The discovery forms part of the Archaeological Salvage Project for the Mérida–Progreso Multimodal Railway Bypass (Front 1) linked to the Maya Train in Yaxché de Peón, Mexico.
Fieldwork began in June 2025 and is scheduled to continue through mid-2026. The project is carried out by a team of specialists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), under the direction of archaeologist Manuel Pérez Rivas.
Mexico’s Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, emphasised the importance of the find: “Each archaeological discovery allows us to better understand the historical depth of the cultures that shaped this territory. The ritual context located in Yaxché de Peón offers new clues about community organisation, symbolic thought, and the relationship between space, fertility, and sustenance in the early Maya world.”
The building, designated Monument TC_17294, is a rectangular platform measuring 14 by 10.8 metres and standing 0.45 metres high. It was constructed in a single building phase, with no residential structures above it, and was intended to allow access from all sides.
These features indicate that the platform functioned as a semi-public communal space, probably serving as an assembly venue where people gathered to make collective decisions or perform ceremonies that fostered social cohesion. Beneath the construction fill on the northern side of the platform, archaeologists identified two ritual contexts believed to predate the structure, interpreted as foundational offerings.
In the first deposit, scientists uncovered a broken gourd-shaped vessel at a depth of 1.10 metres. In Mesoamerican cosmology, gourd-shaped containers are strongly associated with fertility and sustenance, suggesting the agricultural character of the community.
Nearby, archaeologists documented a rock shelter measuring 1.10 by 0.50 metres, containing bone remains (possibly from a deer), ceramic fragments dating to the same period, and a marine snail shell. The team determined that placing offerings in natural cavities formed part of ritual practices that symbolically linked the earthly world with the underworld.
Project coordinator Susana Echeverría Castillo explains:
“The presence of deer remains in the offering suggests symbolic implications linked to Maya belief systems. The deer was associated with human life, seen as a lord of the mountains and a provider of well-being.”
She adds that the deposition of vessels containing deer remains may indicate that the structure was built during a time of abundant resources and prosperity for the community.
Placing ritual offerings beneath newly constructed architecture was a deeply rooted tradition in Mesoamerica, one that continued even after the Spanish conquest, according to colonial ethnohistorical documents.
The second ritual context, located one metre west of the first, contained a variety of ceramics from the Middle/Late Preclassic period, additional deer bone remains, and a circular limestone bead. These elements reinforce the interpretation that the ancient inhabitants consecrated the space prior to construction.
The deliberate burial of symbolic materials—relating to fauna, agriculture, and ritual practice—beneath public architecture suggests a ceremonial act marking the foundation of communal life in the area. This discovery contributes valuable information towards understanding how early Maya communities organised space and constructed social identity through ritual activity.
The archaeological team also includes Ricardo Antorcha Pedemonte, Head of Field for Front 1, and Luis Ángel Hernández Libreros, the archaeologist responsible for the Front 1 excavation.
Header Image Credit : Iván Sosa
Sources : INAH
