818 occupations: further reading and evidence of extensive trade routes indicates the existence of local and long-distance merchants Preclassic Period (ca 1500 b.c.e.–ca 150 c.e.) occupations centered on farming and craft specialization for the creation of ritual objects, monumental architecture, and historical stone monuments In Maya culture, beginning about 600 b.c.e., the nobility were often scribes, since writing was an elite occupation In addition to functioning as scribes, Maya elites were also artists Rulers commissioned historical and mythological sculptural programs in the form of stelae (standing stone slabs) Specialized carvers, builders, and plaster workers were needed to create structures and their associated decoration Like the Olmec, the Maya also employed skilled jade workers to create ritual objects as well as painters to produce elaborate murals and painted ceramics The rise of the first sites with monumental architectural, such as the platform mound of the Huaca de los Idolos (3000 b.c.e.), a late Preceramic Period (ca 3000–ca 1800 b.c.e.) site situated on the coast of present-day Peru, signals a shift from small, simple groups to more complex types of social organization The construction of monumental architecture reflects a substantial investment of human labor along with the social structure and leadership to oversee such construction The lack of sumptuous burials, however, also points to collective labor and communal societies Coastal sites such as these depended on marine resources, such as fish and shellfish; agriculture; and long-distance trade Dependence on marine resources also required textile workers to produce nets and fishing lines This early specialization was connected to the development of a Peruvian textile tradition whose achievements would become almost unparalleled in human history The development of large agriculturally based societies did not begin until much later, in the Early Horizon Period (ca 800–ca 200 b.c.e.) The Chavín culture, the first of the great Andean civilizations, was established in the Peruvian highlands Centered at the site of Chavín de Huántar, its distinctive style was disseminated throughout the Andean region Chavín art drew upon various sacred sites for its religious iconography, which synthesized earlier traditions Artistic specialists, including textile artists, gold workers (metallurgists), and ceramic artists, were employed to create Chavín’s unique cultural program Its ritual iconography indicates the importance of the shaman, an occupation that would continue to be prominent in Andean society Burial caches provide evidence of distinct elite burials that indicate the stratification of society and give evidence of craft specialists to provide funerary offerings During the Early Intermediate Period (ca 200 b.c.e.–ca 500 c.e.) further specialization in ceramics, textiles, and gold work is apparent in the artistic production of such southern coastal cultures as Paracas (ca 600–ca.200 b.c.e.) and Nazca (ca 1–ca.700 c.e.) These coastal farmers and fishermen produced time-consuming works for burials These exquisite funerary goods reflect their high value and an increased level of skill from fiber artists, potters, and metallurgists The items were deposited in elaborate burials that included mummies wrapped in dozens of textiles and accompanied by numerous ceramics and gold objects The variety of these burial caches reflects the social hierarchy of the Early Intermediate Period The image of the shaman (a religious practitioner and healer), which becomes more prominent in Paracas and early Nazca art, probably reflects the high social status of this occupation See also agriculture; architecture; art; astronomy; building techniques and materials; ceramics and pottery; children; climate and geography; clothing and footwear; crafts; economy; education; employment and labor; food and diet; foreigners and barbarians; gender structures and roles; government organization; health and disease; household goods; hunting, fishing, and gathering; literature; metallurgy; military; mining, quarrying, and salt making; music and musical instruments; nomadic and pastoral societies; religion and cosmology; ships and shipbuilding; slaves and slavery; social organization; textiles and needlework; trade and exchange; weights and measures; writing FURTHER READING James N Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1997) Gay Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt (London: British Museum Press, 1993) Serge Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt (London: Cornell University Press, 2000) Malcolm Todd, Everyday Life of the Barbarians: Goths, Franks, and Vandals (London: B T Batsford, 1972) Ruth Tringham, Hunters, Fishers, and Farmers of Eastern Europe 6000–3000 b.c (London: Hutchinson, 1971) G P F Van den Boorn, The Duties of the Vizier: Civil Administration in the Early New Kingdom (London: Kegan Paul, 1988) Barbara Watterson, Women in Ancient Egypt (Stroud, U.K.: Sutton, 1998)