Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:14:11.625Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Reassessment of the Precolumbian Obsidian Industry of El Chayal, Guatemala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Payson D. Sheets
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

M. Coe and K. Flannery (1964) a decade ago presented an account of their brief reconnaissance of a portion of the massive El Chayal obsidian quarry and workshop near Guatemala City. Noting the lack of ceramic artifacts and obsidian prismatic blades, Coe and Flannery reasoned that the workshop materials likely predated the Formative, and concluded that a date in the Archaic was the most probable. Their reasoning evidently was based on two fallacious assumptions, which, considered in the light of new data from Chalchuapa, El Salvador, indicates that the majority of the El Chayal artifacts described and illustrated actually date to the end of the Late Classic and particularly to the Postclassic (ca. A.D. 800-1500). Comments on technological analysis and basic illustration standards are included.

Type
Comment
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , January 1975 , pp. 98 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cobean, R. H., Coe, M. D., Perry, E. A. Jr., Turekian, K. K., and Kharkar, D. P. 1971 Obsidian trade at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Mexico. Science 174:666-671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, M. D. and Flannery, K. V. 1964 The Precolumbian obsidian industry of El Chayal, Guatemala. American Antiquity 30:43-49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faulkner, A. 1972 Mechanical principles of flintworking. Ph.D. dissertation. Washington State University. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Hester, T. R. 1972 Notes on large obsidian blade cores and core-blade technology in Mesoamerica. University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Contributions 14:95-105.Google Scholar
Holmes, W. H. 1919 Handbook of Aboriginal American antiquities. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 60.Google Scholar
Newcomer, N. H. 1971 Some quantitative experiments in handaxe manufacture. World Archaeology 3:85-94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharer, R. 1968 Preclassic archaeological investigations at Chalchuapa, El Salvador: The El Trapiche mound group. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Sharer, R. and Gifford, J. 1970 Preclassic ceramics from Chalchuapa, El Salvador, and their relationships with the Maya Lowlands. American Antiquity 35:441-462.Google Scholar
Sheets, P. D. 1972 A model of Mesoamerican obsidian technology based on workshop debris in El Salvador. Ceramica de Cultura Maya 8:17-33.Google Scholar
Sheets, P. D. 1974 Differential change among the Precolumbian artifacts of Chalchuapa, El Salvador. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Shook, E. M. 1957 Lugares arqueológicos del Altiplano Meridonial Central de Guatemala. Arqueologia Guatemalteca 65-130.Google Scholar
Shook, E. M. and Kidder, A. V. 1952 Mound E-III-3, Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 596(53).Google Scholar
Speth, J. D. 1972 Mechanical basis of percussion flaking. American Antiquity 37:34-60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar