It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
The precise dating of all the strata remains unclear, however, most artefacts are from the early Postclassic period (AD 900-1200) and suggest a short lived activity of less than a hundred years.
This all contributes to the theory that this ceremonial centre had the function of controlling maritime traffic in the area of the river and the mangroves. Some scholars have suggested it was an important port, where the marketplace was so large that the 15th century Aztec Triple Alliance made a serious effort to hold it as a tributary province, an area also important for cotton production, a resource that could not be planted in the Highlands.