The North Plaza Marketplace at Chan Chich, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Prehispanic Maya Marketplace Investigations in the Three Rivers Region of Belize: First Results" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the Late Classic period (600–850 CE), the ancient Maya had a robust market economy that connected people with goods through long-distance and local exchange networks. Marketplaces were an important institution serving a primary economic function while also stimulating social and political interaction. Recent research has argued for a network of marketplaces at centers across the Maya lowlands, with implications for the commercialization and integration of the Late Classic economy. Some of the challenges for archaeologists are understanding how marketplace activities aligned and varied at different centers, the extent of regional integration, and when these institutions emerged. This paper reviews the results of multiple seasons of investigations of the Late Classic North Plaza marketplace at Chan Chich, Belize, a large ceremonial center in the eastern Three Rivers region. Excavations in the North Plaza, one of two public plazas in the site core, demonstrate spatially discrete craft specialization that includes late-stage biface manufacture, obsidian blade production, and textile working. We further investigate the sources of nonlocal raw material to understand site-wide and regional procurement patterns and possible trade routes. Finally, we consider the development of the Late Classic marketplace alongside other contemporaneous changes in Chan Chich’s urban space.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Prehispanic Maya Marketplace Investigations in the Three Rivers Region of Belize: First Results   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38904.0