Card seems especially cautious of speculating beyond the known facts, as if to do so would be a disservice to the site. The furthest he would go was to describe it as “a place of gathering for masses of people.”

There is evidence for this: not only the size of the buildings, but also deposits that indicate preparation and consumption of food on a huge scale. Around 2400 B.C., at least 400 cows were slaughtered and eaten during one feast, or so radiocarbon dating and other analysis suggests. The bones of their shins, cracked for marrow, were then arranged around the perimeter of Structure 10—as if in celebration of wealth, abundance and appetite.