Recent Advances in Ground Stone Studies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Recent Advances in Ground Stone Studies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Used for common daily tasks, particularly food preparation, ground stone was vital to the functioning of precolumbian Maya households, yet it has historically received little archaeological attention. Fueled by new finds from traditional field archaeology and the growing availability and advances in compositional technologies, interest in the topic has blossomed over the past half-decade. As a result, our knowledge of the precolumbian Maya ground stone economy has greatly expanded with scholars learning more about how objects were crafted, where and how raw materials were being acquired, distribution networks, how they signify broader social meanings, and more. The purpose of this session is to bring together scholars investigating all facets of the precolumbian Maya ground stone economy, from raw material acquisition to end of life discard and beyond to discuss their current research projects, results, and visions for future directions of study.
Other Keywords
Maya: Classic •
Craft Production •
Lithic Analysis •
Quantitative and Spatial Analysis •
Material Culture and Technology •
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: XRF/pXRF •
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis
Geographic Keywords
United Mexican States (Country) •
Belize (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
Peten (State / Territory) •
Yucatan (State / Territory) •
Orange Walk (State / Territory) •
Cayo (State / Territory) •
Corozal (State / Territory) •
Belize (State / Territory) •
Stann Creek (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-4 of 4)
- Documents (4)
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Extracting the Proverbial Bedrock of Society: A Report Precolumbian Maya Granitic Rock Quarries in the Mountain Pine Ride, Belize (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Ground Stone Studies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sourcing studies have consistently pointed to the plutons of the Mountain Pine Ridge (MPR), Belize, as the preferred source of granitic rock for making ground stone objects used by precolumbian Maya communities throughout the eastern lowlands. Nonetheless, questions about how the raw material was extracted remain...
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A Granite Tool Producing Community on the Western Periphery of Pacbitun, Belize (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Ground Stone Studies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Between 2012 and 2014, a small mound was excavated on the periphery of the Pacbitun site, a medium-sized ancient Maya center located in the Belize River Valley of west-central Belize. That mound revealed a record of the production of 4,000 granite mano and metates dating to the Late Classic period. Since those...
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Granite Use at an Ancient Maya Boomtown (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Ground Stone Studies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation, we discuss our research into the use of granite by the ancient inhabitants of Alabama: a Late to Terminal Classic boomtown of the eastern Maya lowlands. One of our initial hypotheses regarding the relatively sudden rise of the town toward the end of the Late Classic period focused on granite as a...
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The Second Chapter: Further Analysis of Granite Ground Stone Tools from the Belize River East Archaeology Project, 2015–2022 (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Ground Stone Studies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Granite was a preferred raw material for ground stone tool production in many parts of the Maya Lowlands. However, granite outcrops are spatially restricted within the Maya Mountains of Belize, and access to this material was limited. The movement of raw and/or finished tools would have required various mechanisms of...