An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
This symposium explores recent anthropological research concerning commodities among Maya peoples from Formative times to the historic period, whose production was imposed by colonial powers. We think of commodities in a very general sense: any material item that is intended for exchange. Commodities can range from necessities that everyone needed to luxuries that were only obtained by kings and queens. Commodities can be examined in a number of different ways including their function, raw material source, or labor value. The symposium features a varied set of presenters to examine a wide variety of different commodities and various approaches to their analysis and interpretation. We hope the session appeals to attendees interested in the Maya and also those whose thematic focus deals with ancient commodities.
Other Keywords
Maya: Classic •
Trade and exchange •
Lithic Analysis •
Political economy •
Craft Production •
Underwater Archaeology •
Zooarchaeology •
Marine Shell •
Salt •
Colonialism
Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Peten (State / Territory) •
Yucatan (State / Territory) •
Orange Walk (State / Territory) •
Cayo (State / Territory) •
Corozal (State / Territory) •
Belize (State / Territory) •
Stann Creek (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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Chicle and the San Pedro Maya of British Honduras (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological evidence suggests sapodilla (Manilkara zapota), constituted an important resource for the ancient Maya. They harvested its fruit, used its wood in construction, and extracted latex—better known as chicle—from the tree for a variety of uses, including as chewing gum. The ancient Maya’s management of the species may...
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Crafting Chert Commodities at Santa Cruz, Yucatan, Mexico (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses chert crafting at the site of Santa Cruz in northern Yucatan. Santa Cruz was a small town located only about 25 km from both Chichen Itza and Ek Balam and occupied almost exclusively during the Late/Terminal Classic period when both these cities were at their height. Surface collections in 2017 and...
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Documenting Domestic Economies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands through Obsidian Exchange (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Households composed the most basic unit of economic production and consumption in ancient Maya societies, and articulated directly with broader social and political processes. In addition to organizing daily tasks and agricultural production, households served as a point of engagement in the domestic economy for the acquisition...
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Gift of the Gods: A Mashup of the History of Mesoamerican Avocados (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The earliest avocados of the Americas were dispersed by extinct megafauna, and later by human populations, including Olmec, Maya, and Aztecs peoples. Prized for their flavor and rich caloric content, avocados were portrayed on Maya king’s tombs, served as the municipal symbol of ancient Mesoamerican cities, as a month in the Maya...
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Identifying Salt Cakes as Commodities in the Classic Maya Marketplace Economy (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Production of salt cakes for trade in modern and historic communities provides three testable hypotheses for identifying ancient Maya trade of this commodity. If salt cakes were transported in pots as in the Philippines, briquetage would be found at consumer communities, as suggested for Aventura, Belize. Only non-vessel...
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Middle Preclassic Marine Shell Production and Ritual Deposition at the Sites of Blackman Eddy and Las Ruinas de Arenal, Belize (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Marine shell was a highly valued long-distance trade material for the ancient Maya beginning as early as the Middle Preclassic. Symbolically, marine shell represented the watery underworld and was often used in ritual offerings that reference cosmological ordering of the world. Evidence for Middle Preclassic marine shell bead...
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A Reexamination of the Distribution of Jade Artifacts at the Maya Site of Blue Creek in Northwestern Belize (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations at Blue Creek from 1992 to 2000 yielded a large collection of jade artifacts with approximately 900 artifacts being found in a single cache in Structure 4 and a total of nearly 1,500 artifacts recovered from throughout the site. In this paper, we revisit our interpretation of the social context of the Structure 4...
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Utilitarian Lithics as Commodities: Comparing Classic Period Specialized and Multi-craft Producers in the Maya Lowlands (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Economic studies in the Maya region have illustrated that the Classic period Maya utilized a variety of exchange networks to circulate commodities such as market exchange, redistribution, and gifting. The study of specific types of goods provides information on how different materials circulated through these exchange mechanisms...
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Whose Lime Is It Anyway? Burnt Lime as Commodity in the Classic Period Northern Lowlands (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "An Exchange of Ideas: Recent Research on Maya Commodities" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Burnt lime (calcium hydroxide) has been crucial for architectural, dietary, and other purposes in Maya society since as far back as the Formative period. The recent identification of hundreds of pit-kilns used for lime production in the Puuc region of the Yucatán Peninsula allows for an investigation of the socioeconomic...