Kaminaljuyú has been an important focus of archaeological research since the 1930s, and the chronologies of various sites of the Southern Maya Area are linked directly to that of Kaminaljuyú. The implications of the currently prevalent chronology of Kaminaljuyú are that various social and political institutions developed significantly earlier in the Southern Maya Area than in the Maya Lowlands during the Preclassic period. Our evaluations of new and existing radiocarbon dates through the application ofBayesian statistics, as well as ceramic cross-dating, indicate that the Middle and Late Preclassic portions of the Kaminaljuyú sequence need to be shifted forward in time by roughly 300 years. Our chronological revisions have the following important implications: (1) many centers in the Southern Maya Area suffered political disruptions around 400 B.C., roughly at the same time as La Venta and the centers in the Grijalva region of Chiapas; and (2) highly centralized polities with divine rulers and their depictions on stelae developed roughly contemporaneously in the Southern Maya Area and in the Maya Lowlands after 100 B.C.

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This article reviews archaeological evidence of the Late Postclassic period in the Maya highlands. The Maya highlands contain a diverse and complex geography, a diversity that is represented in the material record. While archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence from the central Guatemalan highlands has long dominated discussion of the Late Postclassic period, research has shown that developments outside of this subregion were extremely variable and localized. A focus on the Quiché and Kaqchikel states has resulted in an important and rich body of evidence that has undeniable importance to Maya and Mesoamerica studies, as well as modern Maya peoples.

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