72 UNIT 1 PREHISPANIC MESOAMERICA
cities and states in northern Mesoamerica. After the fall of Teotihuacan, a number
of large cities sprang up to fill the political and economic vacuum left by the fall of
the Teotihuacan empire. Although some of these cities were important Classic period
sites, they experienced a fluorescence in the Epiclassic period that followed Teoti-
huacan’s decline.
A network of cosmopolitan world centers, which were engaged in extensive trade
and ideological interaction with one another, extended from the Mexican highlands
to the lowland Mayam area. In addition to the remnant city at Teotihuacan itself
(still a major city of 30,000 inhabitants), impressive urban centers were found at
Xochicalco in Morelos, Teotenango in the Toluca Valley, and Cacaxtla and Cholula
in the Puebla-Tlaxcala area. These were mountaintop cities whose fortifications and
iconography attest to the prevalence of warfare at this time (Figures 1.15 and 1.16).
The sites of El Tajin in Veracruz and Chichen Itzá in Yucatán represent nodes of
this interaction sphere located in the Gulf Coast and Yucatan peninsula respectively.
In Belize, the site of Lamanai is distinctive because it survived the southern Mayan
collapse and maintained its position as a regional center through the Terminal and
Early Postclassic Periods; it clearly prospered from its ties to the Epiclassic Mesoamer-
ican world via a maritime Caribbean trade route.Figure 1.15 The Epiclassic-period fortified, hilltop city of Xochicalco, Mexico. Courtesy of
Companía Mexicana de Aerofoto, Mexico City.