Archaeologists and historians used to believe that the Maya civilization during its Classic period (roughly 250-900) lacked agricultural marketplaces. One reason for this belief was that these scholars misunderstood the ecology of the regions the Maya inhabited. Marketplaces typically emerge because different individuals or groups want to trade resources they control for resources they don't control. Scholars seriously underestimated the ecological diversity of the Maya landscape and thus assumed that ________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Question

Accepted Answer

marketplaces would not have enabled Maya people to acquire many products different from those they already produced.

Answer

marketplaces likely would not have attracted many traders from outside the regions controlled by the Maya.

Answer

farming practices would have been largely the same throughout Maya lands even if the crops people produced varied significantly.

Answer

farmers would trade agricultural products only if they had already produced enough to meet their own needs.