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.
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