The variations in artistic style and chemical composition of the Ik-style ceramics suggests that they were produced in a number of workshops local to the Motul de San José area. They have been subdivided into five types, four from Motul de San José itself and one from one of its satellite sites. There are also various lower-quality examples that are presumed to have been manufactured in sites of lesser importance within the Motul de San José polity. The Ik-style ceramics are believed to have been produced in the period from 740–800 AD. In spite of differences, all the Ik-style ceramics are thought to have been made within a network of allied workshops dedicated to producing vessels for use in the banquets of the aristocracy of Motul de San José and of the petty nobility of the capital's satellites. The ceramics were distributed widely in the Maya region as gifts in order to seal alliances between the elites of various Maya kingdoms.