Production and Exchange at Cancuen: Reconstructing the Classic Maya Political Economy

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Demarest and his team will direct two seasons of NSF-sponsored archaeological and ecological investigations in the Upper Pasion River valley of the Peten rainforest of Guatemala. This multidisciplinary research will be the first intensive study of this region, which is located at the interface of Central America's largest rainforest zone and the mountainous volcanic highlands to the south. Investigations will begin at the site of Cancuen, an area of ruined elite and residential architecture that covers over five square kilometers. Cancuen was located precisely at the "head of navigation" of the Pasion/Usumacinta River system, the major trade and transport artery of the ancient Maya world. Dr. Demarest hypothesizes that highland jade, pyrite, obsidian, and other volcanic rock were transported by foot to Cancuen through the highland passes to the south. From there these materials, or finished products, were exchanged along the Pasion/Usumacinta River route to the rest of the ancient Maya world. Preliminary research has uncovered evidence supporting this hypothesis, including domestic workshops in jade, obsidian, pyrite, and other hard stone surrounding Cancuen's monumental royal palace. We also uncovered a protected formal river portage connected by causeways to the palace and workshop zones. The 2002-2003 NSF field seasons will investigate residences and activity areas throughout Cancuen, allowing statistical assessment of economic activities and their correlation to status levels and group affiliations, as determined by associated artifacts, architectural features, proportions of exotic materials, and osteological studies, including isotopic, micropathology, and paleopathology analyses of nutrition and diet. Extensive horizontal excavations of activity areas will explore workshops, and formal, statistical, and microwear study of recovered artifacts will be used to assess production technologies and organization, as well as the status and other activities of the artisans. In turn, these results will be compared to studies throughout the urban zone to characterize the nature of this ancient economy, including attached versus independent specialists, degree of state control, and the economic strategies of the artisan/producers themselves, as well as overall organizational structure and distribution of finished products. Correlations with the subsistence economy of Cancuen will be based on ecological analyses and reconstruction. Ceramic, lithic, and figurine data will be subjected to a variety of chemical compositional analyses to determine source areas and exchange systems. The findings will clarify the role that trade and production of goods played in the rise, maintenance, and decline of Classic Maya civilization. In turn, the results contribute to our understanding of the nature of ancient economies and the impact of economic factors in the development and decline of complex societies.