El Mirador was a massive Preclassic Maya metropolis and "superhighway" hub that formed the earliest well-defined political state in Mesoamerica.The powerful Snake Dynasty extended its regional hegemony through military conquest and the strategic marriages of influential "stranger queens," such as Lady K'abel and Lady Six Sky.The civilization eventually collapsed around A.D. 150 due to "conspicuous consumption," specifically extreme deforestation for lime stucco production which caused soil erosion that buried vital agricultural swamps.