All posts by Archaeology World Team

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Iron Age Dice and Game Pieces Unearthed in Norway

Iron Age Dice and Game Pieces Unearthed in Norway

In western Norway Archaeologists have found unusual elongated dice and board game pieces from the Roman Iron Age.

The four-sided elongated dice

Norwegian archeologists agreed last month to dig up the remains of a small cairn of the early iron age in western Norway. Dotted with monuments and grave mounds, the scenic location overlooking Alversund played an important role in Norwegian history.

The site at Ytre Fosse turned out to be a cremation patch. Amidst the fragments of pottery and burnt glass, archaeologists found a surprise: rare Roman Iron Age dice and board game pieces.

“It’s amazingly exciting. Such findings were not found in Norway and Scandinavia many years before. The special thing here is that we have found almost the whole set including the dice,” said Morten Ramstad from Bergen University Museum to NRK.

A status symbol

Archaeologists also found the remains of what was likely a powerful person. The nearby Alverstraumen straight was an important point on the sea route between the north and south of Norway. This was named Nordvegen, the northern way, from which Norway takes its name.

The excavation work.

The bone debris, carefully decorated pottery, and burnt glass indicate the person cremated here was likely of high status. But it’s the gaming pieces that highlight this more than anything else.

“These are status objects that testify to contact with the Roman Empire, where they liked to enjoy themselves with board games. People who played games like this were local aristocracy or upper class. The game showed that you had the time, profits, and ability to think strategically,” said Ramstad.

The gaming discovery

The pieces are of a very rare type, known to be from the Roman Iron Age, dated to around AD 300. The haul included 13 whole and five broken game chips along with an almost completely intact elongated dice.

Game pieces.

The dice are marked with number symbols in the form of point circles and have the values ​​zero, three, four, and five. Less than 15 of these have been found in Norway. Similar dice were found in the famous Vimose weapon-offering site at Fyn in Denmark.

Strategic board games

The gaming board at Vimose was also preserved, so we have some idea of what board games may have been played during the period in Scandinavia. Inspired by the Roman game Ludus latrunculorum, board games seem to have been a popular hobby amongst the Scandinavian elite of the time.

These games are an early relative of the more famous board game Hnefatafl played during the Viking Age. The strategy game was likely played for enjoyment or even strategic training on long ocean voyages. Hnefatafl pieces found recently on Lindisfarne suggest Vikings travelled with the game.

“Finding a game that is almost two thousand years old is incredibly fascinating. It tells us that the people then were not so very different from us,” said Ramstad.

The results from the Ytre Fosse excavation should contribute to more precise data on the chronology of dice and gaming pieces in Early Iron Age Norway. With further study, we could learn more about the significance and social impact of gaming during these times.

“This excavation connects Norway to a larger network of communication and trade in Scandinavia. At the same time, the findings can help us to understand the beginnings of the Iron Age in Norway,” said archaeologist Louise Bjerre.

The findings will now go to the University lab in Bergen to be preserved. Archaeologists hope that the bones and objects from will in time be exhibited to the public.

Some of the pottery pieces.

Archaeology in western Norway and beyond

The University of Bergen’s Department of Cultural History aims to research, collect, conserve, and communicate. Their Bergen museum exhibits objects from prehistory, Norwegian folk art, church art, and ethnographic items from across western Norway.

The museum’s collections also include the archaeological finds from medieval Bergen, located at Bryggens museum.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Ancient Egyptian ‘city of the dead’ discovery reveals ‘elite’ mummies, jars filled with organs and mystery snake cult

Ancient Egyptian ‘city of the dead’ discovery reveals ‘elite’ mummies, jars filled with organs and mystery snake cult

A new burial chamber on the bottom of a communal burial shaft was unearthed in 2018, during exhilaration work carried out by the Egyptian-German team of the University of Tübingen, operating in Saqqara with a 30-meter deep connection to the mummification workshop discovered along with a large tomb complex with five burial chambers in 2018.

The project uncovered the sixth burial chamber behind a 2,600-year-old stone wall after more than a year of research and documentation

The new-discovered chamber had four wooden coffins in a poor state of preservation said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The Minister of State for Antiquities, Dr. Ramadan Badri Hussein, said that one of the coffins belongs to a woman called Didibastett.

