NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 
37 
that powerful Teotihuacan influence reached into the heart of the Peten 
during the initial stages of Classic Maya civilization, with the find of 
stone monuments exhibiting Tlaloc faces in pure Teotihuacan style 
(cf. W. R. Coe, 1962, fig. 8; Moholy-Nagy, 1962). The hallmarks 
of Teotihuacan pottery are the slab-footed tripod with lid, the florero 
and composite-silhouette vase, fresco decoration of surfaces, and 
Thin Orange ware, and these were widely diffused over much of Meso- 
america to be integrated into local styles. Thus, the Early Classic pot- 
tery of the Maya can be divided into three groups: (1) Wares im- 
ported from Teotihuacan or Teotihuacanoid sites ; (2) local adaptation 
of Teotihuacan wares with Maya decorative motifs; and (3) purely 
Maya wares and shapes, such as basal-flange polychrome bowls. 
In spite of the effects of Teotihuacan cultural imperialism and re- 
gardless of its Izapan heritage, there is much that is distinctive and 
almost unique in Classic Maya civilization, for instance, the architec- 
tural style with masonry rooms built on the principle of the corbel 
vault and the towering temple-pyramids with roof combs ; the realism 
of the art style as expressed in bas-reliefs and paintings ; and the ex- 
traordinary degree to which they advanced their calendrical compu- 
tations and hieroglyphic writing. During the Early Classic, Maya 
culture per se was restricted to the lowlands, for the Guatemalan 
highlands were simply a Mexican outpost. In this monsoon-forest en- 
vironment, slash-and-burn farming was and still is the only feasible 
way of making a living ; surely no real urban concentration was pos- 
sible with such a system, and claims that the great Classic Maya cen- 
ters were true cities must be wrong. Recent mapping and reconnais- 
sance in the Peten have disclosed a settlement pattern of dispersed 
hamlets over the entire inhabitable region, with no very great con- 
centrations of house mounds anywhere (Bullard, 1960). Whatever 
the details of Maya political organization, the centers were staffed by 
a relatively small group of elite personages and their retainers, who 
must have exerted a power over the scattered populace which was 
backed up by incredibly potent sanctions. 
Away from Oaxaca and the Maya area, much of the Gulf coast was 
in eclipse. Within the old Olmec region, the Cerro de las Mesas civ- 
ilization (Stirling, 1943, pp. 31-48; Drucker, 1943) perpetuated 
many older Olmec and Izapan elements, such as the worship of were- 
jaguars, and at this site have been discovered a number of Early 
Classic stelae dated in the Long Count system, but the culture as a 
whole was highly conservative. In central and northern Veracruz, the 
quite distinctive Classic Veracruz style was beginning to crystallize, 
under Teotihuacan influence, one that emphasized curvilinear, scroll- 
