The Obsidian of Matacanela

Summary

The Matacanela Archaeological Project (MAP) seeks to add to the greater understanding of the Classic to Postclassic transition, within the Gulf lowlands of Mesoamerica. Within the surface obsidian assemblage analyzed from the first season of this two-year project, distribution patterns and source frequencies delineate a definite Classic presence, reflecting certain hallmarks of surrounding established Classic period sites. In this paper, we present the obsidian recovered, and further consider Matacanela’s identity among regional contemporaries, particularly how the data contributes to the discussion of the site as a polity challenging regional authority. We finally discuss Matacanela’s Postclassic occupation and areas for potential investigation.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The Matacanela Archaeological Project 2014

Keywords

Spatial Coverage