NO. 1 CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA 23 
Cocijo, Xipe, Huehueteotl, and Izpapalotl, as well as the motif of 
the plumed serpent, are frequently represented. 
Pottery takes on localized forms, which are traded from one re- 
gion to another. Vessels with supports and covers, jars with double 
spout, urns, and effigy vessels are characteristic. Decoration is by 
polychrome, fresco, champleve, and red-on-bu£f. Stamps or seals, 
and figurines with smiling faces, made in molds or with movable 
limbs, appear during this period. Other features include the introduc- 
tion of the ball court, observatories, ornamentation of the roof, urn 
burial, shaft tombs, pyrite mosaics, carved stone yokes, axes and 
palmas, jade pectorals and ear ornaments, and mica floors. 
Among the many Mesoamerican sites that reached this level of cul- 
tural development are Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, El Ixtepete, Tepea- 
pulco, Cholula, El Taj in, Panuco, Monte Alban, La Venta, Cerro de 
las Mesas, Chiapa de Corzo, Izapa, Remojadas, Los Ortices, Tuxca- 
cuesco, Etzatlan, as well as the Maya centers of the Old Empire in 
Chiapas and Guatemala. 
Militaristic Period (a.d. 800 to 1550). — Toward the end of the 
preceding period, a series of groups in western Mexico, of which the 
Nahuas were the most prominent, began slowly to infiltrate the Pa- 
cific coast and the Central Plateau. Cultural elements identified with 
these groups include the use of a column of mud, sometimes with a 
stone facing, cloisonne decorated pottery, grooved axes, the use of 
pipes, one-piece shell bracelets, spiked stone clubs, and brushed 
white pottery. 
Toward the end of the Theocratic Period, some of these groups 
had settled in places such as Xochicalco, San Juan del Rio, La Mag- 
dalena, El Coporo, Tula, and possibly Teotihuacan and Coyoacan, 
spreading from there to the Gulf coast, Chiapas, and even Guatemala. 
By A.D. 800, one of these groups, the Toltec-Chichimec, reached the 
plateau and took control of the Tula domain, creating the misnamed 
Toltec empire. As a result, the pottery shows notable similarities with 
that of sites in Queretaro, Zacatecas, and Jalisco. 
Beginning with this period, a militaristic tendency becomes mani- 
fest. The sculptures and paintings feature the hierarchy of warrior 
chiefs, and a system of control based on conquest and tribute must 
have existed. The ceremonial centers have ball courts, usually with 
walls bearing low-relief sculpture; decorated columns and pilasters; 
banquettes decorated with processions of priests and warriors; stone 
slabs with representations of jaguars, coyotes, and eagles ; atlan- 
tean supports for altars; serpent columns, chacmol figures, "Tzom- 
