Domestic Contexts for Chipped Stone Eccentrics in the Maya World

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

While most ceremonial lithic items, or eccentrics, are found in elite burial and ritual caches, others are found in more mundane contexts, such as fill and household middens. We examine artifacts recovered from households at the sites of Cancuen, Piedras Negras, Ucanal, Tikal, among others, and explore the possible meanings of chipped stone eccentrics outside of civic-ceremonial contexts. Elaborately flaked stone implements found in domestic spaces are often formally similar to eccentrics found in public offerings, but they also differ in some key ways. A detailed technological and iconographic analysis may determine whether those found in residences can be classified as eccentrics, or perhaps should be interpreted differently depending on form and context. Diverse household contexts across the Maya region suggest that there may not be a single use or meaning of eccentric flints in domestic spaces.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24859