Cuello

K’axob

Barton Ramie

Cahal Pech

Nakbe

Northern Lowlands

no rivers, no surface streams; thus, the source of water are natural wells called cenotes (Maya term: dz’onot)

drier scrub forest

There are rivers, streams, bajos, aguadas;

wetter taller tropical forest, and many birds with showy plumage

Transitional zone between southern lowlands and highlands is the cloud forest, where quetzals live

obsidian (volcanic glass for tools, eccentrics, mask component parts, etc) 

basalt (volcanic stone for manos, metates)

            jade—Lago Izabal, Motagua River valley

Piedmont zone/coast: cacao/cacaw/chocolate

a.       Even more massive city

b.      Most massive pyramid built in the mayn empire city.

c.       Largest chiefdom.

d.      Enormous city with many temples and pyramids. Lots of labor to build everything. Stucco masks were very impressive.

                                                               i.      Shift from 3-level to 4-level administrative hierarchy

                                                             ii.      Appearance of the first palace

                                                           iii.      Standardized temples

                                                           iv.      Full-time priests

                                                             v.      Inter-site road system

                                                           vi.      Lower-order sites mention higher-order sites (from hieroglyphic texts)

                                                         vii.      Refer to dynastic founders (from texts)

                                                       viii.      New strategies