So-called preclassical Mayan period, with the development of independent city states. "Slash and burn" method of agriculture is used (little different from the methods still used by farmers of the jungle regions of Central America to this day).

By 200 AD, historians call the next stage the "classical period" of Maya culture, which reached its highest point in the area of South Mexico-Belize-Guatemala. Tikal was the most important Maya centre.

Maya society was stratified or "layered," which means there were different classes of people. At the top was the priest-king. Below him were the rest of the priests (who were also skilled astronomers), followed by the nobles. Next came the artisans and crafts people, headed by the architects, and traders. Most numerous were the peasant farmers, and at the very bottom were the slaves. There was also a class of warriors who were considered as important as nobles during war time, but during peace ranked with the artisans.

Caracol was quite different from other Lowland Maya cities. It was laid out on a radial plan much like Paris or Washington, D.C. Luxury goods, such as jadeite pendants, eccentrically shaped obsidian objects, and exotic shells, only found in the temple areas of other sites, were found throughout the city. Vaulted masonry tombs, traditionally believed to have been reserved for royalty, were discovered not only in temples and pyramids, but also in humble residential units. The distribution of vaulted masonry tombs and the presence of luxury items in the simplest residential units suggest that the people here were somehow sharing the wealth. Any gap in quality of life that may have existed between elites and commoners rapidly closed as a sizeable middle class developed. It was this social cohesion co-operation that allowed the community to become one of the most powerful and prosperous Lowland Maya cities during the Classic Period.

Tikal