LEAVING NO STONE UNTURNED: INVESTIGATING PRECLASSIC LITHIC PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION, AND EXCHANGE AT SAN ESTEVAN, BELIZE AND K’O AND HAMONTÚN, GUATEMALA

Summary

From the gathering of agricultural surplus to the construction of small homes or large scale monuments, stone tools played a major role in many dimensions of everyday Formative Maya life. This presentation will examine the degree in which the production of stone tools made of chert and chalcedony were controlled by empowered political authorities or social groups at the sites of San Estevan in Northern Belize and K’o and Hamontún in the northeastern Petén region. The dynamics of the subsistence economy and utilitarian industries at major Preclassic centers is an understudied research problem and analysis of lithic tools and debitage found in Preclassic Period contexts at San Estevan, K’o and samples from elite and non-elite household contexts from Hamontún provide valuable comparative, diachronic data set that document the developmental changes in regional economic activities across the Preclassic Period. Inter- and intra-regional examinations of lithic industries at these sites suggest a range of production and consumption activities that are similar and dissimilar to lithic production and consumption activities recorded at other contemporaneous sites. This investigation is suggesting that a multitude of interacting economic mechanisms existed among vertical and horizontal exchange networks and may have varied across several regions.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Global Perspectives on Lithic Technologies in Complex Societies

Keywords

Spatial Coverage