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Down the T’uhl Hole: Technological, Metric, and Functional analyses of Chipped Stone From an Ancient Maya Chultun
Abstract
Technological, metric, and microscopic use-wear analyses of the chipped chert and obsidian artifacts from the Chaa Creek chultun present a complex use-history in this underground space. Most, if not all, of the lithics are secondary refuse deposited at this location from other areas of initial production and use. The lithic sub-assemblages within the chultun represent at least two discrete deposition events of expediently produced flakes of local chert used for various domestic/household tasks. The lithics from the construction core of the platform on the surface appear to be secondary refuse that is the product of different formation processes. The number of large whole chert flakes with use wear resulting from contact with wood and stone from the platform construction core suggests an origin from a location or locations in which crafting occurred. By focusing on the stone tools from discrete stratigraphic deposits, it is possible to provide more detailed reconstructions of the various episodes of chultun use.
... Typically, emphasis is placed on formal tools that were made to accomplish the particular tasks for which they were designed and which are assumed to be easily recognizable in terms of a "form-function" relationship (Odell 1981(Odell , 2001Stemp et al. 2016;see Binford 1977: 34). With some exceptions (e.g., Aldenderfer et al. 1989;Aoyama 1999Aoyama , 2009Aoyama , 2017Graham 1994: 263-288;Lewenstein 1987;Stemp 2001Stemp , 2004Stemp et al. 2010Stemp et al. , 2013Stemp et al. , 2015Stemp et al. 2018c), formal tools get attention as "functional" items in chipped stone tool assemblages excavated from ancient Maya sites and debitage is rarely analyzed for traces of use-related wear (see Shott 2018: 327). This is despite the fact that ad hoc or expedient flakes and other debitage make up the majority of lithic artifacts at Maya sites and represent a significant proportion of the utilized tools (Johnson 1996). ...
... Use-wear analysis of debitage from Maya sites allows for the identification of chipped stone artifacts that were used versus those that were not, as well as assisting in determining which specific tools were used, the likely tasks that were accomplished with them, and the selection of particular types of debitage, possibly with specific features (McCall 2012: 174; see Parry and Kelly 1987), for task completion (Stemp 2001;Stemp et al., 2018c;see Fuentes et al. 2019;King 2018). This information can also contribute to a better understanding of more complex relationships between tool use patterns, access to raw materials, trade and exchange relationships, and variability within and between lithic subassemblages at sites in the Maya Lowlands; an area encompassing modern-day central and northeastern Guatemala, Belize, the Yucatan Peninsula and adjacent parts of Chiapas in Mexico, El Salvador, and western Honduras. ...
... Chipped stone flakes, bifacial thinning flakes, and irregularly shaped chunks or blocky fragments have been used as tools throughout the entirety of Maya existence, extending from preceramic (e.g., Stemp and Harrison-Buck 2019) to contemporary times (e.g., Hayden and Nelson 1981; see Deal and Hayden 1987 for glass). Documented use of debitage as tools can be associated with small, mobile or semi-sedentary pre-Maya foraging populations in the lowlands (Stemp and Harrison-Buck 2019; see Rosenswig et al. 2014 for utilized flakes), the populous, sedentary, hierarchically organized, state-level societies of the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods (e.g., Aldenderfer 1991;Aldenderfer et al. 1989;Aoyama 1999Aoyama , 2009Graham 1994;Lewenstein 1987;Sievert 1992;Stemp 2001Stemp , 2004Stemp and Graham 2006;Stemp et al. 2010Stemp et al. , 2013Stemp et al., 2018c), and the Maya communities that persisted into Colonial times (Stemp 2001(Stemp , 2004(Stemp , 2016; see Oland 2013 for utilized flakes). From a global archaeological perspective, common explanations for the use of formal and curated versus informal and expedient technology have incorporated discussions of mobility versus sedentism, the ability to stockpile raw material in anticipation of use, local versus non-local access to raw material, the overall knapping quality of lithic raw material, knapping skill, time commitments, the time-cost of different reduction strategies, the scheduling of activities, the need or lack thereof for specialized or task-specific tools, and tool efficiency, among others (Andrefsky 1994(Andrefsky , 2009Bamforth 1986;Binford 1977Binford , 1979Bleed 1986;Bousman 1993;Kelly 1988;McCall 2012;McAnany 1988;Nelson 1991;Parry and Kelly 1987;Shott 2018;Tomka 2001;Torrence 1983Torrence , 1989. ...
