Preclassic Maya Economy: Lithic Production and Exchange in Aguada Fénix and Its Neighboring Sites in the Middle Usumacinta Region, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper discusses the results of my diachronic analysis of lithic artifacts collected in Aguada Fénix and its neighboring sites in the Middle Usumacinta region, Mexico, in order to elucidate one aspect of long-term changing patterns in the Preclassic Maya economic systems. I reconstructed the precolumbian long-distance obsidian exchange system in the study region using a combination of pXRF and technological analysis, thus identifying the sources of imported raw material and finished products. Similar to Ceibal during the early Middle Preclassic period, El Chayal was the principal source for obsidian, with minor quantities of obsidian from San Martín Jilotepeque and Ixtepeque in Aguada Fénix and La Carmelita. After the early Middle Preclassic period, San Martín Jilotepeque began to account for most of the obsidian brought to Pajonal and Rancho Zaragoza. Notably, no Mexican obsidian artifacts were imported either to Ceibal or Aguada Fénix and the other sites in the Middle Usumacinta region except Pajonal during the Middle Preclassic period. The bottom line is that virtually all obsidian artifacts from the Middle Usumacinta region originated from highland Guatemala, suggesting the boundaries of obsidian exchange systems between highland Mexico and highland Guatemala during the Middle Preclassic period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37933.0