 After its defeat at the hands of the Petexbatún kingdom, Motul de San José no longer erected sculpted stelae but the history of the site continued to be recorded to a certain extent in texts on Ik-style ceramics.In the Late Classic period Motul de San José was located between two mutually hostile powers, the great city of Tikal to the north and the breakaway kingdom of Petexbatún to the southwest, which had become a vassal of Tikal's implacable enemy Calakmul.In Mesoamerica, such border states as Motul de San José became centres of political activity as they tried to manipulate the shifting political fortunes of their neighbours to their own advantage.