In complex sedentary societies, debitage is often ignored when archaeologists turn their attention to the functional items necessary for the completion of various tasks. Lithic production debris recovered from ancient Maya sites is very rarely examined in this regard. The use-wear analysis of debitage from Maya sites not only assists in identifying the chipped stone artifacts that served as informal, ad hoc or expedient tools, but also reveals how the tools were utilized. Use-wear analysis of the chipped chert and chalcedony debitage from two sites in Belize, namely Terminal Classic (A.D. 830 – 950) Pook’s Hill and Late Postclassic-Early Spanish Colonial (ca. A.D. 1400 – 1700) San Pedro, demonstrates the important role of expedient tools in the daily lives of the ancient Maya. This study of use-wear also reveals the variation in flake use in terms of tool size and edge angle. Analysis of the debitage from Pook’s Hill and San Pedro enables a more complete understanding—than would be gained from a study of finished formal tools, alone—of the larger technological, socio-economic and environmental implications of settlement in a forested river valley on the mainland versus an offshore caye.
... Most functional analyses in the Maya region are use-wear studies conducted by just a few analysts (Aoyama 2017a;Aoyama, Inomata, Triadan, et al. 2017;Aoyama et al. 2018;Stemp 2016aStemp , 2016bStemp, Peuramaki-Brown, and Awe 2018;). These discussions emphasize ritual activities like bloodletting (Stemp 2016a;Stemp, Peuramaki-Brown, and Awe 2018;Stemp et al. 2013Stemp et al. , 2015Stemp et al. , 2017 and quotidian activities Stemp 2016b;Stemp, Stoll, et al. 2018;Stemp et al. 2010), such as food processing (McKillop and Aoyama 2018) and crafting (Sharpe and Aoyama 2022). Use-wear analysis is time consuming, and the dearth of such analysis in the Maya region can probably be explained by these time constraints. ...
Even though lithics in the Maya region have traditionally been relegated to appendices and tool-type lists, much has been done to move beyond this descriptive approach in the last decade. In this article we highlight general themes of lithic studies in the Maya region since 2011, including economic production and exchange, the role of lithics in ritual practice, and the use of previously understudied raw materials and lithic forms, such as ground stone. Employing a temporal scope that encompasses the Maya and their preceramic predecessors, we explore gendered patterns of research within lithic studies from a feminist perspective and discuss the impacts that gender disparities have on academic thought.
... Enfatizando una vez más, el único uso y el valor indeleble del instrumento de obsidiana. Este dato puede favorecer a la investigación de huellas de usos en los objetos de obsidiana hallados en contextos arqueológicos "sellados", como en cuevas o chultunes (Stemp et al 2018). ...
Esta investigación representa un esfuerzo por conjuntar los antecedentes bibliográficos que hayan abarcado —directa o indirectamente— los aspectos simbólicos de la obsidiana y la evolución de su estudio; de igual manera, se revisaron fuentes etnohistóricas en busca de relatos o registros escritos sobre el valor simbólico de la obsidiana, compilando información de fuentes centro mexicanas y de fuentes en el área maya para presentar algunos relatos relevantes en torno a la pregunta de investigación.
Households make up the bulk of the ancient Maya archaeological record. These are the historical places where the Maya lived, reproduced, remembered, and worked, thus archaeologists can analyze the artifacts of what peoples did at their living groups. This paper presents and analyzes one of only a few case studies of small chert tools or "drills" from the Maya lowlands to identify what ancient peoples did and possibly infer their potential impact at the local scale. Lithic data from the "Gateway Group" at Caracol, Belize, located approximately 300m southeast of Caana, Caracol's largest structure, and the Conchita Causeway yielded a highly standardized tool assemblage. These data in conjunction with other investigated assemblages enable discussions of the organization of intensive localized lithic and non-lithic craft production. I conclude by describing the importance of this research on how archaeologists might draw relational connections between households using standardization studies and thereby consider the technical learning, sharing, and doing that took place between ancient Maya residences.
