138 UNIT 1 PREHISPANIC MESOAMERICA
Located farther south along the Caribbean coastline were two other well-known
trade centers, Chetumal and Nito. Both were strategically placed for receiving goods
from the interior by way of major river systems and for providing easy access to the
Caribbean Sea. They were also cacao-producing areas. Murals found at the Chetumal
site were painted in a local version of the Mesoamerican international art style; and
Ikchaua, the merchant god, was among the deities prominently portrayed in the
mural scenes (see Figure 2.6). As noted in Box 3.1, the Nito trading center had res-
ident merchants and agents from Acalan and elsewhere.
The largest and most important of the international trade zones along the Cen-
tral American coast was found in the Ulua river valley of present-day Honduras. Ulua
was similar in many ways to the Gulf Coast zone, in that travel was mostly by canoe
and abundant cacao was produced in the environs. One of the most important trade
centers in the zone was located at Naco in the Chamelecon Valley just south of the
Ulua delta. Naco apparently served as a crossroads for merchants from Yucatan to the
north, highland Guatemala to the west, and traders from Central American trade
centers farther to the south. As an inland port, Naco received goods such as obsid-
ian, gold, jade, cacao beans, and feathers from both overland and sea routes. The
commoner population of Naco most likely spoke Chol or Chorti Maya, both lan-
guages being close relatives of the Chontal-Mayan language spoken in the Gulf Coast
and Acalan. Archaeologists working at Naco have suggested that an enclave of Nahu-
atl speakers or Nahuatl-influenced Mayas governed this trading town (Figure 3.2).
Other trading centers were located south of the Ulua zone along the Caribbean
coast of Central America. One possible trade center in the Teguzgalpa area of east-
ern Honduras the zone was Papayeca, established near the Agalta Valley gold de-
posits. The rulers of Papayeca spoke a language similar to the Aztec language (Pipil),Figure 3.2 Painted
ceramic vessel from
Naco, Honduras, in the
northern part of the
Central American
periphery. After Anthony
Wonderley, “Imagery in
Household Pottery from
‘La Gran Provincia de
Naco,’” in Interaction on
the Southeast
Mesoamerican Frontier,
ed. E. Robinson, BAR
International Series, 327.
Oxford, England: BAR,
1987, p. 310.in in
the