Maya city-states during the Classic period exchanged goods such as obsidian, jade, cacao, salt, and brightly colored feathers across a network of overland paths and river and coastal canoe routes. Elite demand for prestige goods, particularly jade and quetzal feathers from highland regions, helped drive exchange between ecologically distinct zones, since no single city-state controlled all the resources its population needed or desired. Marketplaces within major cities such as Tikal and Calakmul served as hubs for both local and long-distance goods. This network operated without a unifying empire, relying instead on relationships among independent but culturally connected city-states.
Relevance to Trade History
Maya trade networks show how complex, long-distance commercial exchange developed in the Americas independent of Old World contact, connecting diverse ecological zones across Mesoamerica.
Read the full story in our article Trade Networks Across the Pre-Columbian Americas.
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, "Maya Trade and Commerce". See our Sources & Methodology page for how we select and verify references.