Ritual feasting was an integral part of ancient societies; the Maya were no exception. Archaeologists working in this region have used various lines of evidence, including the study of scenes depicted on painted polychrome drinking vases and ethnohistoric sources written by Spanish colonists, to attempt the reconstruction of ancient Maya feasts. However, while feasting deposits have been identified across sites in the Maya world, few have been studied from an archaeobotanical perspective. In this paper, macrobotanical results from a Late Classic (mid-to-late 8th century ad) feasting deposit from the site of La Corona, located in northwestern Petén, Guatemala, are presented. The archaeobotanical results suggest that the participants of these feasts were served dishes and beverages made from ingredients collected from wild and domestic landscapes, and that plants with specific medicinal properties may have also been part of the menu. These data suggest that ancient Maya feasts were events that cannot be simply recreated through painted ceramic vases or from reading historic records, and that if we are to appreciate the nuances of ancient Maya feasts, the archaeobotanical record needs to be considered and further evaluated.
Chultunes — underground pits carved into bedrock — have been reported by the hundreds in the Maya region, yet debate on their principal use continues to this day. Since chultunes have not yielded solid data to answer the questions posed by Maya archeologists, they are sometimes not completely excavated or reported in detail. This article presents a review of previous work on chultunes in the Maya lowlands, followed by the presentation of new data from six chultunes excavated at archaeological sites in northwestern Petén, Guatemala. I argue that, although these underground features were primarily used for utilitarian purposes, there is strong evidence that chultunes also had ritual importance to the ancient Maya. The variability in the shape, size, and associated cultural materials, including macrobotanical remains, justifies further in-depth investigations of chultunes. Archaeologists should consider investigating these features more systematically, as a larger comparative sample of chultunes could aid in assessing whether there are local patterns of construction, use, and reuse. Thus, excavations of these features should be encouraged.
Microscopic use-wear analysis of the obsidian artifacts recovered from Late Postclassic-Early Spanish Colonial occupations at the site of San Pedro yields useful information for interpreting Maya socio-economic activities. Obsidian traded into the community was used for a variety of tasks with emphasis placed on subsistence and domestic manufacture associated with marine resources, including intermittent and contingent crafting. Trade in obsidian and marine resources likely provided San Pedro community members access to inland economic networks and enabled the acquisition of resources not found on the caye. Microwear on chert and obsidian tools indicates relative stability in the traditional lives of the San Pedro Maya in the 15th–17th centuries a.d. Although the San Pedranos likely suffered to some degree from coastal raiding and the introduction of epidemic diseases by the Spaniards, their off-shore location provided them some protection from the upheaval experienced by the Maya in mainland communities.
This paper discusses the technological and microscopic use-wear analyses of the chert debitage excavated from Deep Valley Rockshelter. This rockshelter, located in the Caves Branch River Valley of central Belize, was primarily used by the ancient Maya from the Late Preclassic to Terminal Classic periods (AD 80–950) and may demonstrate a pattern of rockshelter usage by the Classic period Maya. To test whether such a pattern exists, lithic data from Caves Branch Rockshelter and other rockshelters in Belize, specifically those in the Sibun Valley and the Ek Xux Valley, are compared. Interpretations are complicated, however, by the severe mixing of deposits, which makes segregating the lithic artifacts into different reduction or use events nearly impossible. Moreover, this mixing severely hampers reconstructions of diachronic change in stone-tool use in the rockshelter. While acknowledging these limitations, our analysis suggests that the lithics in the rockshelter are primarily the result of reduction and use-related activities that originally occurred at other nearby surface sites rather than in the rockshelter itself. Consequently, the chipped-stone artifacts recovered from this rockshelter most likely result from secondary deposition of debitage for ritual purposes and represent accumulation over many years. We suspect this type of secondary deposition of debitage was also occurring at other rockshelters in Belize, based on comparisons to the chipped stone assemblages from these locations. We cannot discount the possibility that some stone tool production and use may have originally occurred in Deep Valley Rockshelter, but support for this is minimal. © 2015 National Speleological Society Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This report examines 10,845 lithic artifacts from the rapidly abandoned city of Aguateca, Guatemala, to elucidate elite artistic and craft production in Classic Maya society. The methods used include high-power microwear analysis. The results suggest that significant numbers of Maya elite, both men and women, engaged in artistic creation and craft production, often working in both attached and independent contexts. The royal family and other elite households produced many artistic and craft items, including wood carvings and hide or leather goods. The scribe inhabiting Structure M8-8 carved stelae for the ruler, and the high-status courtier/scribe living in Structure M8-4 emphasized the production of shell and bone objects and other royal regalia in a courtly setting. Clearly, Aguateca was a center of part-time production of both utilitarian and luxury goods as well as of consumption. Classic Maya elite men and women artists/craft producers possessed multiple social identities and roles, which in turn implies a more flexible and integrated system of Classic Maya elite participating in attached and independent craft production more than is usually proposed.
