One of the most intriguing civilizations of the ancient world was created by the peoples nowadays known collectively as the Maya. A relatively uniform culture began to emerge in the second millennium B.C. and flourished up to the Spanish Conquest on the territory corresponding to what are now the southeastern part of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.

The southeastern part of the Mexican federal state of Campeche, even if it lies in the very heartland of the territory once occupied by the Maya, was, until recently, very poorly known from the archaeological point of view. In the surveys accomplished in these central parts of the Yucatan peninsula since 1996, we have recorded more than 80 previously unreported archaeological sites, including major urban centers with large architectural complexes and sculpted monuments with hieroglyphic inscriptions, as well as several caves with vestiges of ritual activities.