Excavations at Aguada Fénix E Group

Summary

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 evidence of clear social inequality. The MFU features an E Group in the central plaza. The Aguada Fénix E Group, a La Venta Type, had two pyramids located to the west and the East platform measuring 400 m. Excavations on the E Group Plaza began in 2018, but until 2020 evidence of ritual activities related to the central axis has been found, including offerings that contain green stone artifacts and ceramics similar to those found at other Middle Preclassic contemporary sites. Interestingly, recent evidence suggests that the people who deposited these offerings did not have access to green stone before La Venta had interregional influence. However, they shared cosmological concepts with other regions like quadriform motives and water cults.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38056.0