RESOURCE: Maya markets

Have you ever been to a market? Have you threaded your way through people crowded at small stands selling everything from food to art at a farmers’ market or a holiday, religious, or school fair? Most of us have had that experience, whether the market was inside or outside, large or small. Even our modern malls could be called a type of market, with their many stores opening up onto a common concourse. People in the past had markets, too, all over the world. The Maya were no exception, though it took scholars a while to realize that (follow link below to read “The Maya Market Mystery”).

Pic 1: A typical English farmers’ market

The first thing to remember is that there was a lot of variability in the Maya area. There was no single economy or way of doing things. Markets, like everything else, therefore differed from site to site and region to region. Some markets were permanent like the ones at the great sites of Tikal (Guatemala) (see pix 3 & 7) and, probably, Calakmul (Mexico). In those cities every day was a market day. Many markets, however, only occurred periodically. That means that different cities in a region took turns hosting the market on different days of the week, so that the market itself actually moved around from place to place. It means that markets probably occurred at small and medium-sized sites, too, though the evidence for that is still incomplete. Travelers can observe the same pattern today in the mountains of Guatemala, where the city of Antigua hosts a permanent market, but other towns only have markets on certain days of the week.

Pic 3: Drawing of the market at Tikal. The market is the large enclosed rectangle with further divisions inside in the center of the East Plaza. The enlarged section clearly shows the internal stall divisions

Within Maya sites, markets were usually located in the city or town centers, but not in the main ceremonial plaza. Rather, they took place in easily reached side plazas. Although market plazas probably served other purposes when the market was not in session, it was important that the space be kept separate from the main ceremonial activities at the site, because markets are often liminal (“in-between”) or marginal areas where the usual social rules do not apply. For example, in Kinshasa, Ghana, where men are generally in charge in public, women alone rule the market. Similarly, in the Maya area women are more visible in the markets than in other parts of public life. Often a monument or signpost of some kind (pic 5) marks the separation between the market space and the rest of the site, to signal “different space, different rules.”

Pic 5: The West Plaza at the Maya site of Maax Na, Belize, likely held a market. It is linked to the rest of the site by a raised causeway/road and the main entrance to it is marked by Stela 2 (left, arrowed on map), a plain monument

Within market plazas the architecture was distinct from that in other parts of the same site. Markets had special buildings that served specific functions, beginning with market stalls. These were usually lined up in rows, with some of them forming the outside perimeter of the market. Some of the stalls were permanent and could have been used for storage as well as for selling. Others were temporary structures that could easily be put up and taken down. How elaborate a stall was would depend on the type of market. At some sites, like Tikal with its daily market, sturdy stone buildings served as market stalls (pic 7). At other sites, where the market only happened once a week or once a month, removable stalls would have been necessary to allow the plaza to be used for other things.

Pic 7: Artist’s reconstruction of the market at Tikal; illustration by Peter Speir

Other special buildings within a market would have include a so-called “judges’ stand” from which the market manager could oversee the market. That building might have been taller than the others and might have had unusual features such as broad viewing platforms so that the manager and his/her assistants could survey all the activities. Another important building would have been a shrine. We know from the Aztec and other cultures that both merchants and visitors liked to be able to pray and leave offerings to the gods to safeguard them, especially when they were traveling. Even today many important markets are held near a church (pic 9) or other sacred place, so that people can take care of both their religious and economic business at the same time.

Pic 9: Modern Maya markets today, such as the one at Chichicastenango, Guatemala, still take place in a plaza with a shrine nearby - in this case, the church

Not all the goods sold in markets have disappeared, though. Many items, such as clay pots and stone tools, can still be found there as can the spots where crafts people sold them. Debris from resharpening old stone tools that clients brought to them or from making new ones mark the places where the flintknappers sat. Similarly, concentrations of ceramics of different kinds (pic 11) can show where potters sold their wares.
Despite all the things we know about Maya markets, it can still be hard to picture them. The market plazas are now all empty, the people long gone. For us to understand how lively they were we need to use our imaginations. Can you see the people in your mind? Can you hear the vendors calling out their wares and smell the food being cooked? Can you draw a Maya market?

Pic 11: Ceramics emerging from the ground at an archaeologist’s dig