Many advances in archaeological and epigraphic research have shed new light on the Maya civilization, however, there is still much debate about the political structure and how it was formed. The Maya are a Mesoamerican civilization known for its advanced form of civilization. It reached its maximum state of development during the Classic period from approximately 200 to 900 AD. By the early Classic period (292–434 AD), there were several city-states scattered throughout the Maya lowland region without a defined hierarchy of settlements or regional capitals. However, around 514 AD, the situation appeared to change with the formation of four major capitals in scattered regions across the Maya lowlands (Scarre & Fagan, 2008). It is in these regions that the glyphs of the emblems have given us an enormous amount of information about the political organization of the time. It appears that the Maya political structure during the Late Classic period consisted of a hierarchical structure in which four major ruling capitals each controlled several smaller multicentric polities. Maya kings were at the center of political power during the Classic period, with each major capital ruled by a dynasty of kings. Mayan lords used the power of their office to emphasize their close identity with the mythical ancestral gods and thus assert their authority over others (Scarre & Fagan, 2008). Naturally, they had an obligation to their people, which was to collect and redistribute goods, so that all levels of society had access to goods and commodities. Therefore, the size of a political system was limited by its ability to collect and redistribute the goods of the population of the capital and nearby cities that were controlled by the dominant capital. Each regional capital possesses...... of paper ......l Change. Eds. C. Renfrew and J.F. Cherry, pp. 93-108. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. HASSIG, R. (1992a). War and society in ancient Mesoamerica. University of California Press. Berkeley.University of Oklahoma Press. Norman.MARCUS, J. (1976). Emblem and statehood in the Classic Maya Lowlands: An epigraphic approach to territorial organization. Dumbarton Oaks. Washington, DC Science 180: 911-916.MARTIN, S. and N. GRUBE (1995). Mayan superstates. Archeology 48 (6): 41-46.SCHELE, L. and D. FREIDEL (1990). A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya.William Morrow. New York.SCHELE, L. and P. MATHEWS (1991). Royal visits and other relationships among the Classic Maya. In Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence. Ed. TP Culbert, pp. 226-252. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.