The Economic Foundations of Mayapan

Suny At Albany, Albany NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project will document the political economy of Mayapan, the largest and most influential city in the Maya realm during the Postclassic period. Although the influence of this center throughout the Maya world achieves considerable notoriety in later retrospective mythic/historical accounts, the economic foundations of this city have never been investigated with empirical archaeological data. Without this data, the comparative analysis of complex societies in the pre-capitalist world is severely hindered. Precolumbian Maya society represents one of the most innovative civilizations of the New World. Hundreds of Maya city state centers and associated territories extended across southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras over a period of 2000 years and this society invented the most elaborate set of writing, calendrical, and astronomical notation found in the Americas. Does the degree of political centralization and scale of monument building represent the primary criteria for measuring a civilization's complexity? While these traits are a characteristic of many early states and empires, maturing complex societies often culminate in vast geographic tracts of more decentralized polities that are extensively integrated through mercantile exchange. The growth in the number of literati and merchant factions in maturing old world societies and their increase in power often eroded centralized political institutions in favor of more extensive economic interaction networks that were heavily focused on long-distance trade. This pattern points to the second important issue about Postclassic Maya society that will be addressed from the investigation of Mayapan's economy. This period has been characterized as a mercantile era, and many decentralized polities across the Yucatan peninsula relied heavily on long distance maritime trade for items used in everyday life. This pattern is documented from Spanish Colonial accounts of Maya trade at the time of European contact, as well as from archaeological investigations of small sites along the Caribbean coast that yield evidence of participation in extensive exchange. After the rise of Mayapan to power in the 13th century A.D., an amplification of local production activities geared toward this exchange is observed at distant coastal settlements. An increase in their reliance on long distance household items is also observed, along with an increase in population, ritual activities, and political hierarchical development in areas outside of Mayapan's domain. Ritual and utilitarian artifact and architectural styles at sites throughout the Maya lowlands resemble those observed at Mayapan. What is the meaning of these trends? Did the activities of Mayapan's mercantile elites stimulate this trade network and political development? A greater degree of economic and ideological integration is inferred across the lowland Maya world during Mayapan's reign than during the earlier Classic period. While most of this region was organized into modest political hierarchies, Mayapan stands out as a striking anomaly for the size and elaboration of its urban settlement. It is not possible to understand the political economy of the Postclassic period without evaluating the organization and scale of production and exchange activities at the great center itself, which was governed by merchant elites. Investigations planned by this project will document the variation of production and exchange activities within house groups of different social status across the city. This work will facilitate core-hinterland comparisons and a full reconstruction of economic relationships among Postclassic settlements across the lowlands. These investigations will contribute to the cross-cultural analysis of the development of civilizations by providing critical data from a primate city at the nucleus of a New World mercantile society. This project will document the political economy of Mayapan, the largest and most influential city in the Maya realm during the Postclassic period. Although the influence of this center throughout the Maya world achieves considerable notoriety in later retrospective mythic/historical accounts, the economic foundations of this city have never been investigated with empirical archaeological data. Without this data, the comparative analysis of complex societies in the pre-capitalist world is severely hindered. Precolumbian Maya society represents one of the most innovative civilizations of the New World. Hundreds of Maya city state centers and associated territories extended across southeast Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras over a period of 2000 years and this society invented the most elaborate set of writing, calendrical, and astronomical notation found in the Americas. Two issues underscore the importance of reconstructing the economic systems of production and exchange at Mayapan. First, Postclassic Maya society was long interpreted by scholars as a "devolved" era, as monumental construction and hieroglyphic writing was performed on a smaller scale and of less-enduring materials than in the earlier Classic period. For this reason, little research has focused on this period. Such a deflation in monumental scale suggests that political hierarchies collapsed in many portions of the Maya area, although Mayapan stands out as an important exception. Does the degree of political centralization and scale of monument building represent the primary criteria for measuring a civilization's complexity? While these traits are a characteristic of many early states and empires, maturing complex societies often culminate in vast geographic tracts of more decentralized polities that are extensively integrated through mercantile exchange. The growth in the number of literati and merchant factions in maturing old world societies and their increase in power often eroded centralized political institutions in favor of more extensive economic interaction networks that were heavily focused on long-distance trade. This pattern points to the second important issue about Postclassic Maya society that will be addressed from the investigation of Mayapan's economy. This period has been characterized as a mercantile era, and many decentralized polities across the Yucatan peninsula relied heavily on long distance maritime trade for items used in everyday life. This pattern is documented from Spanish Colonial accounts of Maya trade at the time of European contact, as well as from archaeological investigations of small sites along the Caribbean coast that yield evidence of participation in extensive exchange. After the rise of Mayapan to power in the 13th century A.D., an amplification of local production activities geared toward this exchange is observed at distant coastal settlements. An increase in their reliance on long distance household items is also observed, along with an increase in population, ritual activities, and political hierarchical development in areas outside of Mayapan's domain. Ritual and utilitarian artifact and architectural styles at sites throughout the Maya lowlands resemble those observed at Mayapan. What is the meaning of these trends? Did the activities of Mayapan's mercantile elites stimulate this trade network and political development? A greater degree of economi