Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Data recovered in Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region has significantly contributed to understanding Mesoamerica’s early history, particularly early Maya societies. Since 2017, research by the Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project (MUAP) has focused on understanding the interregional interactions of groups inhabiting the Isthmian Interaction Sphere that led to the development of early Maya societies, as well as the ways in which these groups adapted to the environment. Ongoing investigations address inquiries related to monumentality as a collective effort, social and symbolic practices, sedentarism and semi-mobile ways of life, intensification of maize agriculture and mixed subsistence, and modification of the landscape. In this session, we will present research advances by MUAP and their implications for the study of Middle Preclassic Mesoamerica.

Other Keywords
Maya: Preclassic • Settlement patterns • Monumentality • Lithic Analysis • Social Complexity • Geoarchaeology • Soils • Trade and exchange • Human Behavioral Ecology • Ceramic Analysis

Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) • Belize (Country) • North America (Continent) • Peten (State / Territory) • Yucatan (State / Territory) • Orange Walk (State / Territory) • Cayo (State / Territory) • Corozal (State / Territory) • Belize (State / Territory) • Stann Creek (State / Territory)

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  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: An Introduction (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Maria Belen Mendez Bauer. Verónica Vázquez López. Takeshi Inomata. Daniela Triadan.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Among the many Middle Preclassic sites in the Middle Usumacinta region, Aguada Fénix is, by far, the largest and possibly one of the oldest. A large, rectangular platform was built at its center, measuring 1,400 × 400 m. The construction of this artificial...

  • Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniela Triadan. Takeshi Inomata.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The recently discovered site of Aguada Fenix in eastern Tabasco, Mexico is one of the largest monumental constructions in Mesoamerica. It was built in a standardized architectural pattern that we call the Middle Formative Usumacinta Pattern (MFU). Its...

  • Ceramics of the Middle Usumacinta Region: Relationships over Time (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Flory Pinzón. Takeshi Inomata. Daniela Triadan.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the beginning of the Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project, researchers have observed that ceramics from several archaeological sites in the region share similarities with those from the site of Ceibal, located in Petén, Guatemala. After...

  • Excavations at Aguada Fénix E Group (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Melina García Hernández. Takeshi Inomata. Daniela Triadan.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Aguada Fénix is a major ceremonial complex from the Middle Formative Usumacinta (MFU) assemblage that was discovered in Tabasco, Mexico, through lidar technology. The construction of this complex indicates the importance of communal labor, and there is no...

  • Landscape Modifications and Water Management at Aguada Fénix (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Claudia Alvarado. Takeshi Inomata.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The latest archaeological evidence has shown that 10,000 years ago the landscapes of the actual Mexican territory suffered constant changes due to human activities. Fire, horticulture, species dissemination, and agriculture are among the factors that...

  • Life and Death of a Middle Preclassic Individual from Aguada Fénix, Tabasco (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Shintaro Suzuki. Fernando Gutiérrez.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We explore a Middle Preclassic skeleton from the site of Aguada Fénix, Tabasco. It is one of the scarce cases of the early temporality in the Maya area. We first describe in detail its archaeological context and osteological sex and age-at-death and infer...

  • The Middle Preclassic Site of Pajonal and Its Interactions with La Venta and Aguada Fénix (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Verónica Vázquez López. Hannah Zanotto. Kazuo Aoyama. Takeshi Inomata.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pajonal is a Middle Preclassic site situated between La Venta and Aguada Fénix in Tabasco, Mexico. The site has a spatial layout similar to La Venta, formed by an elongated plaza with an E Group at its center, several structures to the east and west edges,...

  • Preclassic Maya Economy: Lithic Production and Exchange in Aguada Fénix and Its Neighboring Sites in the Middle Usumacinta Region, Mexico (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kazuo Aoyama.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses the results of my diachronic analysis of lithic artifacts collected in Aguada Fénix and its neighboring sites in the Middle Usumacinta region, Mexico, in order to elucidate one aspect of long-term changing patterns in the Preclassic...

  • Preclassic Standardized Complexes in the Middle Usumacinta Region (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Miguel García Mollinedo.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Middle Usumacinta region, located in southeastern Mexico, multiple standardized architectural complexes dated from the Middle Preclassic (1000–00 BC) have been detected with the use of lidar technology. Of these complexes, three belong to the Middle...

  • Settlement Pattern Transition from the Middle Formative to the Classic in Southern Mesoamerica and the Establishment of Veracruz and Maya Spheres through the Analysis of Low-Resolution Lidar (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Xanti Ceballos.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines the settlement patterns transition from the Middle Formative to the Classic period through a low-resolution lidar analysis in Southern Mesoamerica, over a 25 km2 area. Based on previous lidar research carried out by the Middle...

  • The Soils and Geoarchaeology of Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Timothy Beach. Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach. Wilhemina Colón Loder.

    This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Three years of soil, water, and lidar analyses for the Middle Usumacinta Region indicate a diversity of soils, paleosols, and several areas of wetland rectilinear features that indicate a range of wetland farming and other uses. For the soils, we...