Through the use of sophisticated ceramic chronology techniques, the author documents how small farming communities like Nacimiento and Dos Ceibas grew from hamlets in the seventh century A.D. into villages with several hundred inhabitants. He traces how local elites emerged during the eighth century A.D. and built outsized residential groups.

Mutual exchanges in these villages levelled material wealth, but also translated into social status and legitimised social inequality. As settings for public rituals, these exchanges helped integrate the communities, while individual households conducted domestic rituals that included ancestor veneration, dedication offerings, and termination rituals.

The inhabitants of Aguateca's rural hinterland interacted on multiple levels within and beyond the boundaries of their communities. The economic, sociopolitical, and ritual changes during the Late Classic highlight the complexity and dynamism of local communities.

Markus Eberl is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University, USA. He currently directs the Tamarindito archaeological project in Guatemala.