The Political Geography of Long-Distance Trade in the Maya Lowlands: Comparing Proxies for Power Structure and Exchange Networks

Summary

A critical issue for understanding the relationships between Maya political geography and long-distance economic exchange is that many trade goods are archaeologically invisible. Iconographic depictions of feathers, cacao, and textiles—along with evidence for production and the sheer biological necessity of salt—indicate that these goods were widely traded alongside more durable items such as obsidian, jadeite, marine products, and ceramics. This paper explores the possibility of using political networks as a proxy for the flows of undetectable commodities. Such a hypothesis hinges on the notion that exchange systems and power relations are both reflections of the underlying structure of the political economy. We use data from hieroglyphic inscriptions and elite ceramic exchange to model the shape and extent of political networks at different moments in time. We test the proxy hypothesis by comparing these reconstructions against studies of obsidian exchange networks in the Maya region. We then extend the model of economic flows to perishable commodities using least-cost path calculations to evaluate relative efficiency and potential variations among trade routes for different commodities. In particular, we focus on reconstructing the political geography of long-distance exchange in the Elevated Interior Region of southern Campeche and northern Peten.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Nuts and Bolts of the Real "Business" of Ancient Maya Exchange (Part 2)

Keywords

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