Archaeological find – the Largest Mayan Monument in the world discovered recently in Mexico, found the Monumental complex shows that The early Maya society was to a Large capable of. Hubert Filser0 KommentareDie system Aguada Fénix in Mexico in the Lidar reconstruction(Reuters/Takeshi Inomata)
The Riesenbau, the Maya once in the South of Mexico close to the Guatemalan border have created, is already alone due to its dimensions are impressive. Here more Material is moved than in the construction of the great pyramid of Gizeh, more than four million cubic metres of earth were heaped up. Until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors there were no major building in Central America.
enough: The 2017 discovered plant Aguada Fenix is not only the largest, but with about 3000 years ago is also the oldest monumental building of the Maya, an international archaeological Team recently reported in “Nature”. It is also of your style, especially: unlike many of the famous Maya-buildings for ceremonies used by the platform is not made of stone, but of clay and earth. According to the researchers ‘ calculations, between ten and 13 million person-days of work were necessary for this.
, man-made Plateaus
Each of two huge ramps lead from the North and from the South side on the monumental high-level. Up to 15 meters high the huge, man-made Plateau. In the middle of it is expanded in the direction of the West and the East, smaller Plateaus, so that the construction of a large, thick cross in the landscape is the main axis is 1413 metres long and 399 meters wide.
the researchers Takeshi Inomata of the University of Arizona in Tucson have Discovered on the Western border of the Mayan lowlands the preferred system, as you were evaluating Lidar data in the border region with Guatemala. With this technology, an airplane or a drone flying over the study area, in the process emits a targeted laser pulses and evaluates the of the surface of the landscape reflected signals. A kind of topographical map of the surface.
The building was in front of the eyes of the inhabitants
The Lidar technology, structures and track, which are covered by the Vegetation systems, such hidden in tropical forests. A few years ago, researchers have made the once enormous dimensions of the ancient temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia is visible. Also, different plants of the Maya or of the neighboring Olmec have been discovered using this technology under the green Jungle canopy.
In the current case of Aguada Fénix of the vast Plateau was, however, in the agricultural Region of Tabasco in southern Mexico that borders the Usumacinta river, practically right in front of the eyes of the inhabitants. “But since the platform has such a large horizontal extent, it looks, if it runs on her, just like a natural landscape,” says Inomata. In the immediate vicinity of the platform in other, mostly smaller buildings of the Mayan culture were.
it is also Surprising the age of the plant. Inomata and his colleagues have dated the charcoal residues and other organic legacies of the Maya, which they had discovered during periodic excavations on the main plateau of Aguada Fénix, by using the radio carbon method on an age of 3000 years.
Some of the ramps, they probably originated around 200 years later, the system was apparently developed slowly. Thus, the system is older than most of the Mayan villages. Apparently, it was so also in the case of the Maya, first of all, common ritual, or religious acts before men in fixed dwellings have been settled.
On the platform itself, the archaeologists found two contiguous buildings that were apparently built for astronomical purposes, a small, pyramid-shaped mound of earth, and before that a North-South direction, extending small Erdplateau. This construction was used in other plants in the Region. So Maya certain turning points in time of the summer and winter sun.
Went to the pyramid of the sun is seen exactly above the North-Eastern corner of the small plateau, it was the longest day of the year. The sun was on the Southeast corner, it was the shortest day of the year and the days would now get longer.
Still no elites in earlier times,
The system shows the importance of the Maya, who ruled more than 2000 years, large parts of Central America, their astronomical observations were, and what a tremendous effort they put into it.
Possibly the most common observations were for the entire company identity. Very likely, numerous people gathered on the large Plateau on special occasions to ritual acts, according to the researchers. In the middle of the plateau, the archaeologists found symbolic artifacts such as Jadeäxte, the Maya deposited typically in ceremonies.
Exciting another Detail is for the researchers. They discovered on the platform, none of the later systems of the Maya or the Olmec stone sculptures were often of important people. Apparently, the early Mayan culture was not dominated hierarchically, write to the archaeologists. Instead, you have built it is the largest known monumental architecture, as a community, and used.
unlike the Olmec and later Mayan societies, the early Maya had no powerful elites – and were nonetheless able to organize a massive project like Aguada Fénix.
comments please Log in to comment
