Interwoven Networks: Obsidian Exchange and Overlapping Economies among the Ancient Maya of Western Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Studies of ancient Maya commodities have focused on elite control of economic institutions, yet goods were mobilized at different levels of the social hierarchy to support the growth of broader economic institutions. Here we present the results of portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analyses of over 4000 obsidian artifacts from Preclassic to Terminal Classic period (ca. 900 BC - AD 900/1000) contexts from four sites across the Belize River Valley region of the Maya lowlands (Baking Pot, Cahal Pech, Lower Dover, Xunantunich) to reconstruct economic networks within and between communities. Geochemical sourcing data are integrated into formal network analyses to explore to what degree ancient Maya obsidian economies were centralized, the extent to which they overlapped, and how these trends transformed through time. Commoner households possessed more homogeneous assemblages with fewer sources, likely obtained through decentralized exchange relationships. In contrast, more diverse assemblages with more sources of obsidian from higher status contexts reflect the development of more formal economic institutions during the Classic period. This study has broad implications for understanding differences in distribution and consumption of commodities between apical elite, intermediate elite, and commoners, and the transformations of their relationships in the Maya world over the longue durée.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39099.0