She was buried with six canopic jars, which contradicts the custom in ancient Egypt which was to embalm the lungs, stomach, intestines, and liver of the deceased, and then to store them in four jars under the protection of four gods, known as the Four Sons of Horus.

In a tomb deep below the desert, Egyptologist Ramadan Hussein (left) and mummy specialist Salima Ikram (right) examine the coffin of a woman who was laid to rest inside a limestone sarcophagus weighing more than seven tons.

The mission examined the content of Didibastett’s two extra canopic jars using computerized tomography (CT) scan. Preliminary analysis of the images indicates that the two jars contain human tissue.

Based on this result, there is a possibility that Didibastett had received a special form of mummification that preserved six organs of her body. The mission’s radiologist is currently conducting a thorough study of the images in order to identify the two extra organs.

Workers use a hand-cranked winch to lower tools and other gear to the mummy workshop and tombs 100 feet below. The burial complex occupied a prime location at Saqqara—within sight of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, one of Egypt’s oldest and most sacred monuments.

After studying texts on the coffins and sarcophagi in the burial chambers, the mission identified priests and priestesses of a mysterious snake goddess, known as Niut-shaes. Indications are that the priests of Niut-shaes were buried together and that she became a prominent goddess during the 26th Dynasty.

A priestess and a priest of Niut-shaes, who were buried in the same burial chamber, were possibly Egyptianised immigrants.

Their names, Ayput and Tjanimit, were common to the Libyan community that settled in Egypt from the 22nd Dynasty (ca. 943-716 BC) onward. Ancient Egypt was a multicultural society that received immigrants from different parts of the ancient world, including Greeks, Libyans, and Phoenicians among others.

Hussein said that the mission conducted non-invasive testing, called X-ray fluorescence, on the gilded silver mask that was discovered on the face of the mummy of a priestess of the goddess Niut-shaes. This test determined the purity of the mask’s silver at 99.07 percent, higher than Sterling Silver at 93.5 percent. This gilded silver mask is the first discovered in Egypt since 1939, and the third such mask to ever be found in Egypt.

A priest named Ayput was interred in a stone sarcophagus carved in the shape of a human, a style known as anthropoid. The mummy’s wrapping were coated with tar or resin, giving it a dark color.
Some of those buried at the complex were identified as priests and priestesses of a mysterious snake goddess.

An international team of archaeologists and chemists from the University of Tübingen, the University of Munich, and the Egyptian National Research Centre in Cairo carried out chemical testing on the residue of oils and resins preserved in cups, bowls, and pots found in the mummification workshop.

Early results of these tests give a list of mummification substances, including bitumen (tar), cedar oil, cedar resin, pistachio resin, beeswax, animal fat, and possibly olive oil and juniper oil, among others. The team is finalizing a report for scientific publication.

In July 2018, Khaled El-Enany, minister of tourism and antiquities, announced to the world the unprecedented discovery of a mummification workshop complex at Saqqara from the 26th Dynasty (ca. 664-525 BC). It included an embalmer’s cachette of pottery and a communal burial shaft.
This shaft is 30 m. deep and has six tombs.

The tombs contained around 54 mummies and skeletons, five large sarcophagi, a dozen calcite (Egyptian alabaster) canopic jars, thousands of shawabtis figurines, and a rare gilded silver mummy mask.

This discovery was rated among the top 10 archaeological discoveries of 2018 by Archaeology Magazine and Heritage Daily.

The mission of the University of Tübingen will resume its full investigation of the 26th Dynasty cemetery at Saqqara in the winter of 2020.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Shackled skeletons found in an ancient Roman burial ground in France

Shackled skeletons found in an ancient Roman burial ground in France

Hundreds of Roman graves have been found by archaeologists, some of which contain skeletons still bound by shackles on their necks and ankles.

A wider photo shows the same skeleton – thought to be a man – with a shackle on his ankle as well as his neck

A building site about 250 m west of the amphitheater of Saintes once used for fighting between gladiators and the wild animals is an incredible excavation.

Among the hundreds of graves found, five skeletons – four adults and one child – were found shackled or chained.

Dating back to the first and second centuries AD, the gravesite is thought to have been an important necropolis used for those massacred at the nearby stadium.

Construction on the Saintes amphitheater began during the reign of Emperor Tiberius (A.D. 14-37) and was completed under Claudius (A.D. 41-54). In its finished state, the arena could hold around 18,000 people. Today, it is the largest remaining amphitheater in France, as well as the oldest.

