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Ancient Maya Chert Workshops in Northern Belize, Central America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Harry J. Shafer  and
Thomas R. Hester
Harry J. Shafer
Affiliation:
Anthropology Program, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843
Thomas R. Hester
Affiliation:
Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78285
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Abstract

Recent archaeological work at Colha and at other localities in the geographically restricted chert-bearing zone of northern Belize has revealed large-scale exploitation of chert for stone tool production. Workshops dated during the Late Preclassic period signal the beginning of craft specialization in chert working that continued in the Late Classic and into the Early Postclassic periods. Secular items such as large oval bifaces, tranchet bit tools and prismatic blades, as well as nonsecular eccentrics and stemmed macroblade artifacts are distinctive of the Late Preclassic and Late Classic workshops. The distribution sphere of Preclassic and Classic period chert tools has been traced to several contemporaneous sites that lie beyond the chert-bearing zone to the north. Colha has been identified as the primary production and distribution center during the Late Preclassic period; although it remained a production center in the Late Classic period, the main center for distribution may have shifted to Altun Ha.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , July 1983 , pp. 519 - 543
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

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References

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