Although the economic basis of the ancient lowland Maya civilization was principally maize agriculture, throughout their long history the Maya remained proficient fishers, hunters, and gatherers. Research increasingly has suggested early and extensive Maya exploitation of the freshwater molluscan species Pachychilus , called jute by the modern Maya. This report reviews archaeological evidence for use of this stream- and river-dwelling invertebrate and summarizes recent data from the site of Pacbitun, in western Belize. Pachychilus not only was used for dietary purposes, but occasionally was included in Maya ritual deposits. Ecological information on the habitat of Pachychilus is given, as well as a description of its nutritional value and contemporary methods of collecting and processing jute in the modern Maya community of San Antonio (Cayo), Belize. It is concluded that Pachychilus was one minor but widespread element of the ancient Maya subsistence regime.
Although the economic basis of the ancient lowland Maya civilization was principally maize agriculture, throughout their long history the Maya remained proficient fishers, hunters, and gatherers. Research increasingly has suggested early and extensive Maya exploitation of the freshwater molluscan species Pachychilus , called jute by the modern Maya. This report reviews archaeological evidence for use of this stream- and river-dwelling invertebrate and summarizes recent data from the site of Pacbitun, in western Belize. Pachychilus not only was used for dietary purposes, but occasionally was included in Maya ritual deposits. Ecological information on the habitat of Pachychilus is given, as well as a description of its nutritional value and contemporary methods of collecting and processing jute in the modern Maya community of San Antonio (Cayo), Belize. It is concluded that Pachychilus was one minor but widespread element of the ancient Maya subsistence regime.
A recent identification of ramon in Miranda's sixteenth-century relacion of Alta Verapaz more likely describes achiote. There is very little archaeological evidence to suggest that ramon was more than a famine food in ancient Maya times.
Recent models for the organization of Classic period Maya in the Guatemala lowlands suggest a complex system of stratified social classes. Much of the basic data supporting such theoretical models is derived from the evidence for the existence of numerous occupational specializations. Previously, the data have been largely inferential, but extensive and comprehensive excavations at Tikal over a period of 13 yr have provided significant information suggesting that the occupations of residents of specific buildings or house groups can be determined. This evidence also suggests techniques by which future excavations might be directed in order to augment existing information.
Use-wear analysis of the chipped chert and chalcedony tools excavated from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, has provided substantial insight into the activities performed by the Maya living at the site from the Classic through Historic periods. The determination of tool action and the materials that were worked by the ancient inhabitants reveals that most activities concentrated on basic subsistence in a coastal environment, with the possibility of small-scale craft-production for local consumption and some regional trade. There is only minor variation in activities undertaken by the San Pedro Maya throughout the lengthy occupation of this site based on the distribution of stone tools with use-related wear.
The cultural aspect of the processes responsible for forming the archaeological record is argued to be an underdeveloped branch of archaeological theory. A flow model is presented by which to view the "life history" or processes of systemic context of any material element. This model accounts for the production of a substantial portion of the archaeological record. The basic processes of this model are: procurement, manufacture, use, maintenance, and discard. Refuse labels the state of an element in archaeological context. The spatial implications of the model suggest a largely untapped source of behavioral information. Differential refuse disposal patterns are examined as they affect artifact location and association. The meaning of element relative frequencies in refuse is discussed.
