reima spreads rumors that ongka killed the man through his sorcery. angered by the accusations, members of ongka's tribe seek revenge against reima. planning for the big moka is interrupted. ongka sits down in the road to stop them. he tries to reason with them, but his persuasive abilities are insufficient. big men have greater prestige than leaders of more egalitarian tribes, but they still have no real power over other people. in copan, the team is still looking for the first maya leader who gained greater prestige than his peers. they wonder, did big men emerge here as they did in new guinea ? in the center of the copan valley is an area that later became the acropolis, the palaces and temples of the royal family. a half mile away, archaeologists reconstructed a smaller compound called 9n-8, after its location on a map. archaeologist bill fash excavated in this compound in 1981. the buildings on top were completed in the eighth century a.d. the maya built them atop layers of earlier buildings and plaster courtyards. fash dug down through the plaza