The Production and Exchange of Perishable Goods at Salinas de los Nueve Cerros and atop the Coban Plateau

Summary

Investigations at Cancuen, Sebol, Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, and other sites at the base of the Guatemalan highlands since the late 1990s have shown the importance of the region for importing and refining a variety of highland goods for the lowland market. While most of the emphasis has been placed on the goods for which there is direct evidence of production and exchange—obsidian, jade, iron pyrite, and other lithic commodities present in abundance at these and other sites—Demarest, Dillon, and other scholars have posited that these sites were also important nodes of exchange for perishable goods that are harder to find in the archaeological record.

This presentation will focus on two of these perishable commodities—salt and quetzal feathers, both of which have ample ethnohistoric descriptions of their production during and after the Spanish conquest, and both of which are common in Classic Maya lowland iconography. The authors will discuss production techniques, their importance in the lowland economy, and Precolumbian evidence for their production and exchange.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20606