One of the chronological phases or cultures of the Lowland Maya civilization which is Early Classic and began shortly before 250 AD. It is characterized by Lowland Maya artifacts, including elaborately decorated polychrome pottery, especially a basal flanged bowl. Almost all early Tzakol monuments draw heavily upon a heritage from the older Izapan civilization of the Late Formative, with its highly baroque, narrative stylistic content. Because of the Maya penchant for covering older structures with later ones, Tzakol remains will have to be laboriously dug out from under towering Late Classic.