Largest Maya monuments and treasures found to date were part of a 'big bang' of construction

In the heat of southeastern Mexico near the Guatemalan border, a massive Maya monument has been hiding in plain sight. It’s not a pyramid or a city, but something even bigger – and older.

At a site known as Aguada Fénix, archaeologists have discovered a colossal ceremonial complex that’s nearly a mile long and a quarter-mile wide, rising 30 to 50 feet above the surrounding landscape.

Dating to around 1,000 B.C.- almost 3,000 years ago – the monument predates the rise of Maya kings and even the great cities of Tikal and Teotihuacan.

For a long time, historians thought ancient societies in the Americas started small and grew slowly over time. But the discovery at Aguada Fénix flips that idea on its head.

“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,” said Takeshi Inomata from the University of Arizona, one of the lead archaeologists. “Huge planning and construction really happened at the very beginning.”

Maya monument built with precision

Back in 2017, the team first spotted signs at Aguada Fénix using lidar – a laser-based scanning technology that cuts through thick jungle by bouncing light off the ground.

This technology turns forest into a clear 3D map, revealing human-made structures hidden for centuries.

The team had used the same method in 2015 to find early constructions in Guatemala. When they looked at the new scans from eastern Tabasco, Mexico, they found a monument arranged in a way that was very similar to those earlier sites.

The complex at Aguada Fénix was built with incredible precision. Its main centerline matches the position of the rising sun on October 17 and February 24.

That’s a 130-day span, half of the 260-day Mesoamerican ritual calendar, which many Maya rituals were based on.

Message carved in dirt

Recently, the team uncovered a pit at the site shaped like a cross – called a cruciform. It held ceremonial objects that revealed a lot about the beliefs of the people who built Aguada Fénix.

The researchers found axes made of jade, a material often used in Maya rituals. “That told us that this was really an important ritual place,” said Inomata.

The team also found jade carvings shaped like animals – a crocodile, a bird – and what they believe is a woman giving birth.

Colors associated with directions

At the very bottom of the pit, they discovered something no one had ever seen before. Piles of mineral pigments – blue, green, and yellowish – were carefully placed to represent the four cardinal directions.

“We’ve known that there are specific colors associated with specific directions, and that’s important for all Mesoamerican people, even the Native American people in North America,” said Inomata.

“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.”

Radiocarbon dating puts the burial of these objects around 900-845 B.C. People likely returned to the site later to leave behind more offerings, like the jade ornaments.

Aligned with the Sun

Since the discovery, the team has found nearly 500 smaller, similar sites spread across southeastern Mexico. Together, they paint a picture of a whole region filled with early ceremonial centers.

Aguada Fénix itself had more than just one big platform. The team uncovered a network of raised causeways – walkways that connected different parts of the site.

There were also sunken corridors, canals, and even a dam that helped move water from a nearby lagoon. Some of these pathways stretched up to six miles from the central monument.

Everything was aligned with the sun, following the same astronomical principles that guided the main platform.

Maya monument wasn’t built for a king

Unlike later Maya cities ruled by powerful kings, Aguada Fénix shows no signs of a single ruler.

Inomata believes the people who led this construction were not political leaders but thinkers – people who studied the sky, understood the calendar, and helped guide the work.

“These leaders didn’t have power to force other people,”  Inomata said. “Most came probably willingly, because this idea of building a cosmogram was really important to them, and so they worked together.”

The structure may have been built to reflect their idea of the universe, a model of how the world was organized and connected.

Lessons from Maya monuments

Xanti S. Ceballos Pesina, a doctoral student who helped excavate part of the site, was surprised by just how big Aguada Fénix really was.

“I think it’s very cool that new technologies are helping to discover these new types of architectural arrangements,” she said.

“And when you see it on the map, it’s very impressive that in the Middle Preclassic Period, people with no centralized organization or power were coming together to perform rituals and to build this massive construction.”

This discovery doesn’t just change how we see the past. It also challenges ideas about power, leadership, and how big things get done.

“People have this idea that certain things happened in the past – that there were kings, and kings built the pyramids, and so in modern times, you need powerful people to achieve big things,” said Inomata.

“But once you see the actual data from the past, it was not like that. So, we don’t need really big social inequality to achieve important things.”

The full study was published in the journal Science Advances.

—–

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates. 

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

—–