Aguada Fénix

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Aguada Fénix is a cult complex of the early Maya culture in the Mexican state of Tabasco . It was discovered in June 2020 and is the oldest and largest Mayan structure known to date. It is located in an area with a number of other Maya cult centers, which were discovered in 2017 by archaeologists working with Takeshi Inomata from the University of Arizona using the lidar method.

The cult complex in Aguada Fénix is ​​an artificial plateau 1400 m long, 400 m wide and 10 to 15 m high. Nine paths lead in all directions to the plateau, some of them connected to the plateau by ramps, with a length of up to 6.3 km. A total of 21 larger and smaller plateaus have been discovered, all with north-south orientation and rectangular in shape. The finds show similarities with the Olmec culture , with an E group on the plateau: a hill in the west, an elongated platform in the east. At the edges are lower platforms.

The oldest finds date from around 1200 BC. BC, the construction of the plateau began no later than 1000 BC. It took around 200 years to build. Around 750 BC The site was given up again. For the main platform alone, 3.2 to 4.3 million cubic meters of earth were moved.

According to Inomata, the platforms are not oriented exactly to the east, which contradicts an astronomical interpretation as a solar observatory. According to Inomata, these are the oldest Maya monumental structures found to date and are larger in size than the later Maya cities in the area (such as El Mirador ). The finds of pottery and obsidian indicate a connection to Guatemala . There were no indications of pronounced social inequalities as in the later Maya, such as steles or sculptures of socially superior individuals, so that the construction activities were probably carried out voluntarily.

Pools of water and mounds of earth have also been found nearby.

Inomata had previously discovered early cult sites in the form of similar Mayan plateaus in Guatemala in the border area with Mexico in Seibal , construction of which began in 950 BC. And which also show connections to the older culture of the Olmecs in San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan . Their cult sites are around 400 km to the west and flourished between 1400 and 1150 BC. The new findings confirm that the research that had prevailed up to that point in time that the Maya culture emerged in the late 1st millennium BC. Must be corrected.

literature

  • Takeshi Inomata et al. a .: Monumental architecture at Aguada Fénix and the rise of Maya civilization, Nature, June 3, 2020, online

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ We've just found the largest and oldest Mayan monument yet newscientist.com , June 3, 2020, accessed June 7, 2020
  2. ↑ Inomata and a., Artificial plateau construction during the Preclassic period at the Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, PLoS ONE, Volume 14, Issue 8, 2019, e0221943