10 - Power and Political Economy in the Late Classic Naco and Middle Chamelecón Valleys (CE 600–800)

Summary

The political events that unfolded in the neighboring Naco and Middle Chamelecón valleys of northwest Honduras from CE 600–800 differed from those recorded elsewhere in the Southeast. Naco valley elites, like many of their contemporaries, sought regional preeminence by judiciously drawing on things, ideas, and practices secured through their interactions with peers living in diverse locales, including the Copán valley. How these intellectual and physical resources were employed in the domination strategies of those ruling from their capital of La Sierra was, however, distinctive of that realm. Craft production also played an outsized role in the basin’s history. La Sierra’s rulers enjoyed monopolies over fashioning such widely used goods as ceramic vessels and obsidian blades to make their subordinates dependent on them for these essential goods. The Middle Chamelecón capital, Las Canoas, in turn emerged now as one of the largest pottery-making communities known from the Pre-Columbian Southeast. Such large-scale commitment to pursuing a specific craft seemingly contributed to more muted forms of political centralization and hierarchy than was the case at La Sierra.