In Search of an Ancient Maya Market

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Market economies are notoriously difficult to identify in the archeological record. This is particularly true in the subtropi cal Maya lowlands of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize because most utilitarian items and consumables were made of highly perishable materials. We explore the hypothesis that ancient marketplaces can be identified through analysis of chemical residues in soils from open and easily accessible spaces in and about ancient Maya cities. We compared soil chemical sig natures from a credible ancient marketplace location in the specialized trade center of Chunchucmil, Yucatan, Mexico to those from a modern marketplace at Antigua, Guatemala. We found extraordinarily high concentrations of phosphorus and zinc in the soil of Chunchucmils proposed marketplace and the same high concentrations correlate well with food prepa ration and vegetable sales areas at the modern marketplace. These methods hold promise in resolving the vexing question of how large ancient Maya urban populations were sustained.

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

“…Initially, tropical environments were believed to be unsuitable for the development or maintenance of urbanism (Meggers 1954; but see Coe 1957). Several factors contributed to a general view that the Maya were less complex than their northern neighbors in central Mexico and were not truly urban (e.g., Sanders and Webster 1988; but see D. Chase et al 1990;Smith 1989): an incomplete understanding of the scale and variability of Maya sites (A. combined with the early investigation of sites with smaller populations in the southern lowlands (e.g., Piedras Negras [Weeks et al 2005] and Copan [Andrews and Fash 2005]), a lack of recognition of the variation in naturally available resources within the Maya Lowlands (Sanders 1973) and of their economic system (subsequently corrected by Dahlin et al 2007;Feinman and Garraty 2010;Garraty and Stark 2010), and to some degree expectations that urban forms should fit Western models (see discussion by Smith 2007).…”

Ancient Maya Commerce : Multidisciplinary Research at Chunchucmil

“…Marketplaces can run on a daily basis, like the Tlatelolco marketplace in Late Aztec Central Mexico (Blanton 1996) or can run much less frequently in a place that is also used for other functions (e.g., Coronel et al 2015). Both kinds of markets are common in Mesoamerica today (Dahlin et al 2007. Marketplaces that do not run every day will probably not leave permanent architectural traces.…”

“…Dahlin et al (2007) showed that Area D had been artificially leveled (mostly by adding dirt and stone fill to low spots) at the beginning of the Classic period. Area D therefore differs from Areas A, B, E, and F, which have uneven surfaces, and is a stronger candidate for a marketplace.…”

“…Preservation conditions have erased wood, textiles, hides, fuel, fruits, seeds, nuts, vegetables, spices, dyes, gourds, cordage, bags, bundles, baskets, and, often, bone-materials that formed the core of Maya lives and livelihoods (Dahlin et al 2007;Foias 2002;King 2015:53). The two quotations at the beginning of this chapter highlight deep differences in scholarly opinion about the degree of commercialization in ancient Maya society.…”

Movement as a means of social (re)production: using GIS to measure social integration across urban landscapes

“…Conversely, the elites who resided at type 4 sites could more easily attend events at the civic-ceremonial core or routinely interact with other urban core dwellers, particularly Copán's rulers, whose royal temples and residence they could more quickly reach (emissiveness) (Richards-Rissetto, 2010. The placement of elite complexes at accessible, highly integrated locations suggests that to attend state-sponsored events or carry out economic exchanges in the civic-ceremonial group, lower status people moved past elite households adorned with ornate sculpture atop high platforms that conspicuously displayed a message of high status, wealth, and prestige (attractiveness) (Dahlin et al, 2007;Shaw, 2012;Trigger, 1990). Figure 10 illustrates how travel to type 1 sites requires passing by type 4 sites, while the opposite is not necessarily true.…”