This paper reports the recent discovery of a royal tomb in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico. Buried in this chamber was an adult male. Among the abundant offerings that accompanied this personage was a polychrome plate bearing the heiroglyph, Yukom Yich’ak K’ak’ (Jaguar Paw), the name of the governor of Cakalmul during the second half of the seventh century. Previously, it was believed that Jaguar Paw was captured and sacrificed at Tikal in 695 A. D. However, new data suggest that this recently discovered tomb at Calakmul was his final resting place.

For too long, Mayanists working in northern Yucatan have retained a focus on the single site. Although a few recent papers have begun to examine this area in regional terms, the world-systems perspective has yet to be applied. In this paper the world-systems framework is used to examine the post-Teotihuacan core center of Chichen Itza and its hinterland. Various lines of information are combined to achieve the fullest possible picture, including new settlement-pattern data, related ethnohistoric material, and a brief consideration of existing iconographie studies. Comparative examples from contemporary sites in other parts of Mesoamerica are provided to illustrate the systemic interconnections that characterize a “world system.”