Drilling inside the Structure Atop the Mound: A Potential Lapidary Workshop at Buen Suceso

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The lithic materials recovered from Buen Suceso are varied in use types and materials. This paper will focus on the collections of chipped stone drills excavated from the Unit 6 Structure at the site, located on top of a possible mound. The presence of concentrations of these drills in specific areas of the structure, along with bead blanks and other decorative stone and shell artifacts, strongly indicates lapidary activities here. We will describe variations in tool size, shape, and materials as well as in the lapidary products of the tools. The focus, however, will be on the locations of these stone drill concentrations in combination with other possible activity areas in the structure and what this implies for its overall use. The current evidence is open to interpretation. It is likely that the structure was not solely, or even primarily, a lapidary workshop. It may have been a domestic structure, indicating that lapidary work may have been an element of general household production. The location of lapidary activities atop this possible mound overlooking the site could also be evidence for the importance of this craft here.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36686.0