During the last four decades, mesoamerican archaeologists regularly have employed various chemical assay techniques to determine the geological sources of obsidian artifacts. In recent years, the reliability of these analytical procedures has increased and their costs have declined encouraging the assay of ever larger samples. Nonetheless, several constraints make it unlikely that compositional data will he used routinely to attribute entire collections to their geological sources. This report describes a test of visual sourcing, a technique that far many sites in the Maya region is only slightly less accurate than compositional assay. We also propose sampling strategies that combine visual and compositional sourcing in ways that allots large collections to he accurately sourced at lower costs. Finally, we suggest ways to develop the technique for use throughout Latin America.
From 1999–2005, the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project excavated Pook's Hill (PKH-1), a single plazuela group located in the Roaring Creek Valley, Cayo District, Belize. Artifacts recovered at Pook's Hill date predominantly to the Late and Terminal Classic (A.D. 700–950) and can be stratigraphically segregated into two distinct occupation phases, namely a Late Classic (A.D. 700–830) and a Terminal Classic-Early Postclassic (A.D. 830–9507+) phase. The chipped chert and chalcedony tools from the two phases were included in a combined program of low- and high-power use-wear analysis to reconstruct aspects of the socioeconomy. The results of the analyses reveal that the site's inhabitants produced and used both formal and informal tools for a wide variety of subsistence and domestic tasks, and for the production of some utilitarian items. Stone tool use-wear evidence and the recovery of small quantities of other artifacts suggest that the Maya from Pook's Hill produced more valuable objects of bone, stone, and shell, although it is difficult to accurately identify craft-production activities at the site from the context of recovery. Despite some variation in the specific activities undertaken with the chipped stone tools over time, the organization of lithic technology at Pook's Hill did not change significantly from the Late Classic into the Early Postclassic period.
Secondary refuse disposal behavior is structured by three major concerns in the Maya Highlands: economy of effort, potential value of refuse, and potential hindrance by refuse. According to the needs of each household and the nature of the refuse, material slated for discard may be sorted and dumped in separate locations, within or outside compounds. Archaeologists should be aware of this refuse structure in seeking specific types of refuse as well as in comparing refuse from households, or other types of excavational units. At the household level, recognition of the toft area (the area immediately surrounding the household and related outbuildings) is especially important in acquiring representative samples of “hard” types of refuse. Analysis of neighborhood dumps is strongly advocated as one of the more economical, meaningful, and representative ways of dealing with refuse accumulations. Because of several randomizing and dispersive processes operating at the household level, as well as sample size considerations, simple diversity measures are recommended for comparing household assemblages.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--McGill University, 2000. Includes bibliographical references. Includes abstract in French.
The ancient Maya engaged in complex rituals to communicate with the supernatural world of gods and ancestors. Among the most important of these rituals was auto-sacrificial blood-letting. Blood-letting was accomplished using a variety of sharp implements, including bone awls and needles, stingray spines, thorny ropes, and obsidian blades. Our understanding of the importance of auto-sacrificial blood-letting to the Maya and the means by which it was done are primarily based on the recovery of material culture from ritually significant contexts, hieroglyphic inscriptions, iconographic representations produced in various media, and Spanish ethnohistoric documents. Based on this information, obsidian blades recovered from ceremonial or ritual contexts, like caches, burials, and caves, are usually assumed to have been blood-letters. Past interpretations of blades as blood-letters have not typically included any use-wear analysis of the blades themselves. This paper presents the results of a microscopic use-wear experiment to replicate one type of auto-sacrificial blood-letting method - piercing using obsidian lancets. In this experiment, seven obsidian lancet replicates and two flake splinter replicates were used to pierce domestic pig skin/flesh 35 times each. The use-wear that developed on the experimental tools would be helpful in identifying suspected blood-letters recovered archaeologically. Importantly, the combinations of wear features observed on the obsidian replicates differed when tools were only pushed into the pig tissue versus when they were pushed into the tissue and rotated. By combining the results of use-wear analyses like those presented in this paper with a consideration of context of recovery, the identification of obsidian blades used as blood-letters by the ancient Maya will be much more likely.
This article furnishes an overview of behavioral archaeology's basic principles and applications. Behavioral archaeology is a theoretical program for understanding, from both historical and scientific viewpoints, the interactions of people and artifacts at all times and all places. Originating at University of Arizona during the early 1970s, the program's first contributions were the life-history framework, models of inference, principles for studying the formation processes of the archaeological record, and expansions of nomothetic research in experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeology. These successes have been followed in recent years by diverse studies, including technological change, human communication, ritual, and landscapes.
