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Old Bottle, New Wine: The Function of Chultuns in the Maya Lowlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Bruce H. Dahlin  and
William J. Litzinger
Bruce H. Dahlin
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059
William J. Litzinger
Affiliation:
Ethnobiology Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 12283, Boulder, CO 80303
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Abstract

Prior research on the function of shoe-shaped chultuns found in the southern Yucatan peninsula has focused on their use for household level storage of dry foodstuffs. We found that inter- and intra-site distribution patterns of chultuns do not support the household storage hypothesis. At Tikal only 20-25% of the households had chultuns, and most of these households had two or more chultuns. We believe the distributional data suggest that chultuns were associated with a cottage-level industry in the context of a vending economy. Because the internal environment of chultuns appears favorable for conducting fermentations, we propose that they were used as places to process, and for limited periods to store, fermented foods such as alcoholic beverages and pickled fruits. The greatest demand for chultun products was apparently centered around large urban sites in northeastern Peten and northern Belize where frequent civic/religious festivals encouraged a small to moderate market potential.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , October 1986 , pp. 721 - 736
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1986

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