Detail of the elaborate stucco frieze that gives the Palace of the Stuccos its modern sobriquet. All kinds of (probably mythological) beasts are shown in various poses, each sitting inside a double-frame strongly reminiscent of the shapes modern iconographers have come to identify by the Maya word ohl. These "ohl" shapes, in their full form, were conventionally depicted as squarish enclosures with inset corners. The shape itself and very possibly its associated meaning, hark back to Olmec times. "Ohl" were conceived of as portals or passages which trained specialists (not unlike medicine men), perhaps with the aid of fasting, hallucinogens and other techniques for inducing altered states of consciousness, could use to ensure passage into the realm of the supernatural.