An international group of scientists under the leadership of Archaeologists of Archizona University found about 500 previously unknown small ceremonial complexes belonging to the ancient Maya in Mexico. According to the article published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the find changes the former representations of historians about the origin of the Mesoamerician civilization and relationship between Maya and Olmekami.
Researchers analyzed the data collected by air laser scanning, and revealed 478 temple complexes in the Mexican states of Tabasco and Veracrus. The Lidar Technology, which consists in the reception of the reflected laser signal from an opaque object, allowed scientists to detect previously unknown cultural objects under the crowns of trees and vegetation. There were only about 85 thousand square kilometers of territory, which exceeds the area of Ireland (70 thousand square kilometers).
Ceremonial complexes are found in the regions where Olmeki lived – an ancient Mexican tribe that flourished in 1500-400 BC and, as it was believed to influence the subsequent cultures of mesoamerics, including Maya. Ruins are dating 1100-400 to our era and were built by various groups in almost the millennium before the heyday of the Mayan civilization in 250-950 of our era.
Complexes have common features with the earliest center in the Olmekov area, San Lorenzo, whose heyday peak came for the period between 1400 and 1100 to our era. It was also that the largest and most ancient Monument to Maya – Aguada Phoenix – in the Mayan area and other places related to it began to take the characteristic form of San Lorenzo (rectangular area with edible platforms) around 1100 BC. This indicates that the culture of Olmekov really served as a model for later meso-American buildings, including Aguada Phoenix.
San Lorenzo, Aguada Phoenix and some other sites have 20 edge platforms (embankments) along the eastern and western sides of the rectangular area. The orientation of some complexes correspond to the direction to the sunrise point on a certain day of the year. According to scientists, in some cases on the selected day, the sun passes through Zenith, that is, right above his head, as it happens on May 10 in the region where monuments were discovered. On this day, the rainy season begins and sowing corn begins. Some groups preferred to orient their places in the direction of sunrise for 40, 60, 80 or 100 days before the day of the zenith passage. These dates are multiple of the number 20, on which the late meso-American calendars are based.