Grinding It Out: Ancient Maya Embedded Economies and Changing Ground Stone Densities in Households at Actuncan, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Embedded Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In Classic Maya economies, artifact distributions alone do not neatly reflect modes of production and exchange. The simultaneous existence of multiple modes of production (domestic, specialized, ritualized, etc.) and exchange (gift giving, tribute extraction, and markets) in households complicate our understanding of the strength of any given aspect. We utilize a diachronic perspective, multiple lines of evidence, and artifact densities standardized by excavation volume at the site of Actuncan, Belize, to elucidate changes in the strength of production and exchange modes in Preclassic and Classic phases. Our focus is on ground stone densities as a measure of maize-grinding intensity across elite and common households. Data indicate that commoner households always ground more maize than elites, but intensity peaked in the Late Classic period, after which it declined. It is tempting to suggest that this pattern is linked to population decline following the collapse of Naranjo’s political power over the nearby provincial center of Xunantunich. However, Actuncan demographics do not change substantially, agricultural fields show improvements, and markets continued to be held in the Terminal Classic period. Therefore, we suggest changes in maize-grinding intensity were due to the shrinking of regional political hierarchies and declining tribute demands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ancient Maya Embedded Economies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 30900