The last 20 years have seen a great increase in the awareness of and interest in ancient Maya graffiti. Such graffiti have recently been rediscovered at the site of Plan de Ayutla, in the Lacanjá river basin of Chiapas, and add to the known Maya corpus. The Plan de Ayutla graffiti exhibit a diversity similar to that found at other Maya sites, including production by specialists as well as non-specialists, and themes ranging from daily activities to ceremonial events.

The 200-year period from A.D. 230 to 430 witnessed the transition from chiefdom to state in the Maya Lowlands and the founding of several early political dynasties. Considerable information on that era is known for major cities like Tikal and Copán, but we knew less about the Calakmul area until recently. Previously, Calakmul's earliest dated monument was Stela 43, carved at A.D. 514. On the other hand, Tikal's earliest text dated to A.D. 292, and its ruling dynasty claimed that its founding date was A.D. 230. The ruling dynasties of most other cities that eventually became Maya regional capitals were evidently founded later, between A.D. 330 and 430.

With the 1994 discovery of Stela 114 at Calakmul, we can now push Calakmul's written record back to A.D. 431. The oldest stela in Calakmul’s realm was erected in A.D. 406 at Balakbal, to document the reign of a Balakbal ruler who was a contemporary of the Tikal ruler Curl Snout. Some 25 years later, Calakmul erected Stela 114 to commemorate a Calakmul ruler who was a contemporary of the Tikal ruler Stormy Sky. Even though we had expected Calakmul's dynasty to have greater time depth than A.D. 514, it was not until the discovery of Stela 114 that we were able to confirm that point.

In this paper we summarize more than a decade of interdisciplinary work at Calakmul, including (1) the mapping project, which has covered more than 30 km2; (2) the excavation project, which has uncovered major structures and tombs in the center of the city; (3) the epigraphic project, whose goal is to study the hieroglyphic texts and relate them to the archaeological evidence; (4) the analysis of the architecture, ceramics, and chipped stone to define sacred and secular activity areas and chronological stages; and (5) a focus on the ecology, hydrology, and paleoclimatology of Calakmul and its environs with the aim of understanding more fully its periods of development and decline.