.
Professor Inomata said: "We've known that there are specific colours associated with specific directions and that's important for all Mesoamerican people, even the Native American people in North America. But we never had actual pigment placed in this way. This is the first case that we've found those pigments associated with each specific direction. So that was very exciting."
The researchers suspect the builders arranged the pigments and other materials as an offering, then filled it in with sand and soil. Radiocarbon dating estimates the cache dates to 900-845 B.C. People likely returned to the site for later rituals to leave behind the jade objects.
The study also revealed a network of raised causeways and sunken corridors that Aguada Fénix's builders used to walk to and through the site, as well as canals and a dam to divert water from a nearby laguna. The causeways, corridors and canals followed axes that ran parallel to Aguada Fénix's orientation with the sun and extended as far as six miles away from the settlement's main plateau.
The team has so far found no evidence that a singularly powerful leader - such as a king - presided over the construction of Aguada Fénix. The researchers think that the settlement did have leaders, but rather intellectual ones who made astronomical observations and led the design and planning for the site. They think that while these leaders didn't have power to force other people, most came probably willingly, because this idea of building a cosmogram was important to them, and so they worked together.
Co-author Xanti S. Ceballos Pesina, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, said: "I think it's very cool that new technologies are helping to discover these new types of architectural arrangements. And when you see it on the map, it's very impressive that in the Middle Preclassic Period, people with no centralised organisation or power were coming together to perform rituals and to build this massive construction."
