Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the last three decades new analyses and theorizing directed at ceremonial lithics has increased our understanding of the enigmatic "eccentric" flints and obsidians of the Maya. Eccentric flints and obsidians were chipped into elaborate forms, some indecipherable, but others clearly recognizable as celestial bodies and deities. They were most commonly cached in elite contexts, often associated with temples and stelae, and positioned in a highly stylized manner. While some of these items were rather simple to produce, others created by some of the ancient world’s most skilled stone-workers remain unreplicable by modern knappers. They are found throughout the Maya world, and yet they differ in style, execution, and depositional contexts over time and through space. Eccentrics are also found in Central Mexico and other parts of Mesoamerica, and, to a certain extent, are directly related to the traditions of the Maya area. This symposium gathers archaeologists, lithic technologists, and iconographers to examine the production, distribution, and meaning of eccentrics. New discoveries in the field, replication experiments in the lab, and symbolic analyses are reviewed in an attempt to uncover regional and temporal patterns associated with one of Mesoamerica’s least understood artifact classes.