18 Economic Interactions and the Rise of Sociopolitical Complexity in the Maya Lowlands A Perspective from the Mirador-Calakmul Basin Richard D. Hansen, Edgar Suyuc, Stanley P. Guenter, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Enrique Hernández, and Beatriz Balcárcel Te economic interactions of early social and political formations were crucial catalysts in the development of incipient polities because they established the parameters of subsistence goods and wealth pertinent to the advent of special- izations and exchanges that infuenced the resultant success or failures of an administrative elite (e.g., Brumfel and Earle, eds. 1987; Clark and Blake 1994; Masson and Freidel 2002). Te natures of economic and political formations and interactions in Mesoamerica have been debated for decades (e.g., Andrews 1983; Berdan 1982; Boehm de Lameiras 1991; Clark and Blake 1994; Evans 1980; Marcus 1973; Masson and Freidel 2002; Santley 1986; Santley and Richards 2007; Sheets et al. 2015; M. Smith 1979), but the real business of ancient Maya exchange can always use new scrutiny. One of the key components of such a study involves ethnohistoric and ethnographic evaluations as well as techno- logical analyses of hard data. Archaeological mapping, excavations, and investigations in 51 ancient cit- ies of varying sizes in the Mirador Basin of northern Guatemala have revealed a variety of data relevant to the economic catalysts that were involved in the rise of social, political, and economic sophistication among the Preclassic Maya. New technologies recently implemented in the Mirador Basin and other areas of Mesoamerica are helping to reveal and understand the nature of sociopolitical structure and vital economies among early complex societies. Review Copy