Monitoring regional market systems in prehistory: Models, methods, and metrics

While market systems have long been recognized as key factors in the development and integration of many complex societies, market exchange has been largely ignored in recent studies of archaic states. The underlying causes appear threefold: (1) we overlook the rich conceptual framework developed within economic geography that identifies key differences among regional market systems; (2) we underestimate the degree to which these differences constrain or create distinct opportunities for other productive activities; and/or (3) we lack appropriate measures for monitoring organizational differences in the archaeological record. To understand the role of markets within the ancient economy, measures are needed to model and monitor its regional organization. The method proposed here focuses on the distribution of goods which circulated through the market system. By examining how different types of market systems move goods through the regional system in different ways, distinct patterns of commodity distribution are predicted. Metrics for monitoring exchange based on artifact assemblage similarity are then proposed. As a case study, the analysis applies these insights to characterizing the regional market system in the Aztec heartland, an area where the organization of exchange and the degree of political interference remain topics of active debate.