A massive platform hidden in a jungle in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco for 3,000 years and partially explored in the last decade, has been found to actually be a giant map depicting “the order of the universe” as the Maya saw it, according to a new study.
Archaeologists believe the Aguada Fénix site, near the Guatemala border, was designed as a cosmogram — a material layout reflecting ancient Maya ideas of cosmic order — according to the study published last week in the journal Science Advances.
The findings were further disseminated by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Built between 1050 and 700 B.C.E., the Aguada Fénix site covers 9 by 7.5 kilometers, making it the oldest and largest monumental architecture in the Maya world. Its size is approximately 5.6 by 4.7 miles, or roughly the same area as the city of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The layout is defined by kilometers-long causeways and platforms, aligned to sunrises marking sacred dates on the 260-day ritual calendar.
“In effect, building Aguada Fénix may have been a celebrated communal activity for ancient people, just like Stonehenge likely was in prehistoric England,” noted the science news website Live Science.
The giant rectangular platform — aligned precisely with long north-south and east-west axes to symbolize space and time — was discovered hidden beneath jungle in Tabasco in 2017 using LiDAR technology, which bounces lasers from aircraft to detect structures beneath jungle and farmland.
Hundreds of similar but smaller sites have been mapped in the region.
The new findings come from the Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project, coordinated by researchers Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadán of the University of Arizona, and endorsed by the INAH Archaeology Council.
The main structure is 1,400 meters long, up to 15 meters high and surrounded by processional causeways, corridors and canals.
Massive Maya structure in Tabasco is largest and oldest ever found
At its core is a cruciform pit that includes a floor marked with blue, green and yellow earth pigments — lining up with the cardinal directions and demonstrating the earliest known directional color symbolism in Mesoamerica.
Artifacts found nearby included clay axe-shaped offerings, marine shells and other sacred items pointing to ritual deposits that were carefully arranged according to cosmic beliefs.
Unlike pyramid-building Maya kings, Aguada Fénix shows no signs of rulers or social hierarchy. As opposed to other finds in Maya capitals such as Tikal and Chichén Itzá, researchers found no palaces, no tombs and no royal statues.
“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.”
Over a thousand people are estimated to have participated in its construction, suggesting communal organization and voluntary effort. Researchers noted it would have taken 255,000 person-days of labor.
The site was reportedly abandoned after 50 to 250 years, with some construction, notably the canals, left unfinished.
However, the scale of the structure, sophisticated astronomical alignments and collective labor shed new light on early Maya society — challenging the idea that such feats required kings and coercion.
With reports from La Jornada, El Informador and CNN