Archaeologists began digging at the site of the necropolis—located 250 meters west of the Saintes amphitheater—last year. It was typical for Roman necropolises, used for burials and cremations, to be located in the countryside, outside major towns and cities.

The Saintes burial ground contains hundreds of graves, which archaeologists have dated to the first and second centuries A.D. Experts believe the necropolis may have been used for those who died at the nearby stadium, during the gladiatorial combats that were common during Roman times.

Among the hundreds of sets of human remains at Saintes, the scientists uncovered a particularly unsettling find: five skeletons wearing riveted iron shackles of various types, suggesting that the deceased might have been slaves.

Even more disturbingly, one of the skeletons belonged to a child. Three of the adults had their ankles bound by iron chains, while the fourth was shackled at the neck and the child had a chain attached to his or her wrist.

This group of four people was buried head-to-toe in a small, trench-style grave

Archaeologists previously discovered shackled skeletons in the 2005 excavation of a cemetery in York, England, which also dated back to the days of the Roman occupation.

Researchers at the time proposed that the remains belonged to slaves, who were often forced to fight each other to the death in Roman gladiatorial contests. (Some of these gruesome battles pitted an armed man or woman against another combatant who was unarmed.) In the case of the York cemetery, some of the shackled bodies were found with bite marks, suggesting wild animals might have killed the victims in the gladiatorial arena.

The archaeologists now hope to determine a cause of death for the individuals found buried in the Saintes necropolis, as well as their status during their lifetime, and whether all those buried there were members of the same community.

Many of the skeletons were buried in pairs, laid out side by side with their heads and toes touching in rectangular pits that resembled trenches.

While some ancient Romans were buried with their possessions, the graves at Saintes contain almost no artifacts, except for several vases recovered beside the body of one man.

One skeleton—belonging to a child—was found with coins placed over the eyes, a common practice in Roman times.

Romans believed a river separated the world of the living from that of the death, and that the coins enabled the dead person’s spirit to pay the ferryman for safe passage across that river to the afterlife.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Controversial 1,500-Year-Old Bible Could Re-Write The History Of Jesus

A 1500 Year Old Bible Found And No One Is Interested?

Few subjects are as sensitive as religion. This highly controversial ancient Bible is believed to be between 1,500 to 2,000-year-old. It is written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus. If the ancient book is genuine, it would have serious consequences for Christianity and all its followers.

Most of us are familiar with the Bible, whether we have read it or not. It is considered one of the oldest and perhaps most revered books ever compiled or written.

The Bible is basically a compilation of text that religions such as the Christian faith are based on. Over the years though the bible has met with much scrutiny.

There have been many different interpretations of this book. Some actually feel that the book is based on some truths and some fabricated stuff, basically, fables to place the fear of God into people.

However, anyone may actually feel about the Bible and the effect it may have on their own lives there is no denying that this book has stood the test of time. But how much time, and has the stories that are compiled in the Bible been properly interpreted over the years.

In short, have we ever actually seen an ancient Bible compiled of these texts that can prove just what was written? Well, that would depend on again how you may actually interpret the situation.

Turns out there is a very ancient Bible in existence that could date back 1500 years which resides in a museum in Turkey.

The Vatican reportedly placed an official request to examine the scripture…

Within this book are some historical texts that seem to have been lost along the way, this includes a gospel from Barnabas, who had been known to be the man who was spared when Jesus was crucified.

But according to those who have read this text Jesus rose to Heaven before suffering on the cross and Judas the disciple who betrayed him had been crucified instead. This is just one of the many passages that dispute the one that has become well-known to the public.

So, is this Bible the actual texts were written, and if so what does this do to the broad belief many have? Well, the Vatican has made a request of the Turkish Government to see the ancient Bible study it for themselves.

As for the rest of the public well it can be seen in the museum where it sits in Turkey. To obtain any copy of the pages to study them someone has to pay almost a couple million dollars.

Could this ancient Bible re-write the history of Jesus Christ?

The question though looms with such an old text disputing what has become fact, and the basis for much religion will this text be widely received or kept closed up with only a few reading it? Well, perhaps the way to look at it is as any other bible it should be met with scrutiny, a bible is a book none of us were there thousands of years ago to know what text is true and which aren’t.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Sunken 13th-Century Medieval Village Submerged in Italian Lake Will Reemerge in 2021

Sunken 13th-Century Medieval Village Submerged in Italian Lake Will Reemerge in 2021

Although Atlantis ‘s search for the famed underwater town still has to bring fruit, the lake has been the birthplace of a truly medieval Italian village known as Fabbriche di Careggine has emerged from a lake after being submerged many decades ago.