In Mesoamerica concentrations of stone debitage from archaeological contexts frequently are regarded as being in primary contexts and marking production loci or “workshops.”
Ethnoarchaeological observations of stone- and glass-artifact manufacture and disposal of the resulting waste indicate that in sedentary societies debitage does not remain in primary context at workshops, but rather enters secondary context when it is moved into workshop dumps. Microdebitage, which often is left in place at the production locus, appears to be the most reliable indicator of workshop location.
An awareness of ethnoarchaeological data can facilitate more plausible constructions of past behavior at different stages of the use-life trajectories of durable materials. Present evidence suggests that concentrations of stone debitage from archaeological settlements are secondary deposits and represent workshop dumps, not workshops.
Arguments for the cosmological significance of ancient Maya city layouts are plausible, but empirical applications are subjective and lack rigor. I illustrate this contention through brief comments on a recent article by Ashmore and Sabloff. I first discuss some of the complexities and pitfalls in studying cosmology from ancient city plans, and then focus on one component of the authors' cosmological model - the hypothesized north-south axis at Classic Maya cities. My goal is not to downplay or rule out the role of cosmology in Maya city planning, but rather to encourage the use of explicit assumptions and rigorous methods that will provide the study of Maya city planning with a more secure empirical foundation.
More than 1,200 artifacts from Tikal provide new information about the presence of Mexican obsidian in the Maya Lowlands and Teotihuacan's possible role in its transmission. In addition to the source of green obsidian near Pachuca, six other Mexican sources were identified in the Tikal sample. These artifacts date from the early Late Preclassic into the Early Postclassic periods. Over 96 percent are prismatic blades and thin bifaces, whose recovery contexts, spatial distributions, and signs of use-wear indicate they were predominantly utilitarian and domestic artifacts used by all social groups. They were commodities that were transported over Highland-Lowland long-distance exchange networks of considerable time depth. This long-standing, interregional exchange of goods is essentially different from the relatively brief adoption and integration during the Early Classic period of objects, art styles, and behavior of Teotihuacan origin. Obsidian sequins and eccentrics of Teotihuacan style were material components of this latter phenomenon. Their forms and recovery contexts suggest use in rituals borrowed from Teotihuacan, but by lesser elites or wealthy commoners rather than by Tikal's rulers.
The artifact assemblage recovered in a sealed undisturbed context inside a ceremonial building (Structure 12) in the ancient village of Joya de Ceren (A.D. 600), a Classic Period site located on the Southeast Maya Periphery, has been particularly enigmatic and difficult to interpret. This assemblage consists of small portable worn objects, some of which show physical and chemical damage consistent with having been previously discarded prior to being carefully curated in a ceremonial building, suggesting that they were collected in antiquity. A review of the ethnographic literature reveals that contemporary Maya ritual practitioners routinely collect small portable objects, many of which are Pre-Columbian in origin, as personal sacra. This practice of "ritual collecting" serves multiple purposes including: 1) the acquisition of divining tools, 2) personal verification of divine election, and 3) evidence to one's community of supernatural sanction for a change in social status. Through engaging in this practice, social actors create and manipulate power in local ritual systems that exist outside of the control of contemporary institutionalized religions. It is suggested that collecting may represent an alternative avenue to supernatural power for past, as well as present-day, rural ritual practitioners.
The production of artifacts of stone, shell, and bone at Tikal, an important center in the Southern Maya Lowlands, created quantities of durable waste, referred to as debitage. Yet debitage is not a reliable indicator of production area because of the spatially flexible nature of Prehispanic technology and site-maintenance activities that shifted manufacturing debris into secondary contexts. Nevertheless, debitage, even in secondary context, provides important information on the organization of craft production at Tikal, particularly during the Classic Period (ca. A.C. 250-850). Most crafts were organized as household industries, carried on by independent, part-time specialists living in the central area that surrounded the monumental core of the city. The elite probably supported some full-time production to satisfy their demands for status goods and tools for construction projects. Expedient production by nonspecialists, using locally available materials such as chert and bone, occurred at all times. Production waste was recovered from the construction fill of public and residential architecture, and from household middens, mixed with domestic trash. The largest concentrations, however, were found exterior to elite chamber burials and within cached offerings. The delayed identification of debitage from ritual contexts exemplifies the reflexive nature of the way archaeologists classify material culture and their interpretations of the contexts from which it is recovered.
