530 | Nature | Vol 582 | 25 June 2020
Article
Monumental architecture at Aguada Fénix
and the rise of Maya civilization
Takeshi Inomata^1 ✉, Daniela Triadan^1 , Verónica A. Vázquez López^2 ,
Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz^3 , Takayuki Omori^4 , María Belén Méndez Bauer^5 ,
Melina García Hernández^6 , Timothy Beach^7 , Clarissa Cagnato^8 , Kazuo Aoyama^9 &
Hiroo Nasu^10Archaeologists have traditionally thought that the development of Maya civilization
was gradual, assuming that small villages began to emerge during the Middle
Preclassic period (1000–350 bc; dates are calibrated throughout) along with the use
of ceramics and the adoption of sedentism^1. Recent finds of early ceremonial
complexes are beginning to challenge this model. Here we describe an airborne lidar
survey and excavations of the previously unknown site of Aguada Fénix (Tabasco,
Mexico) with an artificial plateau, which measures 1,400 m in length and 10 to 15 m in
height and has 9 causeways radiating out from it. We dated this construction to
between 1000 and 800 bc using a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. To our
knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area
and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region. Although the site
exhibits some similarities to the earlier Olmec centre of San Lorenzo, the community
of Aguada Fénix probably did not have marked social inequality comparable to that of
San Lorenzo. Aguada Fénix and other ceremonial complexes of the same period
suggest the importance of communal work in the initial development of Maya
civilization.The period around 1200–1000 bc was a critical time of social change
in the Maya lowlands. Prior to this period, the inhabitants of this area
did not use ceramics and probably maintained mobile ways of life by
combining hunting, gathering and fishing with the cultivation of maize
and other crops^2. They began to adopt ceramics and greater degrees
of sedentism at the beginning of the Middle Preclassic period, and
researchers have long thought that ceremonial centres with large
pyramids did not develop until late in the Middle Preclassic period,
or in the Late Preclassic and Terminal Preclassic periods (hereafter,
Late–Terminal Preclassic) (350 bc–ad 250). However, the discovery of
a formal ceremonial complex and an artificial plateau at Ceibal dating
to 950 bc suggests that substantial ceremonial centres developed in the
Maya lowlands earlier than was previously thought^3 ,^4. Here, the term
artificial plateau refers to horizontal buildings larger than 200 × 200 m,
as distinguished from smaller supporting platforms. A few centuries
later, other centres in the Maya lowlands—such as Cival, Komchen,
Nakbe, Yaxnohcah and Xocnaceh— also built artificial plateaus or large
platforms^5 –^9. Our research in Tabasco (Mexico) has revealed an even
older and larger ceremonial centre, Aguada Fénix (Extended Data Fig. 1).
We began the Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project in the area
along the Usumacinta and San Pedro Rivers in Tabasco in 2017 (Fig. 1 ).
Despite previous investigations^10 ,^11 in the area, the Preclassic period of
this region was poorly understood. We thought that this area, located
at the western periphery of the Maya lowlands, might hold the key to
understanding the relationship between the Olmec civilization and
Maya society. The Olmec centre of San Lorenzo—which reached its
heyday between 1400 and 1150 bc—is characterized by an enormous
artificial plateau and colossal sculptures of stone heads, but does not
have pyramids^12 ,^13. During the Middle Preclassic period (possibly after
800 bc), La Venta became a dominant Olmec centre, containing a large
pyramid and mounds^14 –^16. Archaeologists have long debated whether
the inhabitants of the Maya lowlands inherited the legacy of San Lor-
enzo, and whether they received direct influence from La Venta^17 ,^18.Survey and excavation
A high-resolution lidar survey conducted by the National Center for Air-
borne Laser Mapping (NCALM) and a low-resolution lidar survey by the
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) in our study area
revealed 21 ceremonial centres in a standardized spatial configuration,
which we call the Middle Formative Usumacinta (MFU) pattern. The
MFU pattern is characterized by a rectangular shape defined by rows
of low mounds, oriented roughly north–south (Fig. 2 ). At the centre of
each MFU complex is a so-called E-group assemblage, which consists of
a round or square western mound and an elongated eastern platform.
Many other sites in the Maya lowlands that date to the Middle Preclassichttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2343-4
Received: 26 November 2019
Accepted: 30 April 2020
Published online: 3 June 2020
Check for updates(^1) School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. (^2) Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (^3) National Center for Airborne Laser
Mapping (NCALM), University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.^4 University Museum, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.^5 Estudios Mesoamericanos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,
Mexico City, Mexico.^6 Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project, Balancán, Mexico.^7 Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA.^8 UMR 8096,
Archéologie des Amériques, Nanterre, France.^9 Faculty of Humanities, Ibaraki University, Mito, Japan.^10 Faculty of Biosphere-Geosphere Science, Okayama University of Science, Okayama,
Japan. ✉e-mail: [email protected]