Mesoamerican pyramids

[5] Sites involving Aztec pyramids include: The Maya are a people of southern Mexico and northern Central America (Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras, and El Salvador).

[6] Archaeological evidence shows that by the Preclassic Maya (1000 B.C., approximately 3,000 years ago) they were building pyramidal-plaza ceremonial architecture.

[7] The earliest monuments consisted of simple burial mounds, the precursors to the spectacular stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period and beyond.

[11] The Olmec Great Pyramid of La Venta is argued to be one of the earliest and most complex settlement and ceremonial sites that can be found amongst Mesoamerican civilizations.

[18] The Zapotecs were one of the earliest Mesoamerican cultures and held sway over the Valley of Oaxaca region from the early first millennium BCE to about the 14th century.

[20] The following site is from the modern-day state of Zacatecas, built by cultures whose ethnic affiliations are unknown: A great quantity of buildings were constructed on artificial terraces upon the slopes of a La Quemada.

[21] Modern archaeological scholarly thinking has been revising the concept of the Olmecs as diffusing the majority of cultural influence in regards to architectural similarities between various Mesoamerican pyramids.

The origin of the term mother culture, in regards to Mesoamerica, entered into the Mesoamerican historiographical lexicon in 1942 from archaeologist Alfonso Caso denoting that the OImecs were the "cultura madre".

Further progression of the debate has evolved into costly signaling theory which argues that Mesoamerican cultures were influenced by prestigious displays which manifested, amongst other things, in their architecture.

[24] In 2013, archaeological research done on the ancient Mayan city of Ceibal have hypothesized that the Olmecs had significantly lesser prominence in regards to shared architectural characteristics.