3,000-Year-Old Maya Cosmogram Carved into Bedrock Discovered at Aguada Fénix

Ancient Maya cosmogram cut into bedrock at Aguada Fénix

When archaeologist Takeshi Inomata and his team began excavations in the lowlands of present-day Tabasco on Mexico’s Gulf Coast, they unexpectedly exposed a monumental structure that reshapes our understanding of early Mesoamerican society. Buried beneath the jungle for millennia, the site now called Aguada Fénix contains a vast cruciform (cross-shaped) pit hewn directly into marl and limestone bedrock.

Excavators found carefully arranged deposits within the cross: azurite pigments to the north, yellow ochre mixed with goethite to the south, green malachite to the east, and seashells—including an Atlantic milk conch, spiny oysters, and pearl oysters—to the west. The pit also contained caches of greenstone artifacts and clay, axe-shaped objects coated in red ochre.

Further investigation revealed that this cross was the largest of a series of nested cruciform features. Those crosses connected to canals—some unfinished—and were regulated by a dam that channeled water from nearby Laguna Naranjito through the complex. Taken together, the layout and materials led Inomata to interpret the arrangement as a cosmogram: a geometric map that materializes the Maya conception of the cosmos and encodes calendar and ritual meanings.

“Along with the appeals of collective ceremonies, feasting, and the exchange of goods, the construction of a cosmogram, materializing the order of the universe, likely provided a rationale for a large number of people to participate without coercive force,” Inomata and colleagues write in a paper published in Science Advances. “The development of Aguada Fénix exemplifies the capabilities of human organization without prominent inequality.”

Radiocarbon and contextual evidence indicate the monument is roughly 3,000 years old—making it far earlier than many previously recognized monumental works in the Maya lowlands. Unlike later elite-centered sites, Aguada Fénix shows no clear evidence of permanent residential compounds; instead it appears to have functioned primarily as a communal ritual gathering place. Inomata estimates that constructing the site would have required at least a thousand people working for several years to excavate and shape the bedrock.

The pigments and materials are especially significant. Azurite at Aguada Fénix predates known uses of azurite in Mesoamerica before 100 BCE, and the malachite pigments here are earlier than comparable mural pigments found elsewhere. Because yellow ochre was the only locally available pigment in the Maya lowlands, the presence of azurite and malachite implies long-distance exchange with highland or western mining regions where copper-bearing minerals occur.

Symbolically, the placement of seashells in the western quadrant likely signified water—central to Maya ritual thought, as water was associated with life and with portals to the underworld. Later Mesoamerican traditions linked the west with the setting sun and a sunken, watery realm of the dead; the shells at Aguada Fénix may represent an early expression of that directional symbolism.

Although the evidence suggests large-scale cooperative labor without overt social stratification, it does not preclude leadership roles. Inomata proposes that community leaders possessing calendrical and astronomical expertise may have designed and coordinated the site; their specialized knowledge could have motivated voluntary participation without coercion.

Material culture from Aguada Fénix also contrasts with contemporaneous Olmec elite imagery. Stone sculptures and jade objects recovered at the site depict naturalistic animals and a woman—images rooted in everyday experience rather than explicit ruler iconography. This difference supports the argument that monumentality and hydraulic engineering could emerge from collective ritual practice rather than solely from centralized elite power.

The discovery and interpretation of Aguada Fénix, described in Science Advances, add an important chapter to debates about the origins of monumentality, social organization, and long-distance exchange in early Mesoamerica.