stelae were also used as territorial markers, as the boundary stelae of akhenaten at amarna, or to commemorate military victories. they were widely used in the mesopotamia, greece, egypt, ethiopia, and, quite independently, in china and some buddhist cultures, and, more surely independently, by mesoamerican civilisations, especially the olmec and maya. the huge number of stelae that survive from ancient egypt and in central america are one of the largest and most significant sources of information on those civilisations.