The results have shown that Maya civilization was more extensive, and more densely populated, than we previously realized.
suggests that the Maya civilization may have inherited some of its cultural ideas from the earlier Olmecs, who thrived along the coastal plains of southern Mexico from around 1500 BC to around 400 BC.The oldest known Maya monument is also the largest; 3,000 years ago, people built a 1.4-kilometer-long earthen platform at the heart of a ceremonial center called Aguada Fenix, near what is now Mexico’s border with Guatemala.
“This means they were representing cosmological ideas through these ceremonial spaces,” said Inomata. “In this space, people gathered according to this ceremonial calendar.” The dates vary, but they all seem linked to May 10, the date when the sun passes directly overhead, marking the start of the rainy season and the time for planting maize. Many of the 478 ceremonial sites point to sunrise on dates exactly 40, 80, or 100 days before that date.
“This tells us that San Lorenzo is important for the beginning of some of these ideas that were later used by the Maya,” said Inomata. If the Olmec were building ritual centers with rectangular, platform-lined plazas pointed at sunrise on important days at least 300 years before the Maya did so, then the Maya may have inherited those concepts from the Olmec.Excavation in the central part of Aguada Fenix.
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