The shift to a farming economy at Basil Jones on the interior of the island at the same
time coastal margin sites, such as Chac Balam and San Juan, are abandoned may have occurred because of this «horizontal integration» of the coastal trade system by the Putun Maya.
At the
time, these hydrocarbon - rich areas were marine
coastal margins, where the productivity of marine algae was generally high and sedimentary rocks were thickly deposited.