Defining a Late Classic Maya Granite Workshop at the Tzib Group, Pacbitun, Belize

Summary

The ancient Maya site of Pacbitun is centrally located between the major ecozones of the Belize River Valley and the Mountain Pine Ridge of West-Central Belize. Investigations in 2012 and 2013 began on a group of mounds, known as the Tzib Group, located outside of the core zone of Pacbitun in order to investigate what is now believed to be a ground stone tool workshop. The workshop produced grinding implements made from granite. Excavations in 2014 into the main mound of the group uncovered more than 500 kilograms of granite debitage as well as large quantities of mano and metate perform fragments varying in size and stage of production. Based on ceramic and radiocarbon dating, the granite workshop is dated to the Late Classic (AD 700-900) period. Workshops of this nature are rarely found, and most of what we know has previously only been gleaned from ethnographic data. Magnetic gradiometry was also performed in 2014 to determine the capabilities and limitations of this technique in identifying stone tool production locations. Guided by the geophysical results and the research previously conducted by Ward (2013), we sought to further document the context, scale, and intensity of production of this workshop.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ellos fueron lo que hicieron: Actividades de la elite y grupos no elitarios en las tierras bajas mayas   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

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