Montana

Montana is a Mesoamerican archaeological site on the Pacific coastal plain of southern Guatemala [1]. It is located in the department of Escuintla, near Balberta, and is one of the largest Mesoamerican archaeological sites on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala [1]. Around AD 400, in the Early Classic period, Montana replaced Balberta as the regional capital [1]. The investigating archaeologists consider that Montana was founded as a colony by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico in order to supply that city with locally produced products such as cacao [1]. By the Late Classic, the Montana polity had fragmented into several smaller polities, and around AD 800 it was replaced as a regional capital by Cotzumalhuapa [1]. The site core covers an area of about 1 square kilometre and contains a number of enormous earth constructions [1]. The site core had a complex drainage system that channelled runoff rainwater through sections of ceramic pipe in order to maintain the structural integrity of the architecture [1].