Mayan civilisation forms part of the Mesoamerican cultural area which is delimited, in the far North, by an imaginary line which would join the Panuco and Sinaloa Rivers (in the North of Mexico) and, in the southernmost zone, by another line that would join the mouth of the Motagua River (on the Atlantic coast of Honduras) with the Gulf of Nicoya (on the Pacific coast of Panama).

The development of this zone has its origins midway through the second millennium BC and it continued until the arrival of the Spanish. The following cultures are outstanding in this development:

• The Olmec culture, in the gulf area, between 1500 BC and 100 BC.
• The Teotihuacan culture, in the high plateau of Central Mexico, from midway through the first millennium BC through to the 7th century AD.
• The Zapotec and Mixtec cultures, in the Oaxaca region, from 800 BC to the arrival of the Spanish.
• The Mayan culture, in Southeast Mexico and part of Central America, from midway through the second millennium BC, to the arrival of the Spanish.
• The Aztec culture, the centre of which was Mexico-Tenochtitlán, founded in 1325 AD on the present site of Mexico City, and conquered by the Spanish in 1521.