"The Peten Noroccidente-La Joyanca Project, established in 1999, opened a new time of research in a region previously explored by the epigrapher Ian Graham, where the possibilities for resolution of the mystery of the Site Q where being explored. On the one hand, the sites of La Corona and El Peru Waka’ that have been under investigation since 2002, define the northwest region properly; while on the other hand, the sites of El Pajaral and Zapote Bobal, under investigation since 2003 after the La Joyanca Project, define the “central-west” region. This paper refers to such central-west region,presenting a synthesis of all research carried out at it until present. After evaluating the potential of the region for long distance exchange, the regional settlement hierarchies are presented,along with a delimitation of the different entities that have been defined through the ceramic collections. The formation of nucleated settlements in the region after the fifth century is also delineated, after what the position of the central-west region might have had during the crisis of the eighth and ninth centuries is also evaluated." (source éditeur)