Gathering in an open space: introduction to Mesoamerican plazas / Plaza builders of the preclassic Maya lowlands: the construction of a public space and a community at Ceibal, Guatemala / Social identities, power relations, and urban transformations: politics of plaza construction at Teotihuacan / Multiple identities on the plazas: the classic Maya center of El Palmar, Mexico / Early Olmec open spaces at San Lorenzo, Veracruz / Empty space, active place: the sociopolitical role of plazas in the Mixteca Alta / The social construction of public spaces at Palenque and Chinikihá, Mexico / Interpreting plaza spaces using soil chemistry : the view from Honduras / Plazas in comparative perspective in south-central Veracruz from the classic to the postclassic period (AD 300-1350) / Early transformations of Monte Albań's main plaza and their political implications, 500 BC-AD 200 / Plazas and the patios of the Feathered Serpent / Plaza, atrium, and Maya social memory in sixteenth-century Itzmal / Ancient plazas: spaces of inquiry in Mesoamerica and beyond