A number of previous authors have suggested, based on limited data, that Pachychilus spp., freshwater gastropods often called jute, may have played a role in ancient Maya ritual. Data collected by the authors demonstrate that jute shells consistently appear as part of faunal assemblages in ceremonial caves across the southern Maya Lowlands. At surface sites, jute are often associated with ceremonial architecture, particularly ballcourts. Previous ethnographic accounts are reviewed for clues to ancient Maya jute use. New ethnographic data suggest a role not previously considered by archaeologists. A Q'eqchi' Maya informant states that shells are gathered up after meals and deposited in caves as an offering in thanks to "Mother Earth" (Madre Tierra) who provided the mollusks. This practice suggests that the ancient shells may represent a secondary deposition rather than reflecting consumption occurring in the cave. The presence of jute shells may document ancient religious beliefs and ritual activities surrounding an important subsistence resource.
A reconnaissance of Maya ruins in northeastern Peten, Guatemala, reveals a heavy but dispersed type of settlement during the Classic period, with the dispersion conditioned principally by availability of water supply and by suitable terrain for building. The types of archaeological remains described are House Ruins, Minor Ceremonial Centers, and Major Ceremonial Centers. Settlement is seen as having been organized into (1) "clusters" of from five to 12 houses, (2) aggregates of clusters forming township-like zones of from 50 to 100 houses, each of which had a Minor Ceremonial Center as its functional nucleus, and (3) aggregates of zones forming large province-like "districts," each of which had a Major Ceremonial Center as its functional nucleus. These units are described and discussed. Some consideration is also given to problems of water supply, population, and agriculture. Reference is made to the ruin of Topoxte, a town or small city of the Postclassic period located on a group of islands in Lake Yaxha.
Recent ethnohistorical investigations by the authors as part of a larger research effort focusing on Highland Maya ethnohistory have produced information on settlement patterns and subsistence activities for the Maya of the Alta Verapaz region. The environmentally transitional nature of this area-from tropical highlands to lowlands-makes this information of potential interest to Mayanists concerned with lowland civilization. Parallel subsistence activities known ethnographically from the present-day Itza of the Peten strengthens the applicability of this ethnohistorical information.
Obsidian artifacts from Edzna, Dzibilnocac, and Santa Rosa Xtampak in northern Campeche, Mexico, have been analyzed by means of X-ray fluorescence in order to determine their trace element composition. The results are compared to the trace element composition of obsidian sources in Guatemala and Mexico. It is postulated that the obsidian from the three sites in northern Campeche came from highland Guatemala, mostly from El Chayal. Our data are compared to the published data of other archaeological sites in Mesoamerica from which obsidian samples have been analyzed. Finally, obsidian transport routes are postulated between northern Campeche, Mexico, and highland Guatemala.
Prior research on the function of shoe-shaped chultuns found in the southern Yucatan peninsula has focused on their use for household level storage of dry foodstuffs. We found that inter- and intra-site distribution patterns of chultuns do not support the household storage hypothesis. At Tikal only 20-25% of the households had chultuns, and most of these households had two or more chultuns. We believe the distributional data suggest that chultuns were associated with a cottage-level industry in the context of a vending economy. Because the internal environment of chultuns appears favorable for conducting fermentations, we propose that they were used as places to process, and for limited periods to store, fermented foods such as alcoholic beverages and pickled fruits. The greatest demand for chultun products was apparently centered around large urban sites in northeastern Peten and northern Belize where frequent civic/religious festivals encouraged a small to moderate market potential.
Experimental techniques have provided an exciting breakthrough for the functional analysis of Maya chultuns. While deep cistern-like chultuns, common at certain sites in the northern lowlands, have been shown to be functional for water storage, smaller lateral-chambered chultuns characteristic of certain parts of the southern lowlands probably had a very different function. Excavation and examination of the latter features, in light of a whole range of possibilities, suggest that they were constructed to be used for food storage. Experimental studies, however, reveal them to be unsuitable for the storage of most traditional foods, including maize. At least one local food crop, the seed of the ramon (Brosimum alicastrum, Moraceae), appears to be ideally suited for long-term storage under these conditions. Chambers constructed beneath platforms in the northern lowlands may have been used for the storage of maize. A need for more experimental work is indicated.
