Ancient Maya Economy and Trade
The Ancient Maya: Economy and Trade:
The Ancient Maya civilization had an advanced trade system consisting of short,
medium and long trade routes and a robust market for a range of goods and
materials. Modern researchers have made use of a variety of methods to understand
the Maya economy, including evidence from excavations, illustrations on pottery,
scientific “fingerprinting” of materials such as obsidian and examination of historical
documents.
The Maya Economy:
The Maya did not use "money" in the modern sense: there was no universally
accepted form of currency which could be used anywhere in the Maya region. Even
valuable items, such as cacao seeds, salt, obsidian or gold tended to vary in value
from one region or city-state to another, often rising in value the farther away these
items were from their source. There were two kinds of goods commercialized by the
Maya: prestige items and subsistence items. Prestige items were things like jade,
gold, copper, highly decorated pottery, ritual items and any other less-practical item
used as a status symbol by upper-class Maya. Subsistence items were those used on
a daily basis: food, clothing, tools, basic pottery, salt, etc.
Subsistence Items and Trade:
Early Maya city-states tended to produce all of their own subsistence items. Basic
agriculture - mostly production of corn, beans and squash - was the daily task of the
majority of the Maya population. Using basic slash-and-burn agriculture, Maya
families would plant a series of fields which would be allowed to lie fallow at times.
Basic items, such as pottery for cooking, were made in homes or in community
workshops. Later on, as the Maya cities began to grow, they outstripped their food
production and food trade increased. Other basic necessities, such as salt or stone
tools, were produced in certain areas and then traded to places that lacked them.
Some coastal communities were involved in the short-range trade of fish and other
seafood.
Prestige Items and Trade:
The Maya had a bustling trade in prestige items as early as the Middle Preclassic
period (about 1000 B.C.). Different sites in the Maya region produced gold, jade,
copper, obsidian and other raw materials: items made from these materials are
found at nearly every major Maya site, indicating an extensive trade system. One
example is the famous carved jade head of Sun God Kinich Ahau, discovered at the
Altun Ha archaeological site in present-day Belize: the nearest source of jade was
many miles away in present-day Guatemala near the Maya city of Quiriguá.
The Obsidian Trade:
Obsidian was a precious commodity to the Maya, who used it for adornments,
weapons and rituals. Of all of the trade items favored by the ancient Maya, obsidian
is the most promising for reconstructing their trade routes and habits. Obsidian, or
volcanic glass, was available at a handful of sites in the Maya world. It is much easier
to trace obsidian to its source than other materials like gold: obsidian from a
particular site not only occasionally has a distinct color, like the greenish obsidian
from Pachuca, but an examination of the chemical trace elements in any given
sample can nearly always identify the region or even the specific quarry from which
it was mined. Studies matching obsidian found in archaeological digs with its source
have proven very valuable in reconstructing ancient Maya trade routes and
patterns.
Source: http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/Maya/p/Ancient-MayaEconomy-And-Trade.htm