3 101 X A small concentration of ceremonial centres, perhaps controlling the trade in cacao. They are characterized particularly by a grim and forbidding artstyle in which ballgame players feature prominently. Stylistic features and the identity of the gods depicted seem to link this complex with highland Mexico or the Gulf coast.
#Cotzumalhualpa, Ball game marker
4 101 X Solanos, situated between Kaminaljuyu and Amatitlan, was an important centre for working obsidian (volcanic glass), with many workshops. Architecture and artefacts here reflect the Teotihuacan take-over of Kaminaljuyu around AD 400 but suggest that these influences were superficial, not greatly affecting the lives of ordinary folk.
#Solanos
5 101 X Situated in the Tuxtla mountains, Matacapan may have been a way station on the trade route linking highland Teotihuacan and the lands of the Maya. Many features indicate that it was under Teotihuacan's control - for example the characteristic Teotihuacan-style stepped profile of the platforms found here.
#Matacapan
6 101 X Situated at a natural exit point for routes from the Valley of Mexico to the coast, Tepeapulco was a production centre for export goods made in its factory workshops.
#PW Tepeapulco
7 101 X A major trade route led east through a mountain pass from Teotihuacan to Tlaxcala and the south. Along this route the Teotihuacanos established small control points and a major control station at Calpulalpan, where imports of raw materials and exports of Thin Orange ware and obsidian blades were monitored.
#PW Calpulalpan
8 101 X Trade @ Teotihuacan and Monte Alban traded with each other and with other civilizations of the time, such as the Maya. As in earlier times, trade was both in essentials and in prestige and ritual materials, along with goods made in centres such as Teotihuacan. Obsidian was particularly important. Trade routes often followed rivers or went by sea, since there were no pack animals in Mesoamerica and land transport therefore relied on human porters.