You haven’t heard about Fabbriche di Careggine, but the Italian village is one of the most popular and exclusive tourist destinations in the world. No, not because of its price-tag or luxury adornments, simply because it’s one of the hardest to get into, literally.

At present, the medieval village resides on the bottom side of Lake Vagli, buried under 34 million cubic meters of water. However, the good news is that it will soon be open to visitors.

As you’ve probably guessed, Fabbriche di Careggine wasn’t always a sunken city. In fact, the 13th-century town was once a thriving hotbed for iron production, characterized by its high proportion of skilled blacksmiths.

However, in 1947, a hydroelectric dam was built close to the village, forcing the residents to move to the nearby town of Vagli di Sotto. Fabbriche di Careggine was then flooded to create the artificial lake.

Incredibly, being sunken underwater has allowed the village’s stone buildings, cemetery, bridge, and church to remain remarkably intact. Where the story gets interesting, however, is in the lake’s management.

Since it was constructed, the man-made lake has been drained four times for maintenance work, each time revealing the lost city of Fabbriche di Careggine.

As the fluid dissipates, the outline of the historic ‘Ghost Town’ is unveiled, like the lost city of Atlantis rising from the watery depths.

The last time the phenomenon occurred was back in 1994, but it appears a fresh draining is in order, according to Lorenza Giorgi, daughter of Domenico Giorgi, the ex-mayor of the Municipality of Vagli di Sott.

“I inform you that from certain sources I know that next year, in 2021, Lake Vagli will be emptied,” she wrote in a Facebook post.

“The last time it was emptied in 1994 when my father was mayor and thanks to his commitment and to the many initiatives that, with effort, had managed to put up in one summer the country of Vagli welcomed more than a million of people.”

Since Giorgi’s post, energy company ENEL, which owns the dam has confirmed it is considering draining the lake as a possible boost to the local tourism sector.

With Italy still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic that devastated the country, tourism officials have been trying anything they can to get visitors back to the area. If you ask us, resurrecting a lost city from its watery grave might be just the way to do it.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Village Where Jesus’ Disciples May Have Lived Flooded by Rising Sea of Galilee

Village Where Jesus’ Disciples May Have Lived Flooded by Rising Sea of Galilee

Rain, the life-giver, falling from the sky; so precious that God combines His Word with His bounty. Israelis prefer to be happy when it rains. “I’m not made of sugar, I’m not going to melt,” the local macho men explaining why they scorn umbrellas. Neither, happily, will the ruins at el-Araj, the putative hometown of Jesus’ disciples on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, which waxed fat on the heavy rains this winter, swelled and, it turns out, flooded the site.

El-Araj’s site, also known as Beit Habek, is located near the sea of Galilee, which is often referenced in the New Testament. It is believed that this was a Jewish village called Bethsaida.

In the First Temple era, it was known as Zer and it was a strategic city in the time of King David. It was originally a non-Hebrew city-state that later became part of Israel when it was renamed Bethsaida.

The identification of Bethsaida is important because it was the birthplace of three of Jesus’ Apostles – Peter, Andrew, and Phillip. In the New Testament, it is here that Jesus performed the miracle of the five loaves and fishes . It is interesting to note that Jesus also cursed the town of Bethsaida because its inhabitants refused to repent.

Prof. Moti Aviam and his colleagues from the local Kinneret College have been working at the site for several years and are very familiar with the area. For the last 10 years ‘el-Araj has been located a few hundred meters from the northernmost point of the lake, where the Jordan River spills into it,’ according to Haaretz.  While it is sometimes flooded, it is mostly dry by April and May.

However, this year is the first time in many years that the Sea of Galilee has risen, much to the relief of the Israelis who are very concerned about water scarcity because of climate change.

Prof. Aviam decided to visit el-Araj before he and some American collaborators returned to work on the site. He found that it is now badly flooded and lies under a shallow lagoon, so the planned excavations cannot go ahead. He is quoted in The Christian Post as saying that “I don’t remember a thing like this in the last 30 years.”

The site is currently under water.

