7000-2000 BC Mesoamerican settlers develop farming skills and domesticate wild plants including maize.

3114 BC The start date of the Maya Long Count dating system is equivalent to August 13, 3114 BC.

2500-1500 BC The first farming villages in Mesoamerica appear. Settlers raise maize, chilli peppers, squash and cotton.

2300 BC Artist at Tlapacoya makes the oldest surviving ceramic figurine.

1500-1200 BC Olmecs build San Lorenzo.

1400 BC Oldest known ball court constructed at Paso de la Amada, Chiapas.

1400 BC Potters in highland Mexico, fashion many ceramic figurines, probably for use as grave offerings.

1350 BC A major urban settlement is built at San Jose Mogote.

1250-900 BC Olmecs lay out pyramids and courts in their holy town of San Lorenzo.

1200 BC Coapexco becomes a center for the growing trade in obsidian.

1100 BC A second Olmec city is built at La Venta.

1100 BC Olmec influence seen in rock carvings at the trading center of Chalcatzingo.

1000 BC The Ocos and Cuadros village-farming cultures thrive on the Pacific coast of Guatemala.

900 BC The Olmec site of San Lorenzo is destroyed.

800 BC Settlers built the first villages in the lowland Maya region.

800-500 BC Olmec stone heads set up in La Venta. Maya settlers build the pyramid Mound 30a at Izapa.

600-400 BC Maya built a living and ceremonial center at Nakbe.

600 BC Carving on a monument at San Jose Mogote may be the earliest Mesoamerican writing.

500 BC The Zapotec city of Monte Alban was established in Oaxaca.

400 BC The Olmec site of La Venta, on the Gulf coast, is destroyed. In the Valley of Mexico, Cuicuilco becomes an important city.

300 BC Decline sets in at Nakbe.

300 BC Zapotec builders construct the main plaza of Monte Alban.

300BC – 100 AD Maya craftsmen build ceremonial and living centers at Tikal and Uaxactun, northern Guatemala.

250 BC Building of the North Acropolis begins at Tikal.

200 BC Carvings of war prisoners added to Building I at Monte Alban.

200 BC – 300 AD Building J, an astronomical observatory and military conquest monument built at Monte Alban.

150 BC – 150 AD Vast El Tigre monument built in the Maya city of El Mirador.

100 BC Volcanic eruption drives settlers from Cuicuilco, Valley of Mexico, to the city of Teotihuacan.

100 BC – 150 AD Teotihuacan established as a sacred city and a major population center. The Pyramid of the Sun is built and the Street of the Dead laid out.

36 BC The earliest Pre-Maya Long Count inscription is carved at Chiapa de Corzo in the Chiapas region of southern Mexico.

31 BC Stela C at Trez Zapotes, on the Mexican Gulf Coast, is carved with a date in the Maya Long Count equivalent to September 3, 31 BC.

36 AD Stela I at El Baul, Guatemala, is carved with a standing figure and the date 36 AD.

100 AD A ball court is built is built at Monte Alban.

150 AD The Pyramid of the Sun was built at Teotihuacan.

156 AD Stela I at La Mojarra in Veracruz is carved with a standing figure and the dates 143 AD and 156 AD.

199 AD The Hauberg stela, the earliest piece of writing in the Maya system is carved.

200 AD The talud-tablero architectural feature is used on the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan’s Citadel area.

200 AD The Zapotecs are at the peak of their powers.

250 AD Artists decorate Teotihuacan temples with wall paintings.

300 AD The Zapotecs of Monte Alban establish the nearby settlement of Mitla, which contains many tombs. They call it Lyobaa (Site of Burials).

300-650 AD Peak of Maya building pyramids, temples and ballcourts are put up in many Maya Lowland cities.

350 AD Teotihuacan became the pre-eminent Mesoamerican city.

400 AD Teotihuacan influence is seen at the Maya site of Kaminaljuyu, where buildings begin to use the talud-tablero architectural feature.

400 AD Copan expands from a farming settlement to a major city.

426 AD The first ritual buildings were erected at Copan in the reign of King Yax Kuk Mo (reign 426-37 AD).

600 AD Teotihuacan is deliberately destroyed by fire and abandoned.

647 AD King Pacal (reign 615-83 AD) begins a major building program at the city of Palenque, with the construction of the Olvidado temple (Unnoticed Shrine) to the west of the main plaza.

650 AD Potters at Remojadas and other sites in Veracruz produce ceramic figures for use in religious rituals.

692 AD At Palenque the temples of the Cross Group are dedicated.

700 AD Xochicalco in the highlands of central Mexico is founded.

700 AD El Tajin, in Veracruz, contains 12 ball courts and the remarkable Pyramid of the Niches, which contains 365 openings, one for each day of the solar year.

726 AD In Yaxchilan Lord Shield Jaguar (reign 681-742 AD) dedicates Temple 23 (Queens House) to his wife, Lady Xoc.

734 AD Tikal’s King Ah Cacau (reign 682-734 AD) buried beneath Temple I, which he built as his funerary monument.

738 AD King 18-Rabbit (reign 695-78 AD) completes building work on the Great Ball Court at Copan.

743 AD The Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent was built at Xochicalco.

749 AD Copan’s King Smoke Shell (reign 749-63 AD) completes the Hieroglyphic Stairway.

750 AD Builders erect Tikal’s Temple VI (Temple of the Inscriptions) and the city’s tallest building, Temple IV – 70 meters or 230 feet tall.

750 AD Artists at Cacaxtla paint a series of magnificent murals.

750 AD Northern tribes sack Teotihuacan.

700-900 AD Decline in Maya lowlands is perhaps caused by overpopulation.

775 AD At Copan, King Yax Pac (reign 763-820 AD) dedicates the monument known as Altar Q, which bears portraits of all 16 kings of the dynasty founded by Yax Kuk Mo.

799 AD Last stela carved in Palenque.

800 AD Tula/Tollan is laid out, like Teotihuacan, on a grid pattern.

800 AD Murals painted at Bonampak.

820 AD Last dated stela is put up at Copan.

879 AD Last dated stela at Tikal.

850-950 AD Many Maya centers in Guatemala and Mexico are abandoned.

900 AD Builders at Chichen Itza erect the Caracol, perhaps as a temple to the wind god, but more likely as an astronomical observatory.

900 AD Xochicalco was destroyed by fire and abandoned.

900-950 AD The Tolecs build their capital at Tula.

909 AD Monument 101 at Tonina is last carving with date in the Maya Long Count.

1000 AD Mixtec people carry out royal burials at Monte Alban.

1150 AD The city of Tula is destroyed by Chichimec tribesmen.

1150 AD The Toltec capital of Tollan is systematically destroyed.

1200 AD The Mexica/Aztecs make their way southward into the Valley of Mexico.

1230 The Grolier Codex, a calendar of the cycles of the planet Venus, is written.

1325 AD The Mexica/Aztecs found the city of Tenochtitlan and build the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan.

1345 AD The Dresden Codex is made.

1375 AD Acamapichtli, the first historical ruler of the Mexica/Aztecs, is elected tlatoani (speaker) in Tenochtitlan.

1390 AD A larger pyramid-temple is constructed over the original Templo Mayor.

1428 AD The cities of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan form the Triple Alliance and begin to build the Aztec Empire.

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