Merchants, Trade, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World / Hirth K. G., Pillsbury J., eds. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2013

trustees for harvard university, Washington, d.c. all rights reserved. Printed in the united states of america library of congress cataloging-in-Publication data Merchants, markets, and exchange in the Pre-columbian world / kenneth g. hirth and Joanne Pillsbury, editors. p. cm. -(dumbarton oaks Pre-columbian symposia and colloquia) includes index. ISBn 978-0-88402-386-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. indians of Mexico-commerce. 2. indians of Mexico-economic conditions. 3. indians of Mexicoantiquities. 4. indians of central america-commerce. 5. indians of central america-economic conditions. 6. indians of central america-antiquities. 7. indians of south america-andes regioncommerce. 8. indians of south america-andes region-economic conditions. 9. indians of south america-andes region-antiquities. i. hirth, ken. ii. Pillsbury, Joanne. f1219.3.c6m49 2013 972´.01-dc23 2012022302 general editors: Joanne Pillsbury and Mary e. Pye art director: kathleen sparkes design and composition: Melissa tandysh Managing editor: sara taylor Volume based on papers presented at the Pre-columbian studies symposium "Merchants, trade, and exchange in the Pre-columbian World," held at dumbarton oaks research library and collection, Washington, d.c., on october 8-9, 2010.

Merchants, Trade and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Kenneth G. Hirth and Joanne Pillsbury, pp. 49–83. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Washington D.C., 2013

trustees for harvard university, Washington, d.c. all rights reserved. Printed in the united states of america library of congress cataloging-in-Publication data Merchants, markets, and exchange in the Pre-columbian world / kenneth g. hirth and Joanne Pillsbury, editors. p. cm. -(dumbarton oaks Pre-columbian symposia and colloquia) includes index. ISBn 978-0-88402-386-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. indians of Mexico-commerce. 2. indians of Mexico-economic conditions. 3. indians of Mexicoantiquities. 4. indians of central america-commerce. 5. indians of central america-economic conditions. 6. indians of central america-antiquities. 7. indians of south america-andes regioncommerce. 8. indians of south america-andes region-economic conditions. 9. indians of south america-andes region-antiquities. i. hirth, ken. ii. Pillsbury, Joanne. f1219.3.c6m49 2013 972´.01-dc23 2012022302 general editors: Joanne Pillsbury and Mary e. Pye art director: kathleen sparkes design and composition: Melissa tandysh Managing editor: sara taylor Volume based on papers presented at the Pre-columbian studies symposium "Merchants, trade, and exchange in the Pre-columbian World," held at dumbarton oaks research library and collection, Washington, d.c., on october 8-9, 2010.

Museum International, 2004

In the Americas, long before the Conquest, existed various native navigation techniques (coastal, lacustrine and fluvial), aboard numerous and diversified wooden boats. Among these, stands one that was made by carving a tree trunk: the dugout canoe. As an evidence of human ingenuity, it acquired its importance by being the bridge between land and water, representing the bond between the human and the aquatic world. Similarly, this means of transportation played a primordial part in the native civilizations as it was involved in daily activities at different levels: transportation (people, goods, raw material), natural resource exploitation (hunting, gathering and fishing), rituals and war. These activities implied the organization of the lacustrine areas, thanks to adapted facilities such as channels, piers, bridges and warehouses. In Mexico’s Central Plateau, in the endoreic basins of Mexico and Pátzcuaro, flourished two of the most powerful contemporaneous and rival empires in all Mesoamerica: the Mexica and the Tarascan (Fig.1). Based on their respective lacustrine surroundings and specific methods, they accomplished the edification of their capitals, Tenochtitlan and Tzintzuntzan, through the use of navigation. Nowadays, some remains of these antique and powerful civilizations naval technology still exists, allowing us, thanks to a multidisciplinary method, to approach a broad vision of their history and transformation.

Offshore and inland waters in the Andean region were crossed by boats of various types made of different materials. These were related mainly to fishing activities, but also were involvedin long-distance trade of luxury goods, rituals, passengers and even war.Construction technologies and development of these vessels varied depending on available resources and the capacity of societies to solve navigational problems. In that sense a variety of types and forms of vessels have been identified, and although not all boats are "complex" as the Europeans, it is clear that they evolve and had changes over time that perfected them.Despite this plentiful of technologies, the archaeological record of actual watercraft is almost nonexistent. As a result the approach to these technologies is through other evidence as the iconography fund on pottery, textiles and wall friezes, as well as sculptural referencesnot to mentionreferences recorded by Spanish chroniclers and ultimatelypost-Conquest survivals.The aim of this paper is to recount these technologies through indirect evidence and elaborate some hypotheses about the use and success of the same in the pre -Hispanic Andean world and its survival after the conquest.

This article presents archaeological data on Late Postclassic long-distance trade in central and northern Mesoamerica. A~t e c trade goods from the Basin of Mexico (ceramics and obsidian) are widespread, while imports from other areas are much less common, both in the Basin of Mexico and elsewhere. The artifactual data signal a high volume of exchange in the Late Postclassic, and while trade was spatially nucleated around the Basin of Mexico, most exchange activity was apparently not under strong political control. The archaeological findings are compared with ethnohistoric sources to further our knowledge of the mechanisms of exchange, the effect of elite consumption on trade, and the relationship between trade and imperialism.

Discussion of Aztec calendrical and spatial concepts with their assigned deities--and their historical antecedents

Navigation in pre-Hispanic times in the Andean region has been a topic of discussion among researchers for years. Different sources of information lead us to believe that at least one type of marine craft was in use and involved in long distance trade at the arrival of the Spaniards. However, the debate surrounding earlier periods is stronger due to the lack of evidence in archaeological records. Most evidence consists of iconographic or sculptural depictions on pottery; wall friezes; and, ultimately, references gathered by chroniclers – but not a single remain of any kind of vessel. This situation has lead researchers to believe that marine crafts like the “Caballito de Totora” (“reed horse”) were just simpler tools without any further development. However, one particular type of watercraft represented in the Moche iconography apparently contradicts this idea, the “reed boat”. Moche fine line paintings portray this particular type of vessel, which differs from the traditional “reed horse” vessel, and seems to be capable of holding considerable cargo and occupants. Although the use of totora constitutes the oldest tradition for constructing rafts and boats along the coast and in the Titicaca region, unfortunately, as mentioned above, there is no evidence of such rafts or boats in the archaeological record apart from the iconographic depictions. In spite of this, we suggest that “reed boats” represented a real boat just as other real Moche characters were represented in their iconography, such as the “Lord of Sipan” or “The Priestesses of San Jose de Moro”. Moreover the reed boats were a technological innovation, which filled particular needs to perform rituals in times of ecological distress and to procure certain sumptuary items.