4 Cholula: The Mall of [Meso]america.

Ethnohistoric sources describe the market of Postclassic Cholula as featuring goods from throughout Mesoamerica. Furthermore, the merchant guilds centered in the city, followers of the god Yacatecuhtli/Quetzalcoatl, were elevated to princely status. Contact‐period sources also describe the political organization of the city, in which these merchant princes played a prominent role. The far‐flung influence of the religio‐commercial diaspora is represented through the distinctive symbolism of the Mixteca‐Puebla stylistic tradition, found throughout Postclassic Mesoamerica and as far south as Pacific Nicaragua. This paper uses the ethnohistorical evidence to construct a model of Cholula's urban economy and its international influence, with archaeological evidence to critically evaluate the sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]