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Maritime trade in the Maya civilization
The extensive trade networks of the Ancient Maya contributed largely to the success of their civilization spanning three millennia. The Maya royals control and wide distribution of foreign and domestic commodities for both population sustenance and social affluence are hallmarks of the Maya visible throughout much of the iconography found in the archaeological record. In particular, moderately long distance trade of foreign commodities from the Caribbean and Gulf Coasts provided the larger inland Maya cities with the resources they needed to sustain settled population levels in the several thousands. Though the ruling class essentially controlled the trade economy, a middle merchant class supervised import and export from cities and trade ports. Not much is known of the Maya merchant class; however, merchants of royal lineage are sometimes represented in the iconography. Notably, a canoe paddle often accompanies the royal merchant depictions, signifying their association with marine resources.〔Foster, L. V. (2002). Handbook to life in the ancient Maya World, Infobase Publishing.〕 Water lilies are also a recognizable feature of Maya iconography, appearing on ceramics and murals in landlocked cities like Palenque where the lilies cannot grow, further indicating the important political symbolism of water connections.〔Sabloff, J. A. (1994). The new archaeology and the ancient Maya, Macmillan.〕 The dugout style canoes of the Maya and other small watercraft are also represented in various codices, sometimes ferrying royal figures or deities. The rich tradition of maritime trade has continued into the modern era, exemplified by the resource exploitation of the coastal lagoons and cay locations along the Caribbean coast of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.
== Common Coastal Trade Commodities ==
One of the largest trade industries from the coast involved the establishment of salt mining.〔McKillop, H. I. (2005). In Search of Maya Sea Traders, Texas A&M University Press.〕 Salt is a basic dietary requirement and is difficult to obtain in the interior landscape of Central America. In response to this need, salt workshops cropped up along coastal Maya regions practicing the ''sal cocida'' technique of boiling brine in ceramics pots. These salt workshops, such as those found at Ambergis Caye, Placencia Lagoon, and Punta Ycacos Lagoon in Belize, provided salt for dietary consumption as well as the salt packing of other subsistence resources, such as fish, for coastal-inland trade.
Salt trade was a commodity of both common and elite social groups, though the quality of the salt likely fell under regulation between the classes, with elite grade “white” salt imported from the coasts of the Yucatán peninsula.〔MacKinnon, J. J. and S. M. Kepecs (1989). "Prehispanic saltmaking in Belize: New evidence." American Antiquity: 522-533.〕〔Valdez Jr, F. and S. B. Mock (1991). "Additional considerations for prehispanic saltmaking in Belize." American Antiquity: 520-525.〕 Basic household commodities, such as subsistence items (maize, beans, fish, shellfish, sugar, honey, etc.), stone tools, manos and metates, textiles, and simple ceramic wares produced throughout the Maya sphere would also have made their way to the major port trade sites for regional distribution.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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