The professor conducted a quick survey of the site and saw that some of the higher points at el-Araj are still standing above the waters with their ruins. However, the ruins of a Byzantine church are now under the water. According to Haaretz because of the flooding ‘Instead of archaeologists happily seeking new finds, it’s populated by catfish’.

The church at el-Araj dates to some 500 years after the birth of Jesus and was built during the Byzantine period when it became an important pilgrimage center.

The archaeologist is quoted by Haaretz as saying that “At the moment, the water is 80 centimeters [2 feet, 7 inches] above the mosaic of the Byzantine church.” This church still has many of its original features and even mosaic tiles. Thankfully, Aviam told The Christian Post that “We conserved the mosaic floor of the church and the water standing on it won’t harm it.”

The Byzantine church is currently under more than two feet of water.

Prof. Aviam and his American colleague Steven Notley believe that the ruin is the Church of the Apostles. Local tradition has it that it was built over the family home of the Apostles Peter and Andrew. The archaeologists believe this because of the church’s design and also its location on the Sea of Galilee. They believe that the existing ruins fit the description written about the church in the 8th century AD by a German bishop.

However, a team led by Prof. Rami Avar believes that the true site of Bethsaida is et-Tell, located further north and near the Golan Heights. They have uncovered a city gate that they claim indicates it was the location of the Old Testament city of Zer.

Dr. Avar and his colleagues unearthed coins of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony and fishing equipment such as weights from the Roman Empire. These they believe lend credence to their claim that the et-Tell site is Bethsaida, the birthplace of three Apostles and where Jesus performed a miracle.

Aerial view of the Church of the Apostles, which is said to have been built over the house of Jesus’ disciples Peter and Andrew.

In comparison, Prof. Aviam believes that one good thing came out of the flooding. He is quoted by Haaretz as stating that “In my opinion, the flooding now strengthens our theory that el-Araj was the site of Bethsaida.” The inundation of the historic site shows that it was near the lake, especially during the Roman period, when the disciples were born.

Bethsaida was a fishing village and one would expect to find it flooded occasionally. This is not the case with the location at et-Tell, which is on a rocky height and away from the waters of the Sea of Galilee .

However, Prof. Arav, who maintains that et-Tell was Bethsaida, argues that the evidence from the period shows that in the Roman era the Biblical village was far away from the lake. This was in line with what geologists have uncovered and show it could not have been flooded. Arav argues that the fact that el-Araj is now under a lagoon shows that it is not the city where Jesus performed one of his most famous miracles.

While the controversy will no doubt continue, Prof. Aviam hopes to resume work as soon as possible. However, he expects the excavation to be deferred until 2021.

Visiting el-Araj for the first time following the rains, after being shut up at home for weeks because of the coronavirus, archaeologist Prof. Moti Aviam had quite the shock.

AUSTRALIA, WORLD

110-million-old rare species of ‘toothless dinosaur’ discovered in Australia

110-million-old rare species of ‘toothless dinosaur’ discovered in Australia

Anyone a fan of ‘How To Train Your Dragon’? We know, totally random, but the main dragon was named Toothless. Just like him, we a unique species of ‘toothless’ dinosaurs that are 110 million years old in Australia have been found.

A fossil of a rare and unique toothless dinosaur, named Elaphrosaur, has been discovered by paleontologists in Australia.

As per a statement released by the Swinburne University of Technology, the dinosaur must have roamed in Australia around 110 million years ago.

It stood about the height of a small emu, measuring 2 meters from its head to the end of a long tail, and had short arms, each ending in four fingers.

The toothless dinosaur was identified by a team led by Swinburne University of Technology paleontologist Dr. Stephen Poropat. It’s known for having long necks, stumpy arms and small hands, and it probably didn’t survive on meat.

What’s In It?

According to the statement released by the Swinburne University of Technology, the dinosaur must have roamed in Australia around 110 million years ago.

This rare fossil was discovered in 2015 by Jessica Parker, a volunteer digger, near Cape Otway in Victoria, Australia; it was identified by a team led by Swinburne University of Technology paleontologist Dr. Stephen Poropat.

The reports say that the 5 cm long vertebrae fossil or the long neck bone belonged to a dinosaur known as Elaphrosaur, which means ‘light-footed lizard’. Reportedly, the fossil is related to Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor.

