Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T02:56:55.966Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Raw Material Selection and Stone Tool Production: Limestone Bifaces in the Mopan Valley, Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Rachel A. Horowitz ,
Bernadette Cap ,
Jason Yaeger ,
Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown  and
Mark Eli
Rachel A. Horowitz*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608, USA
Bernadette Cap
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Jason Yaeger
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown
Affiliation:
Anthropology Program, Athabasca University, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Mark Eli
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Stone tool producers in the Maya Lowlands had several types of raw materials from which to choose. Limestone, chert, and obsidian are the most naturally abundant, whereas chert and obsidian outnumber limestone in archaeological contexts. The presence of flaked-stone tools made of limestone is typically attributed to the scarcity of more suitable raw materials. Nevertheless, in chert-rich areas, such as the upper Belize River valley, limestone bifaces and production debitage are present. To understand their presence, we examine limestone biface production and use at Buenavista del Cayo.

A lo largo de las tierras bajas mayas en Mesoamérica los productores de utensilios líticos contaban con distintas materias primas para la elaboración de artefactos. Entre éstas, la piedra caliza, el pedernal y la obsidiana son las más abundantes en la naturaleza. En las colecciones arqueológicas los artefactos de pedernal y de obsidiana, en general, son más abundantes que los de piedra caliza. Cuando hay la presencia de estos últimos es típicamente atribuida a la escasez de materias primas más convenientes. Sin embargo, en áreas ricas en pedernal, como en el valle superior del Río Belice, están presentes tanto bifaces de caliza como el desecho de su producción. Para comprender esto, se examinará la producción y uso de bifaces de caliza procedentes de Buenavista del Cayo, Belice.

Keywords

raw material choicelithic artifactsMayalimestonematerias primasutensilios líticosMayapiedra caliza
Type
Report
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 198 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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

References Cited

Andrefsky, William Jr. 2005 Lithics Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Andrieu, Chloé, and Roche, Alejandra 2015 Análisis del material lítico de La Corona y La Cariba. In Proyecto Arqueológica La Corona Informe Final Temporada 2014, edited by Barrientos, Tomás, Canuto, Marcello A., and Bustamante, Eduardo, pp. 335–346. On file with the Instituto de Anthropologia e Historia, Guatemala City, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Ball, Joseph W., and Tashchek, Jennifer T. 2004 Buenavista del Cayo: A Short Outline of Occupational and Cultural History of an Upper Belize Valley Regal Ritual Center. In Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley: Half a Century of Archaeological Research, edited by Garber, James F., pp. 149–167. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Braswell, Jennifer B. 1998 Archaeological Investigations at Group D, Xunantunich, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.Google Scholar
Cap, Bernadette 2015a Classic Maya Economies: Identification of a Marketplace at Buenavista del Cayo, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Cap, Bernadette 2015b Report on the 2014 excavations in the Buenavista West Plaza. Mopan Valley Archaeological Project 2015 Excavation Report, edited by Yaeger, Jason, and Bernadette. On file with the Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Clark, John E., and Woods, James C. 2014 Squeezing Life from Stones: The Human Side of Replication Experiments. In Works in Stone: Contemporary Perspectives on Lithic Analysis, edited by Shott, Michael J., pp. 197–212. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Dahlin, Bruce H., Bastamow, Marjukka, Beach, Timothy, Hruby, Zachary X., Hutson, Scott R., and Mazeau, Daniel 2011 Phantom Lithics at Chunchucmil, Yucatan, Mexico. In The Technology of Maya Civilization: Political Economy and Beyond in Lithic Studies, edited by Hruby, Zachary X., Braswell, Geoffrey E., and Mazariegos, Oswaldo Chinchilla, pp. 76–87. Equinox, Sheffield.Google Scholar
Eli, Mark 2014 The 2013 MVAP Settlement Survey: Observations from the Field at Buenavista del Cayo. On file with the Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Eli, Mark 2015 The 2014 MVAP Settlement Survey: Observations from the Field at Buenavista del Cayo. On file with the Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Hearth, Nick F., and Fedick, Scott L. 2011 Defining the Chert Paucity Problem in the Northern Maya Lowlands: A First Approximation. In The Technology of Maya Civilization: Political Economy and Beyond in Lithic Studies, edited by Hruby, Zachary X., Braswell, Geoffrey E., and Mazariegos, Oswaldo Chinchilla, pp. 69–75. Equinox, Sheffield.Google Scholar
Heindel, Theresa 2010 A Lithic Deposit Found in the East Plaza of the Late Classic Maya Site of Buenavista, Belize and its Effect on Stone Tool Production in Ancient Maya Marketplaces. Undergraduate senior thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Rachel A. 2017 Understanding Ancient Maya Economic Variability: Lithic Technological Organization in the Mopan Valley, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.Google Scholar
Johnson, Jay K. 1981 Yellow Creek Archaeological Project Vol. 2. Tennessee Valley Authority Publications in Anthropology Number 28. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Mississippi, Oxford.Google Scholar
Keller, Angela H. 2006 Roads to the Center: The Design, Use, and Meaning of the Roads of Xunantunich, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred V. 1947 The Artifacts of Uaxactun, Guatemala. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication 576. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Kurnick, Sarah J. 2013 Negotiating the Contradictions of Political Authority: An Archaeological Case Study from Callar Creek, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
LeCount, Lisa J., and Yaeger, Jason 2010 Provincial Politics and Current Models of the Maya State. In Classic Maya Provincial Polities: Xunantunich and its Hinterlands, edited by LeCount, Lisa J., and Yaeger, Jason, pp. 20–45. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Lewenstein, Suzanne 1987 Stone Tool Use at Cerros: The Ethnoarchaeological and Use-Wear Evidence. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Nami, Hugo G. 2015 Experimental Observations on Some Non-Optimal Materials from Southern South America. Lithic Technology 40(2):128–146.Google Scholar
Peuramaki-Brown, Meaghan 2012 The Integration and Disintegration of Ancient Maya Urban Centers: Charting Households and Community at Buenavista del Cayo. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Calgary.Google Scholar
Rivero Torres, Sonia E. 1987 Los Cimientos, Chiapas, Mexico: A Late Classic Maya Community. Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation 51. New World Archaeological Foundation, Provo, Utah.Google Scholar
Smith, Jennifer R. 1998 Geology and Carbonate Hydrogeochemistry of the Lower Mopan and Macal River Valleys, Belize. Master's thesis, Department of Geology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
VandenBosch, Jon C. 1999 Lithic Economy and Household Interdependence among the Late Classic Maya of Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Whittaker, John C. 1994 Flintknapping: Making and Understanding Stone Tools. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Wyatt, Andrew R. 2008 Gardens on Hills: Ancient Maya Terracing and Agricultural Production at Chan, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Chicago.Google Scholar
Yaeger, Jason 2000 Changing Patterns of Social Organization: The Late and Terminal Classic Communities at San Lorenzo, Cayo District, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Horowitz et al. supplementary material

Table S1

Download Horowitz et al. supplementary material(File)
File 19.5 KB