Major chiefdom center of the Tlatilco culture on the shore of Lake Chalco, one of the earliest examples of complex social stratification in the Basin of Mexico.
Declined and ceased as a major chiefly center around 700 BCE when Cuicuilco eclipsed both Tlapacoya and Tlatilco as the dominant power in the Valley of Mexico; part of the broader dissolution of the Tlatilco cultural tradition.
Foundational on emerging social ranking in Formative villages — the interpretive frame for a stratified Tlatilco-culture center like Tlapacoya on Lake Chalco.
Situates the Lake Chalco/Basin-of-Mexico Formative chiefdoms within the broad survey of Mexican prehistory.