entral America is a rugged, mountainous isthmus that joins North and South America. Upper Central America includes Guatemala, El Salvador, and western Honduras. Lower Central America includes the rest of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Colombia, though geographically located in South America, shared many of the same cultural traits. Through trade and commerce, pre-Columbian Central America served as a meeting and mixing ground for the high civilizations of north and south. Mesoamerican culture groups, such as the Maya, extended to and blended with those of Upper Central America. Their influence can be seen in the presence of communities built around plazas, ceremonial mounds supporting temples, the use of maize and cacao, and Olmec and Maya styles in art and architecture. Southern Amazonian influences were prevalent in Lower Central America and can be seen in gold work and textiles, the performance of a stick dance, and a trophy head cult. Mummification, a southern custom, was also practiced.