The use of caves by the ancient Maya has been previously documented, but the nature of artifact preservation in these caves presents unique problems not encountered in surface sites of the region. The absence of stratigraphy, though it means that we can view objects as they were left by the Maya, also means that perspective can be distorted, for actions that, may have taken place over a long period of time result in an arrangement of objects that appears to us to be synchronic.The nature of artifact preservation in caves presents another, more pressing problem: artifacts are accessible and therefore easily stolen. Although all surface sites in Belize are endangered, cave sites are especially so, and in recent years theft of artifacts and attendant destruction of sites has increased. The following is a report of excavations in a cave that is one of many in an area that has begun to experience the destructive effects of looting within the last decade. We hope that this report will heighten the awareness of archaeologists of the significance of cave sites and stimulate interest in the reconnaissance and recording of such sites before the looters prevail.
Excavations of a ceremonial ballcourt, undertaken at the Lowland Maya center of Pacbitun in western Belize, have provided details about ancient construction techniques and major diachronic structural changes to this special class of Precolumbian architecture. Some of the identified building alterations may have necessitated changes in the manner of playing the sacred Maya game at Pacbitun. A brief description of the excavations and construction history is provided. Analysis of artifactual remains from the ballcourt indicate it was built during the Late Preclassic period (100 b.c.-a.d. 300), but substantially altered in form during the Late Classic period (a.d. 550–900). The importance of the ballgame in the southern Lowlands is noted, and the particular significance of the Pacbitun court is discussed.
Although it has long been clear that craft specialists were present in Late Classic Lowland Maya society, it has proven difficult to identify chipped-stone lithics actually used in craft production. This article outlines a model, based on design theory, that can be used to identify the attributes of tools likely to have been used by lapidary and carpentry craft specialists, and tests it against an assemblage of tools analyzed through microwear analysis from Late Classic assemblages from the central Peten lakes region.
Secondary refuse contains a wealth of information on the people who generated it. This article identifies some means by which archaeologists can identify and characterize secondary refuse aggregates — localized, high-density deposits of artifacts that have been discarded away from their place of use. A variety of studies of archaeological deposits — from prehistoric and historical archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and modern material culture studies — provides hypotheses and a comparative database for discussion. I suggest that socioeconomic and demographic factors operating in a society greatly affect the composition of secondary refuse aggregates and propose some hypotheses regarding the directions and magnitudes of these relationships.
Thesis (M.A.)--Trent University, 2001. Includes bibliographical references.
Popol Vuh: Sacred book of the Quiché Maya people
- A J Christenson
Christenson, A. J. (2007). Popol Vuh: Sacred book of the Quiché
Maya people. Retrieved from www.mesoweb.com/
publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf.
Belize valley archaeological reconnaissance project: Progress report of the fourth season (1991) of investigations at Cahal Pech
- T G Powis
Powis, T. G. (1992). Preliminary excavations at the Tolok group:
A settlement cluster in the southeastem periphery of Cahal
Pech, Belize. In J. J. Awe & M. D. Campbell (Eds.), Belize
valley archaeological reconnaissance project: Progress report
of the fourth season (1991) of investigations at Cahal Pech,
Belize (pp. 35-50). Peterborough: Department of
Anthropology, Trent University.
Belize valley archaeological reconnaissance project: Progress report of the 1992 field season
- T G Powis
Powis, T. G. (1993). Burning the champa: 1992 investigations at
the Tolok group, Cahal Pech, Belize. In J. J. Awe (Ed.), Belize
valley archaeological reconnaissance project: Progress report
of the 1992 field season (pp. 97-115). Peterborough:
Department of Anthropology, Trent University.
Tombs and funerary practices in the Maya Lowlands
- Ruz Lhuiller
Ruz Lhuiller, A. (1965). Tombs and funerary practices in the
Maya Lowlands. In G. R. Willey (Ed.), Handbook of middle
American Indians, Vol. 2 (part 1): Archaeology of Southern
Mesoamerica (pp. 442-461). Austin: University of Texas Press.