sentences:  Investigations continued from 1991–1994 under the direction of Juan Antonio Valdés, excavating the site's palaces.In the Preclassic period, villages immediately below the Tamarindito escarpment exhausted their agricultural resources and the focus of settlement in the area shifted onto the escarpment itself.Tamarindito was located strategically on the highest part of the range of hills and in the Early Classic it emerged as the most important city in the region.