The said the fossil was believed to be an animal that was around 2 m long, i.e., 6.5 ft long. However, similar fossils, related to Elaphrosaur, which were previously discovered in China, Tanzania, and Argentina, revealed that these can grow up to 6 m in length.

What’s More?

Paleontologist Dr. Stephen Propat informed that the Australian elaphrosaurus had stumpy arms, long necks, small hands, and more likely, it was lightly-built that probably did not survive on meat. He also added that the findings regarding the dinosaurs are rather bizarre.

The few known skulls of Elaphrosaur reveal that the youngsters had teeth, however, when they grow into adults, they start losing their teeth, which are then replaced with a horny beak, he mentioned.

They are not yet sure if this fact holds true for the Victorian Elaphrosaur yet; however, they might be able to find out more if they ever discover a skull. 

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Mexico: 3,000-year-old Mayan ceremonial complex discovered in Tabasco

Mexico: 3,000-year-old Mayan ceremonial complex discovered in Tabasco

In the latest breakthrough discovery of lost civilization, researchers have found the largest and the oldest Mayan site through a unique laser technology called lidar.

Using the aerial remote-sensing method, researchers at the University of Arizona found a colossal rectangular elevated platform that was built between 1000 and 800BC in Tabasco state, Mexico.

The new structure is located at the site called Aguada Fenix that liest near the border of Guatemala, which in its total volume exceeds the 1,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. 

The site, called Aguada Fénix, is located in the state of Tabasco, at the base of the Gulf of Mexico. It’s so vast for its age, the find is making archaeologists recalibrate their timelines on the architectural capabilities of the mysterious Maya.

Aguada Fénix, which measures over 1,400 meters (almost 4,600 ft) in length at its greatest extent, dates to a similar timeframe, with researchers estimating it was built between 1000 and 800 BCE – but its immense size and scope make it unlike anything found before from the period.

Airborne remote sensing allowed scientists to create a 3-D rendering of newly discovered Aguada Fénix, including the 3,000-year-old Maya site’s massive ceremonial plateau with a platform and mound in its center.

“To our knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region,” the researchers, led by archaeologist Takeshi Inomata from the University of Arizona, explain in a new paper about the discovery.

What’s even more staggering is that this huge, unknown structure has actually been hiding in plain sight for centuries, seemingly unrecognised by the modern Mexicans living their lives on top of the vast complex.

“This area is developed,” Inomata says. “It’s not the jungle; people live there. But this site was not known because it is so flat and huge. It just looks like a natural landscape.”

Despite Aguada Fénix’s inconspicuousness, it can’t hide from non-human eyes.

Aerial surveys using LIDAR detected the anomaly, revealing an elevated platform measuring 1,413 metres north to south, and 399 metres east to west, and extending up to 15 metres above the surrounding area.

“Artificial plateaus may be characterised as horizontal monumentality, which contrasts with the vertical dimensions of pyramids,” the authors write, noting the layout of Aguada Fénix marks it as an example of the Middle Formative Usumacinta (MFU) pattern, characterised by a rectangular shape defined by rows of low mounds.

Nine wide causeways extend from the platform, which is also surrounded by a number of smaller structures, including smaller MFU complexes and artificial reservoirs.

It’s difficult to see the remains of Aguada Fénix from this aerial view of the landscape today. But laser technology gave researchers a look at the site’s causeways and reservoirs, in front, and ceremonial area, in back.

The site bears certain similarities to the Olmec sites San Lorenzo and La Venta in the nearby state of Veracruz, but Aguada Fénix’s lack of human-shaped statues could provide a clue about the ancient Maya that inhabited this complex, distinguishing them from the Olmec.

“Unlike those Olmec centres, Aguada Fénix does not exhibit clear indicators of marked social inequality, such as sculptures representing high-status individuals,” the authors write.

“The only stone sculpture found so far at Aguada Fénix depicts an animal.”

Excavations of the oldest and largest Maya ceremonial structure unearthed an animal sculpture, possibly representing a white-lipped peccary or a coatimundi, that the researchers nicknamed Choco.

If the researchers are right about that, the site could be hugely important in helping us understand more about how these enigmatic human societies functioned and organized themselves – especially if they embraced a communal form of societal structure that rejected hierarchical forms.

“This kind of understanding gives us important implications about human capability, and the potential of human groups,” Inomata says.

“You may not necessarily need a well-organized government to carry out these kinds of huge projects. People can work together to achieve amazing results.”