This archeological issue is likely due to traits associated with luxury goods, which are inherently scare by virtue, and often made of "exotic" raw materials - which gives them their intrinsic value. The evidence of concrete absence outside of elite burial sites lends itself to the conclusion that the provision of these luxury and ritual goods functioned like a "palace economy", whereby they were exchanged between rulers and their noble artisans across long distances in order to validate social alliances and political arrangements. to cement social alliances and political arrangement. That said, there has also been arguments made against this hypothesis, that there was in fact non-elite participation in their production, lending itself to a more market economy structure. Predictably, research at ancient Maya sites have exhibited disproportionate allocation of the highest quality, and most exotic goods to the elite. That said, there is evidence that these goods were more widely distributed in areas where the raw materials are naturally found. For example, jadeite objects was universally considered valuable across the Maya kingdom, but its function was varied by nature of being both utilitarian and religious; because of its close relationship to the "breath spirit", jade also held the function of a funerary rite and the ritual conjuring of gods and ancestors. Chunchucmil is a Classic Maya city in northwest Yucatan, Mexico. Classic Maya sites in the lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula has many examples of monumental art and architecture in central sacrosanct spaces, while archeological evidence suggests that their political economies were largely centralized. That said, the predominantly Early Classic site of Chunchucmil sticks out as an anomaly. Despite being an urban population ranks among the largest and most densely packed in any Maya site, it inhabits one of the most depauperate agricultural landscapes. These juxtaposing elements have driven archaeological research to the conclusion that Chunchucmil had a commercialized economy, which comes in direct contrast with the "palace economy" structure detailed in the prior section. This marketplace was functioned not only to serve as a central point of exchange for imported goods, but also as a site for servicing merchants along the most active Mesoamerican maritime trade route and funneling long distance trade items to sites in the interior of the peninsula; the market place was found to have been connected to the periphery by several roadways, making the central location easily accessible by merchants. Bruce Dahlin's geochemical analysis of the site showed a correlation between phosphate concentrations and rock alignment to further indicate the orientation of the marketplace. The site was mapped as rows of rock alignments and low rock piles.