Chert Resource Availability, Production, and Economic Logic

At a basic level, the lowland Classic Maya economy was a complex web of prestige exchange, centralized distribution, and local market economies. While it is important not to consider the lowland Classic Maya economic system as monolithic, it is also as critical to understand how it articulated with the different levels of social hierarchy. In this chapter, we address the distribution of utilitarian goods in the ancient Maya economy through comparisons of lithic resources, particularly chert, in northwestern Petén and western Belize. We find that access to locally available raw materials affects the involvement of actors of differing sociopolitical status in lithic production and distribution.

Yucatec Land and Labor before and after Spanish Incursions

Yucatec land and labor arrangements before and after Spanish incursions are examined for ruptures and continuities. The Western concept of private property is found to ring hollow in a landscape in which intersecting spheres of authority (including those of supernaturals) guide protocols of access and extraction. Furthermore, no simple dichotomy between pre- and post-colonial can explain the range of land arrangements and networks of labor that existed across Yucatán. Through the input of labor or as a consequence of geomorphology, a patchwork of high-productivity micro-environments can be found across Yucatán and on Cozumel Island. Cultivation and/or extraction at these resource-intensive production zones encompassed a large range of labor arrangements and interdependencies during Pre-Columbian times. In general, land and labor are conceptualized as suspended within relationships of shifting authority. In reference to both land labor, authors break with the construct of “control over” and embrace the phrase “authority to,” which recognizes the role of negotiation and the inclusion of supernatural forces perceived to have played a structuring role in the disposition of land and labor.

Stone for My House

Survey in the Puuc region, Yucatán, has revealed considerable evidence for small-scale quarrying and lime burning for construction purposes, as well as a high incidence of masonry architecture. In this chapter we discuss what must have been a substantial component of the Puuc Terminal Classic economy, especially if the construction of palaces and civic-ceremonial structures is included. This chapter addresses the stages involved in the procurement of building materials for housing and subsequent construction processes, especially of masonry structures. We then assess how construction may have been managed and its economic implications, suggesting that elite houses may have been tokens within a royal patronage network in which the size and elaboration of dwellings were subject to sumptuary considerations.

Decentralizing the Economies of the Maya West

Reconstructions of Pre-Columbian Maya economies are frequently based on a centralized model of exchange, in which dynastic capitals acted as centers of production, and import-export hubs, while royal courts provided some form of management over long-distance trade networks. However, recent research in the Usumacinta River Valley of the western Maya Lowlands, suggests that it was often hinterland elites who maintained those long-distance networks. These elites functioned as critical allies, and must have provided goods and services, to the royal courts of regional powers. But hinterland sites were centers of production in their own right, with exchange networks that did not always intersect with those of the dynastic center. Hinterland elites pursued their own ambitions and sought local economic benefits that could diverge from the best interests of the courts. In this chapter, we present the results of research in the hinterlands of Yaxchilán and Piedras Negras, and consider these data in light of a decentered model of Classic Maya economies.

Modeling Maya Markets

An abundance of data now supports the existence—long doubted—of markets in the Maya area in the Classic period (C.E. 250–900) and their economic importance. Why, however, did it take so long for Maya markets to be recognized? And how are they best conceptualized? After briefly reviewing the assumptions that hindered archaeological research on markets, especially among the Maya, this article uses ethnohistorical and ethnographic information to suggest an agent-centered model for how Maya markets worked. The intent is not to create a single, overarching template, because Maya economy varied over time and space, but rather to infuse more of a Maya perspective into current views and inspire others to continue doing so in the future.

Terminal Classic Interactions between the Western Petén Lakes Chain and the Western Lowlands

Innovations in a poorly known Terminal Classic pottery type, Jato Black-on-Gray (JBG), at sites around Lake Petén Itzá include use of gray slips and the presence of monkey and ik’ motifs. They appear on local forms (cylinders, plates) and are particularly associated with burials. These suggest emulations of varied gray ware pottery in the western and southwestern lowlands, such as Chablekal Fine Gray. JBG thus supports inferences based on other data (architecture) of ties to these regions, including in-migration into the lakes area, featuring a reworking of the new (motifs; firing technology) with the old (forms). The western lakes area was part of a larger ceramic system in the western lowlands, suggesting that Terminal Classic pottery makers were engaged with innovations in a thriving “business.”

Bundling the Sticks

This chapter addresses a set of references to tallies in Classic Maya inscriptions and imagery, which have been traditionally interpreted as weapons and writing implements. The available contexts, however, indicate that “sticks” were somehow involved in accounting practices. Although there is no archaeological evidence of these presumably perishable wooden items, the author highlights visual and material data that support the use of tallies by the Maya.

Classic Maya Interaction Networks and the Production and Consumption of Cotton Fiber and Textiles

Ethnohistorical accounts of tribute among the Yukatek Maya provide an impressive list of materials and products in circulation at the time of Spanish contact while also affording a glimpse of the interwoven layers of socioeconomic relationships underlying these acts of exchange, tribute, and taxation. This chapter compares the 16th-century Yukatekan configurations with patterns of production and distribution of Classic period decorated ceramics that also link prime cotton-producing regions to major centers of political power. The data intimate that cotton and cloth were crucial components of Classic period exchange networks underlying political power. The study employs a multidisciplinary approach combining investigations of artistic style, ceramic paste chemical analysis, epigraphy, and archaeology.

Rural Economies of Agrarian Houselots before and after the Rise of Urban Mayapán

Chapter 5 examines eight rural houselots, homes of farmers, in the vicinity of the Postclassic Maya capital city of Mayapán, Yucatán. Four houselots date to the Terminal Classic Period, when the area was a marginally located vicinity surrounding a small central town. Four houselots date to the Postclassic Period, representing peripheral localities beyond Mayapán’s walled urban zone. Comparisons of Postclassic Mayapán urban commoner activity differentiation and wealth are made to the rural houselots of both periods. Rural houselots differed in their relative affluence, some reflecting similar patterns to the late urban contexts. Although all were generally at the low end of the wealth continuum, rural farmers were fully dependent on regional trade for the most common items used in daily life, especially pottery vessels.

Similar Markets, Different Economies

Various lines of data from two large, Classic-period cities—Tikal and Chunchucmil—support the existence of marketplace exchange. Nevertheless, a multivariate analysis of artifact inventories from lower status households at the two cities showed strongly divergent patterns in access to exotic goods. Though these households at both Tikal and Chunchucmil had ready access to obsidian and other materials, suggesting marketing, wealth significantly affected access to exotic goods in low-status households at Tikal but not at low-status households at Chunchucmil. In other words, at a micro-level, important differences in exchange systems existed even when the two sites appear to have similar forms of exchange at a macro-level. This chapter provides explanations for the divergence.