An objective methodology, based upon the rank-ordering and spatial patterning of Maya centers of the central Peten and central Yucatan zones, is used to infer developmental sequencing in the Maya Lowlands. If courtyard counts are employed as the basic measure of center importance, the tikal and Calakmul regions each exhibit a size continuum of centers, consistent with the rank size rule. The Rio Bec and Chenes regions exhibit a size distribution characterized by the existence of several large centers of nearly the same size, i.e. a situation of pluralism.