The importance of this latest discovery doesn't lie in a sort of Guinness record contest, but in the implication for the understanding of the early development of the Maya region and its contacts throughout southern Mesoamerica. As Inomata and colleagues argue in the conclusion of their article, earlier studies have traditionally affirmed that plaza-pyramid groups developed in the 9th century at the Olmec site of La Venta in the Gulf Coast of Mexico, and then spread into southern Mesoamerica and the Maya area by 9th-8th century BC.
However, the recent research at Ceibal, as well as in other sites in Central Chiapas and in the Pacific Coast of Chiapas and Guatemala with evidence of plaza-pyramid complexes, proposes a scenario in which these regions shared similar ideas, construction procedures and architectural layouts, through interregional interactions rather than merely accepting external models.
Sources
Doyle J. 2012. Regroup On “E-Groups”: Monumentality and Early Centers in the Middle Preclassic Maya Lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 23(4):355-379.
Inomata T, Triadan D, Aoyama K, Castillo V, and Yonenobu H. 2013. Early Ceremonial Constructions at Ceibal, Guatemala, and the Origins of Lowland Maya Civilization. Science 340:467-471.
