12 Classic Maya Marketplace Politics in the Mopan River Valley, Belize

Abstract

The discovery of Classic Maya marketplaces within urban cores—the seats of royal power—brings into question the potential ways royal rulers contributed to the organization and effectiveness of marketplaces. Though Maya rulership is legitimated through family lineage, engagement in marketplaces could have presented rulers with an additional path toward maintaining order, gaining household allegiance, and accumulating wealth. Using multiple variables, I examine marketplace facilities at the sites of Buenavista del Cayo and Classic Xunantunich, located in the Mopan River valley of Belize. Findings show that the two marketplaces are largely complementary to each other in the types of goods available, suggesting similar functions. The timeframes in which the marketplaces were in use overlap during a transition of power from Buenavista del Cayo to Xunantunich. From this I suggest that the function and success of the marketplaces may have influenced the actions of rulers. In this case, rulers could have influenced trade networks and swayed household allegiances, all the while gaining wealth and power by levying taxes and monitoring wealth accumulation by non-royal elites.