Refers to the culture, and the style of architecture prevalent in southern Chiapas, Mexico, southern Guatemala and Honduras, and western El Salvador. The style reflects Classic Mesoamerican monumentality and Teotichuacan ceramic detailing, and utilizes decorative Mesoamerican green volcanic glass. It is distinguished from more elaborate Lowland Maya styles in the lack of stele-altars and colonnaded areas, the reticent use of corbel arches for substructural tombs, and the scarcity of polychrome ceramics, lofty corbel-vaulted temple designs, and structures measuring celestial cycles.
